Politics. Watching Congress trying to regulate artificial intelligence is actually encouraging, or at least as far as that sentiment applies to Congress. The multi-decade trend of imposing federal law and regulation as part of a business model appears to be meeting some resistance.
Despite some fear and loathing coming out of the White House, the sentiment on The Hill has been more measured. A critical question is how do current laws address concerns about use of image, intellectual property protection and other similar concepts?
For health care the concerns have focused on questions of scale. Does an Artificial Intelligence-powered Prior Authorization system unfairly overwhelm the claims and billing processes at your local hospital? Possibly.
Privacy has emerged as another significant theme. Laws on personal health information have restrained the use of health care data, unlike your online purchasing habits. This data is more decentralized, with the largest fully integrated health system at an advantage relative to Google.
Finally, employment losses – a key feature of the White House’s executive order – is an important theme, especially but not exclusively, for Democrats.
Given the thin majorities on both sides of The Hill, the most likely outcome is administrative action and that action is likely to take aim at preserving head count.
Policy. Last week, UnityAI announced a seed investment of $4M. What makes the deal interesting is that the company is headed by one Dr. Edmund Jackson, formerly a data scientist at HCA. Dr. Jackson’s focus is on optimizing clinical workflows, as he says, “smoothing” them.
Implicit in this business model is an understanding that health care is today’s sustenance farming of the American economy. It is highly dependent on human labor while dragging economy-wide productivity into the root cellar.
Health care’s sclerotic yet dominant position in gross domestic product is reminiscent of the transportation sector in the 1970s, expensive, inefficient and not exactly loved. Today, health care serves the important political objective of low unemployment.
Dr. Jackson’s goal of improving workflow – making humans operate more effectively and more efficiently – implies that fewer people will be needed in the future. Whether intended or not that puts the use of artificial intelligence on a collision course with political imperatives.
At least, we should hope so.
Power. The number of inefficiencies in the health care sector are legion and many are necessary. However, the overdependence on human labor made the travel nurse a thing especially during the recent Public Health Emergency.
When the government started tossing money at hospitals in 2020 while nursing staff found themselves called to home school or rejecting heinous practices like restricting family visitors, contract nurses were the solution.
The use of contract labor often produced pay disparities that seem to have left a deep scar. Anecdotally, the profligate use of contract labor contributed to morale issues and burnout. It is a feature of union negotiations.
When workforce shortages emerge, the easy answer of calling a staffing services has become less attractive and hospitals, most obviously, HCA, are doing what they can to avoid it.
Between a rock and a hard place, the only answer will be technological advancement.
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
