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Humana, IBM Watson Health team up to provide access to AI chatbot

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Humana and IBM Watson Health are collaborating to provide the insurer’s Employer Group members with access to a conversational AI solution.

The solution, called the IBM Watson Assistant for Health Benefits, is an AI-enabled, cloud-based virtual assistant. The AI assistant gives users information about member benefits, coverage, claims, referrals and healthcare cost estimates, said an IBM Watson Health spokeswomen, who declined to be named, in an email.

The solution will be made available to all members of the Louisville, Kentucky-based payer’s Employer Group, which includes 1.3 million medical and 1.8 million dental members.

IBM is not the only tech giant that is using AI chatbot technology to make inroads in healthcare. Microsoft, for example, has been popular among insurers and providers alike, launching triage chatbots and other AI technology. For IBM, it also affords the chance to prove its value in offering AI services dedicated to healthcare — it stumbled in 2017 in its loftier vision to use the technology to one day revolutionize cancer care and more recently in 2019 when it abandoned the AI product meant to speed up drug discovery.

But Humana believes that IBM Watson Health’s AI assistant will provide several benefits to health plan members, said a spokesman for the insurer, who declined to be named, in an email. Specifically, it will provide personalized answers to questions from members.

“Customers want us to make it easy, meet on their terms, and save them time,” he said. “The Watson [Assistant for Health Benefits] offers immediate answers to the majority of customer questions without [them] having to call in for help.”

In addition, the solution can aid in the move toward price transparency, which is now a part of federal regulations for insurers. Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, insurers must disclose negotiated rates and provide estimates of patient out-of-pocket costs for 500 services and items per a federal rule finalized in October. Payers must make that information publicly available for all items and services starting Jan. 1, 2024.

The IBM AI assistant’s cost transparency tool, which uses historical claims and provider data to calculate cost estimates for members, will help the insurer comply with the federal rule.

This is not the first time Humana and Armonk, New York-based IBM Watson Health have partnered on AI technology. The companies developed the Provider Services Conversational Voice Agent with Watson, which was made available to healthcare providers in 2019.

“Given the success, both parties see considerable value in investing in the co-creation of a new, cloud-native, healthcare-specific product,” said the Humana spokesman. “IBM has the technical experience to optimize the AI platform and Humana has the business expertise to bring forward the desired customer experiences.”

The collaboration between the payer and technology company is coming as the use of AI chatbots is soaring.

Though interest in AI-powered digital assistants was growing prior to 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated its use. Companies, like chatbot and voice bot company Syllable, found themselves overwhelmed by demand, and health systems like Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Springfield, Illinois-based Memorial Health System quickly developed and deployed the technology.

AI-powered chatbot use is expected to grow and continue to shape healthcare in 2021.

Photo: Gerasimov174, Getty Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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