Latest news with #Zocdoc
Time Business News
6 days ago
- Health
- Time Business News
Healthcare Digital Marketing Services to Grow Your Practice
In the modern age, patients are no longer relying solely on word-of-mouth or print ads when choosing healthcare providers. Instead, they are turning to Google searches, social media, and online reviews. This shift has made healthcare digital marketing services essential for hospitals, clinics, and healthcare professionals looking to attract and retain patients. Whether you're a small clinic or a large multi-specialty hospital, investing in digital marketing is key to improving visibility, engagement, and trust. Healthcare digital marketing services refer to a range of online marketing strategies and tools designed specifically to promote medical services and healthcare brands. These services are tailored to: Connect healthcare providers with patients online Educate and inform potential patients Build a trustworthy digital presence Drive appointment bookings and inquiries A majority of patients begin their journey by researching symptoms, clinics, or specialists online. Being visible during that search is critical. The healthcare industry is competitive. Digital marketing helps you stand out by showcasing your strengths, reviews, and services clearly. Online strategies offer a better return on investment compared to traditional ads, especially when targeting local audiences. Online reviews and social proof influence patient decisions. A good digital agency helps you build and manage a strong reputation. Your website acts as the digital front door to your clinic or hospital. Agencies help create: Mobile-friendly, fast-loading websites Clear service pages and appointment booking features Doctor profiles, contact info, and patient testimonials SEO improves your visibility on Google when users search phrases like 'pediatrician near me' or 'best dental clinic in Dubai.' SEO services include: Keyword research and content optimization On-page and off-page SEO Local SEO for targeting patients in specific areas PPC allows you to appear at the top of search results instantly with ads. These ads can target: Specific treatments or specialties Geographic areas Competitor audiences Platforms used: Google Ads, Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram), and YouTube Ads. Agencies handle your social presence by: Creating daily or weekly health tips Sharing patient testimonials or case studies Promoting seasonal health campaigns Engaging with followers via comments or messages High-quality blogs, infographics, and videos help educate your audience and improve your SEO. Example content includes: FAQs about procedures Preventive care tips Doctor interviews Recovery guides and wellness tips Agencies design automated email workflows for: Appointment confirmations and reminders Follow-up instructions Monthly newsletters with tips or updates CRMs help track patient journeys and customize communication accordingly. This service includes: Generating positive reviews Monitoring platforms like Google, Zocdoc, or Practo Responding professionally to negative feedback Reputation management is crucial for building trust with new patients. Videos can explain services, introduce staff, or share patient stories. A short video builds emotional connection and trust faster than text. Agencies can help script, shoot, edit, and promote your videos online. Monthly performance reports track: Website traffic and conversions Ad performance (clicks, leads, ROI) SEO ranking changes Social media engagement These insights help optimize your digital marketing strategy continuously. When selecting a partner to handle your digital marketing, look for: Industry Experience : Have they worked with hospitals, clinics, or doctors before? : Have they worked with hospitals, clinics, or doctors before? Compliance Knowledge : Do they understand HIPAA, GDPR, or local data privacy laws? : Do they understand HIPAA, GDPR, or local data privacy laws? Custom Solutions : Can they tailor campaigns to your unique goals? : Can they tailor campaigns to your unique goals? Transparency: Do they provide regular reports and explain metrics clearly? Also, check testimonials, past client case studies, and pricing before signing a contract. Benefit Impact Time-saving Professionals manage campaigns for you Expertise Access to skilled strategists and designers Results-driven Focused on delivering patient leads Brand Consistency Unified voice across platforms Data-Backed Decisions Campaigns based on performance metrics Hospitals needing visibility across specializations needing visibility across specializations Private Clinics targeting a local or niche audience targeting a local or niche audience Diagnostic Centers promoting health checkup packages promoting health checkup packages Dental Clinics, Eye Care, Fertility Centers, and others wanting to build brand recognition and trust Even health tech startups can benefit by using digital marketing to acquire users and grow quickly. In today's digital-first healthcare world, simply being a good practitioner is no longer enough. You need to be discoverable, trusted, and connected to your patients online. Healthcare digital marketing services help medical professionals do just that—by combining creativity, technology, and compliance. Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale your healthcare brand, partnering with a skilled digital agency can be a game changer. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Associated Press
11-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Zocdoc Teams Up with Blue Shield of California to Simplify the Appointment Scheduling Experience for its Members
Company announces first-of-its-kind collaboration to power seamless in-network scheduling within a health plan's provider directory NEW YORK, June 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zocdoc today announced a new collaboration with Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan, to help its members seamlessly schedule in-network, in-person and virtual care appointments through the plan's Find a doctor tool in the member portal. Blue Shield members can now see providers' real-time availability and easily access more than 1 million hours of bookable appointments available over a 90-day window. This marks the first time Zocdoc is working with a health plan to power scheduling for its online member portal. It builds on the company's expansion beyond its marketplace as it already powers scheduling on providers' websites, Google Business Profiles and practices' phone lines via its new AI phone assistant, Zo. Underlying this collaboration is nearly two decades of Zocdoc's expertise in facilitating patient-provider interactions, understanding complex healthcare scheduling logic, and integrating with a broad base of EHRs. No other company in healthcare has the depth of experience, infrastructure, and intellectual property when it comes to seamless online scheduling across a large, diverse, decentralized provider network. 'We know that patients rely on their health plans to find quality, in-network care, and we are proud to partner with Blue Shield of California to power a seamless experience that helps their members access the right providers for their needs,' said Oliver Kharraz, MD, Zocdoc founder and CEO. 'This collaboration—a first of its kind for Zocdoc—is symbolic of our expansion beyond our marketplace; we are leveraging nearly 20 years of scheduling expertise to help patients easily book appointments wherever they are seeking care, to help providers connect with patients across more channels, and to help payors modernize their members' access experience and care coordination.' The collaboration is a part of Blue Shield's effort to create high-quality, seamless experiences for members; it enables 24/7 appointment scheduling for members seeking care from Blue Shield's network of primary care, specialist, vision, dental, mental and behavioral health providers who are also in Zocdoc's bookable provider network. Across all types of care, outdated scheduling systems have become a barrier to healthcare access. According to a Zocdoc-commissioned survey conducted earlier this year, more than half of patients who were unable to reach their doctor by phone admitted to delaying care (54%), while one in three admitted to giving up on scheduling a visit entirely (33%). Digital tools can help address these barriers. 'As we continue to address healthcare access issues, making it easier and faster for our members to get connected to in-network care is absolutely essential,' said Jigar Shah, chief marketing and strategy officer at Blue Shield of California. 'To make healthcare worthy of our family and friends, we must deliver best-in-class member experiences, and Blue Shield is leveraging digital tools to do exactly that. We are proud to work with Zocdoc on an important part of our strategy to improve access to care.' Appointments are now available for members across all Blue Shield of California employer-sponsored plans, Individual and Family Plans, and Medicare plans. Blue Shield and Zocdoc will continue to add more in-network provider schedules for members to book quickly and seamlessly. Blue Shield's in-network providers who are interested in adding appointments to the system can visit this site for more information. There is no cost to providers to participate, and set-up is a simple, one-time activation. Zocdoc has built more than 175 calendar integrations with commonly used healthcare scheduling systems. About Zocdoc Zocdoc is the leading healthcare marketplace that aims to help every patient find and book every type of care. Each month, millions of patients visit or use the Zocdoc app to find quality, in-network doctors, see their real-time availability, and instantly book appointments for in-person or virtual care. Zocdoc doesn't just make healthcare easier, it also accelerates patients' access to care with the typical appointment happening within 24 to 72 hours of booking. While Zocdoc's mission is to give power to the patient, the company supports healthcare providers, too. Doctors across every state, specialty and segment — from solo practitioners to large hospitals and health systems — rely on Zocdoc to grow their practice, at every stage. With Zocdoc, they can reach new patients where they're seeking care, save staff time with tools that integrate into their practice software, and delight their patients through great experiences that keep them coming back. Overall, Zocdoc delivers the seamless, modern healthcare experience patients deserve. About Blue Shield of California Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. The health plan is a taxpaying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with 6 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $27 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $60 million to the Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last three years to have an impact on California communities. For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit Or follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook. CONTACT: Zocdoc PR Team, 19293499190, [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Zocdoc, Inc.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Zocdoc Teams Up with Blue Shield of California to Simplify the Appointment Scheduling Experience for its Members
Company announces first-of-its-kind collaboration to power seamless in-network scheduling within a health plan's provider directory NEW YORK, June 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zocdoc today announced a new collaboration with Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan, to help its members seamlessly schedule in-network, in-person and virtual care appointments through the plan's Find a doctor tool in the member portal. Blue Shield members can now see providers' real-time availability and easily access more than 1 million hours of bookable appointments available over a 90-day window. This marks the first time Zocdoc is working with a health plan to power scheduling for its online member portal. It builds on the company's expansion beyond its marketplace as it already powers scheduling on providers' websites, Google Business Profiles and practices' phone lines via its new AI phone assistant, Zo. Underlying this collaboration is nearly two decades of Zocdoc's expertise in facilitating patient-provider interactions, understanding complex healthcare scheduling logic, and integrating with a broad base of EHRs. No other company in healthcare has the depth of experience, infrastructure, and intellectual property when it comes to seamless online scheduling across a large, diverse, decentralized provider network. "We know that patients rely on their health plans to find quality, in-network care, and we are proud to partner with Blue Shield of California to power a seamless experience that helps their members access the right providers for their needs," said Oliver Kharraz, MD, Zocdoc founder and CEO. "This collaboration—a first of its kind for Zocdoc—is symbolic of our expansion beyond our marketplace; we are leveraging nearly 20 years of scheduling expertise to help patients easily book appointments wherever they are seeking care, to help providers connect with patients across more channels, and to help payors modernize their members' access experience and care coordination." The collaboration is a part of Blue Shield's effort to create high-quality, seamless experiences for members; it enables 24/7 appointment scheduling for members seeking care from Blue Shield's network of primary care, specialist, vision, dental, mental and behavioral health providers who are also in Zocdoc's bookable provider network. Across all types of care, outdated scheduling systems have become a barrier to healthcare access. According to a Zocdoc-commissioned survey conducted earlier this year, more than half of patients who were unable to reach their doctor by phone admitted to delaying care (54%), while one in three admitted to giving up on scheduling a visit entirely (33%). Digital tools can help address these barriers. "As we continue to address healthcare access issues, making it easier and faster for our members to get connected to in-network care is absolutely essential," said Jigar Shah, chief marketing and strategy officer at Blue Shield of California. "To make healthcare worthy of our family and friends, we must deliver best-in-class member experiences, and Blue Shield is leveraging digital tools to do exactly that. We are proud to work with Zocdoc on an important part of our strategy to improve access to care." Appointments are now available for members across all Blue Shield of California employer-sponsored plans, Individual and Family Plans, and Medicare plans. Blue Shield and Zocdoc will continue to add more in-network provider schedules for members to book quickly and seamlessly. Blue Shield's in-network providers who are interested in adding appointments to the system can visit this site for more information. There is no cost to providers to participate, and set-up is a simple, one-time activation. Zocdoc has built more than 175 calendar integrations with commonly used healthcare scheduling systems. About ZocdocZocdoc is the leading healthcare marketplace that aims to help every patient find and book every type of care. Each month, millions of patients visit or use the Zocdoc app to find quality, in-network doctors, see their real-time availability, and instantly book appointments for in-person or virtual care. Zocdoc doesn't just make healthcare easier, it also accelerates patients' access to care with the typical appointment happening within 24 to 72 hours of booking. While Zocdoc's mission is to give power to the patient, the company supports healthcare providers, too. Doctors across every state, specialty and segment — from solo practitioners to large hospitals and health systems — rely on Zocdoc to grow their practice, at every stage. With Zocdoc, they can reach new patients where they're seeking care, save staff time with tools that integrate into their practice software, and delight their patients through great experiences that keep them coming back. Overall, Zocdoc delivers the seamless, modern healthcare experience patients deserve. About Blue Shield of CaliforniaBlue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. The health plan is a taxpaying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with 6 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $27 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $60 million to the Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last three years to have an impact on California communities. For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit Or follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook. CONTACT: Zocdoc PR Team, 19293499190, zocdoc@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Zocdoc, Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Medscape
23-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
AI Is Coming for Healthcare Call Centers
At one call center in the Philippines, workers help Americans with diabetes or neurological conditions troubleshoot devices that monitor their health. Sometimes they get pressing calls: Elderly patients who are alone and experiencing a medical emergency. 'That's not part of the job of our employees or our tech supports,' said Ruth Elio, an occupational nurse who supervised the center's workers when she spoke with KFF Health News last year. 'Still, they're doing that because it is important.' Elio also helped workers with their own health problems, most frequently headaches or back pains, borne of a life of sitting for hours on end. In a different call center, Kevin Asuncion transcribed medical visits from half a world away, in the United States. You can get used to the hours, he said in an interview last year: 8 PM to 5 AM. His breaks were mostly spent sleeping; not much is open then. Health risks and night shifts aside, call center workers have a new concern: Artificial intelligence. Start-ups are marketing AI products with lifelike voices to schedule or cancel medical visits, refill prescriptions, and help triage patients. Soon, many patients might initiate contact with the health system not by speaking with a call center worker or receptionist, but with AI. Zocdoc, the appointment-booking company, has introduced an automated assistant it says can schedule visits without human intervention 70% of the time. The medically focused call center workforce in the Philippines is a vast one: 200,000 at the end of 2024, estimates industry trade group leader Jack Madrid. That figure is more than the number of paramedics in the United States at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And some employers are opening outposts in other countries, like India, while using AI to reshape or replace their workforces. Still, it's unclear whether AI's digital manipulations could match the proverbial human touch. For example, a recent study in Nature Medicine found that while some models can diagnose maladies when presented with a canned anecdote, as prospective doctors do in training, AI struggles to elicit information from simulated patients. 'The rapport, or the trust that we give, or the emotions that we have as humans cannot be replaced,' Elio said. Sachin Jain, president and CEO of Scan Health Plan, an insurer, said humans have context that AI doesn't have — at least for now. A receptionist at a small practice may know the patients well enough to pick up on subtle cues and communicate to the doctor that a particular caller is 'somebody that you should see, talk to, that day, that minute, or that week.' The turn toward call centers, while creating more distance between a caller and a health provider, preserved the human touch. Yet some agents at call centers and their advocates say the ways they are monitored on the job undermine care. At one Kaiser Permanente location, it's a 'very micromanaging environment,' said one nurse who asked not to provide her name for fear of reprisal. 'From the beginning of the shift to your end, you're expected to take call after call after call from an open queue,' she said. Even when giving advice for complex cases, 'there's an unwritten rule on how long a nurse should take per call: 12 minutes.' Meanwhile, the job is getting tougher, she said. 'We're the backup to the health care system. We're open 24/7,' she said. 'They're calling about their incision sites, which are bleeding. Their child has asthma, and the instructions for the medications are not clear.' One nurses union is protesting a potential AI management tool in the call centers. 'AI tools don't make medical decisions,' Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Vincent Staupe told KFF Health News. 'Our physicians and care teams are always at the center of decision-making with our patients and in all our care settings, including call centers.' Kaiser Permanente is not affiliated with KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Some firms cite 30%-50% turnover rates — stats that some say make a case for turning over the job to AI. Call centers 'can't keep people, because it's just a really, really challenging job,' said Adnan Iqbal, co-founder and CEO of Luma Health, which creates AI products to automate some call center work. No wonder, 'if you're getting yelled at every 90 seconds by a patient, insurance company, a staff member, what have you.' To hear business leaders tell it, their customers are frustrated: Instead of the human touch, patients get nothing at all, stymied by long wait times and harried, disempowered workers. One time, Marissa Moore — an investor at OMERS Ventures — got a taste of patients' frustrations when trying to schedule a visit by phone at five doctors' offices. 'In every single one, I got a third party who had no intel on providers in the office, their availability, or anything.' These types of gripes are increasingly common — and getting the attention of investors and businesses. Customer complaints are hitting the bottom lines of businesses — like health insurers, which can be rewarded by the federal government's Medicare Advantage policies for better customer service. When Scan noticed a drop in patient ratings for some of the medical providers in its insurance network, it learned those providers had switched to using centralized call centers. Customer service suffered, and the lower ratings translated into lower payments from the federal government, Jain said. 'There's a degree of dissatisfaction that's bubbling up among our patients,' he said. So, for some businesses, the notion of a computer receptionist seems a welcome solution to the problem of ineffectual call centers. AI voices, which can convincingly mimic human voices, are 'beyond uncanny valley,' said Richie Cartwright, the founder of Fella, a weight-loss start-up that used one AI product to call pharmacies and ask if they had GLP-1s in stock. Prices have dropped, too. Google AI's per-use price has dropped by 97%, company CEO Sundar Pichai claimed in a 2024 speech. Some boosters are excited to put the vision of AI assistants into action. Since the second Trump administration took office, policy initiatives by the quasi-agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, have reportedly explored using artificial intelligence bots for customer service at the Department of Education. Most executives interviewed by KFF Health News — in the hospital, insurance, tech, and consultancy fields — were keen to emphasize that AI would complement humans, not replace them. Some resorted to jargon and claimed the technology might make call center nurses and employees more efficient and effective. But some businesses are signaling that their AI models could replace human workers. Their websites hint at reducing reliance on staff. And they are developing pricing strategies based on reducing the need for labor, said Michael Yang, a venture capitalist at OMERS. Yang described the prospect for businesses as a 'we-share-in-the-upside kind of thing,' with start-ups pitching clients on paying them for the cost of 1½ hires and their AI doing the work of twice that number. But providers are building narrow services at the moment. For example, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences started with a limited idea. The organization's call center closes at 5 PM — meaning patients who try to cancel appointments after hours left a phone message, creating a backlog for workers to address the next morning that took time from other scheduling tasks and left canceled appointments unfilled. So they started by using an AI system provided by Luma Health to allow after-hours cancellations and have since expanded it to allow patients to cancel appointments all day. Michelle Winfield-Hanrahan, the health system's chief clinical access officer, who oversees its deployment, said UAMS has plenty of ideas for more automation, including allowing patients to check on prior authorizations and leading them through post-discharge follow-up. Many executives claim AI tools can complement, rather than replace, humans. One company says its product can measure 'vocal biomarkers' — subtle changes in tone or inflection — that correlate with disease and supply that information to human employees interacting with the patient. Some firms are using large language models to summarize complex documents: Pulling out obscure insurance policies, or needed information, for employees. Others are interested in AI guiding a human through a conversation. Even if the technology isn't replacing people, it is reshaping them. AI can be used to change humans' behavior and presentation. Call center employees said in interviews that they knew of, or had heard omnipresent rumors of, or feared, a variety of AI tools. At some Kaiser Permanente call centers, unionized employees protested — and successfully delayed — the implementation of an AI tool meant to measure 'active listening,' a union flyer claimed. And employees and executives associated with the call center workforce in the Philippines said they'd heard of other software tools, such as technology that changed Filipino accents to American ones. There's 'not a super huge need for that, given our relatively neutral accents, but we've seen that,' said Madrid, the trade group leader. 'Just because something can be automated doesn't mean it should be,' he said.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Call centers replaced many doctors' receptionists. Now, AI is coming for call centers
At one call center in the Philippines, workers help Americans with diabetes or neurological conditions troubleshoot devices that monitor their health. Sometimes they get pressing calls: elderly patients who are alone and experiencing a medical emergency. 'That's not part of the job of our employees or our tech supports,' said Ruth Elio, an occupational nurse who supervised the center's workers when she spoke with KFF Health News last year. 'Still, they're doing that because it is important.' Elio also helped workers with their own health problems, most frequently headaches or back pains, borne of a life of sitting for hours on end. In a different call center, Kevin Asuncion transcribed medical visits from half a world away, in the United States. You can get used to the hours, he said in an interview last year: 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. His breaks were mostly spent sleeping; not much is open then. Health risks and night shifts aside, call center workers have a new concern: artificial intelligence. Startups are marketing AI products with lifelike voices to schedule or cancel medical visits, refill prescriptions, and help triage patients. Soon, many patients might initiate contact with the health system not by speaking with a call center worker or receptionist, but with AI. Zocdoc, the appointment-booking company, has introduced an automated assistant it says can schedule visits without human intervention 70% of the time. The medically focused call center workforce in the Philippines is a vast one: 200,000 at the end of 2024, estimates industry trade group leader Jack Madrid. That figure is more than the number of paramedics in the United States at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And some employers are opening outposts in other countries, like India, while using AI to reshape or replace their workforces. Still, it's unclear whether AI's digital manipulations could match the proverbial human touch. For example, a recent study in Nature Medicine found that while some models can diagnose maladies when presented with a canned anecdote, as prospective doctors do in training, AI struggles to elicit information from simulated patients. 'The rapport, or the trust that we give, or the emotions that we have as humans cannot be replaced,' Elio said. Sachin Jain, president and chief executive of Scan Health Plan, an insurer, said humans have context that AI doesn't have — at least for now. A receptionist at a small practice may know the patients well enough to pick up on subtle cues and communicate to the doctor that a particular caller is 'somebody that you should see, talk to, that day, that minute, or that week.' The turn toward call centers, while creating more distance between a caller and a health provider, preserved the human touch. Yet some agents at call centers and their advocates say the ways they are monitored on the job undermine care. At one Kaiser Permanente location, it's a 'very micromanaging environment,' said one nurse who asked not to provide her name for fear of reprisal. 'From the beginning of the shift to your end, you're expected to take call after call after call from an open queue,' she said. Even when giving advice for complex cases, 'there's an unwritten rule on how long a nurse should take per call: 12 minutes.' Meanwhile, the job is getting tougher, she said. 'We're the backup to the healthcare system. We're open 24/7,' she said. 'They're calling about their incision sites, which are bleeding. Their child has asthma, and the instructions for the medications are not clear.' One nurses union is protesting a potential AI management tool in the call centers. 'AI tools don't make medical decisions,' Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Vincent Staupe told KFF Health News. 'Our physicians and care teams are always at the center of decision-making with our patients and in all our care settings, including call centers.' Kaiser Permanente is not affiliated with KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Some firms cite 30% to 50% turnover rates — stats that some say make a case for turning over the job to AI. Call centers 'can't keep people, because it's just a really, really challenging job,' said Adnan Iqbal, co-founder and CEO of Luma Health, which creates AI products to automate some call center work. No wonder, 'if you're getting yelled at every 90 seconds by a patient, insurance company, a staff member, what have you.' To hear business leaders tell it, their customers are frustrated: Instead of the human touch, patients get nothing at all, stymied by long wait times and harried, disempowered workers. One time, Marissa Moore — an investor at OMERS Ventures — got a taste of patients' frustrations when trying to schedule a visit by phone at five doctors' offices. 'In every single one, I got a third party who had no intel on providers in the office, their availability, or anything.' These types of gripes are increasingly common — and getting the attention of investors and businesses. Customer complaints are hitting the bottom lines of businesses — like health insurers, which can be rewarded by the federal government's Medicare Advantage policies for better customer service. When Scan noticed a drop in patient ratings for some of the medical providers in its insurance network, it learned those providers had switched to using centralized call centers. Customer service suffered, and the lower ratings translated into lower payments from the federal government, Jain said. 'There's a degree of dissatisfaction that's bubbling up among our patients,' he said. So, for some businesses, the notion of a computer receptionist seems a welcome solution to the problem of ineffectual call centers. AI voices, which can convincingly mimic human voices, are 'beyond uncanny valley,' said Richie Cartwright, the founder of Fella, a weight loss startup that used one AI product to call pharmacies and ask if they had GLP-1s in stock. Prices have dropped, too. Google AI's per-use price has dropped by 97%, company CEO Sundar Pichai claimed in a 2024 speech. Some boosters are excited to put the vision of AI assistants into action. Since the second Trump administration took office, policy initiatives by the advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, have reportedly explored using artificial intelligence bots for customer service at the Department of Education. Most executives interviewed by KFF Health News — in the hospital, insurance, tech, and consultancy fields — were keen to emphasize that AI would complement humans, not replace them. Some resorted to jargon and claimed the technology might make call center nurses and employees more efficient and effective. But some businesses are signaling that their AI models could replace human workers. Their websites hint at reducing reliance on staff. And they are developing pricing strategies based on reducing the need for labor, said Michael Yang, a venture capitalist at OMERS. Yang described the prospect for businesses as a 'we-share-in-the-upside kind of thing,' with startups pitching clients on paying them for the cost of 1½ hires and their AI doing the work of twice that number. But providers are building narrow services at the moment. For example, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences started with a limited idea. The organization's call center closes at 5 p.m. — meaning patients who try to cancel appointments after hours left a phone message, creating a backlog for workers to address the next morning that took time from other scheduling tasks and left canceled appointments unfilled. So they started by using an AI system provided by Luma Health to allow after-hours cancellations and have since expanded it to allow patients to cancel appointments all day. Michelle Winfeld-Hanrahan, the health system's chief clinical access officer, who oversees its deployment, said UAMS has plenty of ideas for more automation, including allowing patients to check on prior authorizations and leading them through post-discharge follow-up. Many executives claim AI tools can complement, rather than replace, humans. One company says its product can measure "vocal biomarkers" — subtle changes in tone or inflection — that correlate with disease and supply that information to human employees interacting with the patient. Some firms are using large language models to summarize complex documents: pulling out obscure insurance policies, or needed information, for employees. Others are interested in AI guiding a human through a conversation. Even if the technology isn't replacing people, it is reshaping them. AI can be used to change humans' behavior and presentation. Call center employees said in interviews that they knew of, or had heard omnipresent rumors of, or feared, a variety of AI tools. At some Kaiser Permanente call centers, unionized employees protested — and successfully delayed — the implementation of an AI tool meant to measure 'active listening,' a union flyer claimed. And employees and executives associated with the call center workforce in the Philippines said they'd heard of other software tools, such as technology that changed Filipino accents to American ones. There's 'not a super huge need for that, given our relatively neutral accents, but we've seen that,' said Madrid, the trade group leader. 'Just because something can be automated doesn't mean it should be,' he said. Tahir writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
