AI Patient Communications: What to Try First
Healthcare leaders today face a common challenge: how to improve patient engagement while maintaining operational efficiency – all with limited resources.
The answer increasingly lies in AI patient communications, but knowing where to start can feel overwhelming, especially with the multitude of new tools popping up every day. However, you don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Strategic implementation in a few key areas can deliver transformative results for both patients and your bottom line.
There is no question that AI will play a role in healthcare communications and patient access. To be successful, practices must focus their efforts first on achieving a meaningful impact.
Based on successful implementations across healthcare organizations, there’s a clear roadmap for getting started with AI patient communications that balances quick wins with long-term value.
Video: Where AI Fits Into Healthcare Practice Management
Comprehensive EyeCare Partners stays on the cutting edge of healthcare innovation with strategic adoption of AI. Regional VP Chad Jackson discusses his perspective on AI’s role in modern healthcare delivery and shares insights about how forward-thinking practice leaders are evaluating and implementing similar technologies.
Watch here:
Get Started With Scheduling
The most effective entry point for AI patient communications is intelligent scheduling. Most practices still rely heavily on phone-based appointment booking, which creates significant operational burdens while limiting patient access to care.
Consider the typical scheduling workflow: patients call during business hours, staff members manually check availability across multiple providers, verify insurance information and attempt to match patient needs with provider expertise. This process consumes valuable staff time, creates bottlenecks during peak call periods and often results in missed opportunities when patients can’t reach your practice outside business hours.
AI-driven scheduling logic transforms this experience by enabling 24/7 patient self-scheduling that automatically matches patients with the right providers at the right times. Rather than basic online booking that requires constant staff intervention, intelligent scheduling uses rules-based AI to reflect your providers’ actual requirements, specialty constraints, and practice policies.
The results are immediate and measurable. Practices implementing comprehensive AI-driven scheduling typically see 84% patient adoption of self-scheduling, with up to 51% of online bookings coming from new patients and 45% of appointments scheduled after hours. Staff save 500+ hours annually by reducing manual scheduling work, while practices experience significant increases in monthly patient visits due to improved accessibility.
When combined with real-time eligibility verification and automated waitlist management, AI-powered scheduling becomes a complete patient access solution that works around the clock without staff intervention.
Hear what else Chad Jackson has to say about what a great scheduling process looks like for patients and staff:
Elevate Patient Education Through Personalized Pre-Visit Communications
Another powerful application of AI patient communications focuses on patient education and premium service conversions. Practices can significantly impact both clinical outcomes and revenue through intelligent with well-timed information delivery and patient education campaigns
Consider the typical patient journey for an elective procedure. Most patients arrive for exams or consultations with minimal understanding of alternative or premium healthcare service options. For example, a patient may come in for a routine eye exam with their provider and the provider may use that opportunity to discuss Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL) procedures and the patient’s ability to take advantage of this treatment.
In these scenarios, providers spend valuable appointment time covering basic education that could just as easily happen beforehand. During the exam, the patient may feel overwhelmed trying to absorb information and avoid making a decision or put it off until later so they can ‘do their research.’ This inefficient process often results in delayed decisions, lower conversion rates and frustrated providers (and patients!)
Forward-thinking patient communications, leveraging AI, can solve this challenge by delivering targeted education before the appointment. Patients scheduled for cataract evaluations receive personalized videos explaining premium lens options.
Patients considering other elective procedures can access relevant information at their own pace, in their preferred format, through channels they already use. When they arrive for their appointment, they’re prepared for an informed conversation rather than starting from zero.
Beyond elective procedures, effective patient communications also ensure patients return for essential ongoing care. Listen to what Chad Jackson has to say about bringing patients back for critical care.
Optimize Eligibility Verification and Payment Collection at Time of Service
While patient-facing communications grab headlines, other automated patient engagement solutions can power practice efficiency with low-to-no staff involvement while delivering dramatic financial improvements. Eligibility verification and payment collection represent chronic pain points for most practices, and prime opportunities for automated patient communications to generate measurable ROI.
The eligibility verification challenge affects nearly every practice. Staff members struggle to confirm coverage details, leading to uncertainty about what to charge at check-in. Incorrect information results in claim denials that create administrative burdens and delayed payments. Patients become frustrated when they receive unexpected bills for services they believed were covered.
Robust eligibility verification systems solve these problems by confirming coverage details before patients arrive — automatically and accurately. For Chad Jackson and Comprehensive EyeCare, finding a gold-standard eligibility verification tool is essential to saving hours of staff time and thousands of dollars later on.
For CompEye, the financial impact was substantial and immediate. Pairing gold-standard eligibility verification with patient-led registration helped them boost collections by 154% and drop claim rejections by 63%. See how.
Transform Your Practice With Clearwave
Clearwave’s robust patient engagement solution is designed to deliver rapid, measurable results while adapting to your unique operational needs and growth trajectory.
Ready to discover how AI can reshape practice performance? Read our complete case study: “CompEye Increases IOL Conversions by 76% & Collections by 154%” to explore the specific strategies, implementation approach, and measurable outcomes CompEye achieved with Clearwave’s platform.