Autonomous medical coding is reshaping how healthcare organizations approach revenue cycle management (RCM), offering a solution to the growing pressure to do more with fewer resources. At Becker's 9th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Meeting, ApolloMD CEO Dr. Yogin Patel and Fathom CEO Andrew Lockhart shared results from their years-long partnership autonomously coding encounters across 1,500 physicians and 900+ advanced practice clinicians.
As discussed with nearly 160 health system attendees, the partnership has encompassed three key phases:
- Industry-wide challenges in medical coding sparked search for a technological solution. Like many provider organizations, ApolloMD experienced challenges with traditional outsourced medical coding, such as inconsistent staffing levels and inadequate adherence to changing guidelines. "Around 2017, we really started to look for a better way," Dr. Patel said. "We wanted high accuracy, sustainability and impeccable quality." Additional offshore coding challenges, including service disruptions and slower turnarounds, increased the urgency to find a new approach.
- Achieved 90%+ successful coding automation while increasing accuracy and speed. ApolloMD implemented Fathom to handle coding autonomously across the ApolloMD organization. "The [Fathom] engine is able to feed back the appropriate codes in a couple of hours, instead of four or five days, and our rate of completion has gone upwards of 98%," Dr. Patel said. "That dramatically increases the amount of time we have to make thoughtful corrections, chase down delinquencies and identify errors or discrepancies." Overall, the outcomes included:
- 90.3% automation rate
- 98.1% E/M accuracy in routine audits
- 86% reduction in coding errors
- 98.5% reduction in turnaround times
- New billing guidelines adopted within days
- Reinvested staffing and resources into other RCM priorities. Autonomous coding enabled ApolloMD's revenue cycle team to double down on higher priorities. The cost savings from AI coding delivered multiple benefits: quality assurance programs received increased investment, physicians benefited from faster documentation feedback, and reduced manual handling of patient data enhanced security protocols. "We were able to reinvest dollar for dollar into a robust audit program," Dr. Patel said.
Looking ahead, AI coding is set to support medical coding for nearly all specialties and departments with even higher accuracy. ApolloMD's experience shows how autonomous coding can help healthcare organizations to solve their immediate staffing challenges while improving accuracy, speed, and provider satisfaction. As the technology expands to handle more complex cases, including inpatient visits, organizations that adopt these solutions early will be better positioned to manage their revenue cycle efficiently and gain stronger financial footing.