What You Should Know:
– Cleveland Clinic, one of the top academic medical centers in the U.S., has significantly expanded its partnership with AKASA, a leader in healthcare AI, to deploy an advanced Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) solution across all of its U.S. locations.
– The enterprise deployment follows a successful pilot and the system-wide adoption of AKASA’s AI coding tool, solidifying Cleveland Clinic’s position as a pioneer in applying generative AI (GenAI) to the complex financial challenges of the mid-revenue cycle.
The Strategic Shift to Mid-Revenue Cycle AI
Accurate clinical documentation and medical coding are the linchpin of the mid-revenue cycle. They are crucial for comprehensively and properly capturing the patient clinical journey, ensuring appropriate reimbursement, and mitigating compliance risks. Earlier this year, Cleveland Clinic implemented the AKASA AI coding tool, deploying it across all U.S. locations in just four months and successfully processing tens of thousands of patient encounters.
Building on that foundational success, the new collaboration focuses on CDI—a task even more intricate than coding. CDI staff must interpret not only coder documentation but also complex multi-modal data, including labs, imaging, vitals, and medications, to ensure the clinical record fully supports the billed services. The new GenAI-powered solution acts as a dedicated AI assistant to CDI staff, supporting accuracy and dramatically increasing efficiency.
Proving AI’s Ability to Close Financial Gaps
The expanded partnership is a powerful validation of AI’s capability to address long-standing revenue cycle challenges at scale. The CDI solution is part of a unified platform that connects documentation and coding into one cohesive workflow. The system customizes itself to the unique clinical and operational nuances of each health system, using an intuitive interface to surface key clinical evidence directly to staff, which allows them to better prioritize their time and focus on high-value tasks.
“Expanding the breadth of our work with Cleveland Clinic is a powerful example of what’s possible when health systems and technology partners tackle the toughest challenges together,” said Malinka Walaliyadde, CEO and co-founder of AKASA. “By addressing documentation and coding at scale, we’re proving that AI can finally close long-standing gaps in the revenue cycle. And when health systems can fully capture the complexity of patient care, everyone benefits, from clinicians to revenue cycle staff to patients themselves.”
Innovation and Operational Excellence
Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to adopting this advanced technology signals a major step toward standardizing the use of GenAI for financial integrity in healthcare. The deployment across all U.S. locations marks one of the most comprehensive real-world uses of GenAI in healthcare finance to date.
“Integrating advanced AI solutions into our revenue cycle is a testament to Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to innovation and operational excellence,” said Ben Shahshahani, Ph.D., Chief AI Officer at Cleveland Clinic. “The success of the AI coding platform has demonstrated the transformative impact of technology in enhancing efficiency and quality. With the launch of the CDI solution, we are excited to continue setting new benchmarks for how AI can support our teams, improve processes, and ultimately benefit our patients.”
