GI Alliance taps IKS Health’s AI platform to streamline revenue cycle

GI Alliance partners with IKS Health

GI Alliance, the nation’s largest independent gastroenterology services organization, is teaming with care-enablement company IKS Health to roll out a revenue-cycle management (RCM) system with AI capabilities across its practices, according to a May 7 news release.

The partnership pairs IKS Health’s AI tools with human RCM experts in an effort to cut claims-processing time and administrative work for the more than 900 gastroenterologists in the GI Alliance network.

“We are excited about our partnership with IKS Health, designed to further enhance clinical and operational structures in our network of premier gastroenterology providers,” said Jim Weber, M.D., CEO of GI Alliance, in the news release. “Leveraging IKS Health’s care-enablement platform across our organization will allow us to focus on growth with a partner that adds the right combination of pragmatic technology and human expertise.”

IKS Health will also deploy clinical-workflow features such as “preactive” RCM and document-management tools aimed at freeing clinicians and staff to spend more time with patients, said IKS founder and CEO Sachin K. Gupta.

“Providing GI Alliance with access to our comprehensive suite of clinical enablement solutions including preactive RCM and document management will significantly optimize their workflows,” Gupta, said in the news release. “As we grow our capabilities within healthcare, we look forward to building a strong and successful long-term partnership with GI Alliance.”

GI Alliance—physician-led and physician-owned—supports more than 900 gastroenterologists practicing in 345 locations across 20 states. The group accelerated its expansion last year when Cardinal Health acquired a majority stake in the management services organization in a deal valued at $3.9 billion. Financial terms of the IKS partnership were not disclosed.

Founded in 2006, IKS Health employs a global workforce of more than 13,000 and provides RCM, clinical documentation and other support services to more than 850 U.S. provider organizations. The company trades in India under the ticker IKS.

For physicians, better-integrated RCM can translate to quicker reimbursements, fewer denials and less time in the electronic health record. GI practices — where margins depend heavily on procedure volume — have been early adopters of AI tools designed to speed prior authorizations and coding, and observers expect that trend to deepen as reimbursement pressure and administrative workloads grow.