AI Medical Assistants: Solving Medical Illiteracy to Reduce Health Care Costs

Solving medical illiteracy and reducing health care costs are now possible because of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Most Americans struggle to understand the health care information they receive because they do not understand the medical language used to describe medical products and services. Moreover, countless Americans do not possess a good grasp of the anatomy, physiology, and processes of the human body that medical language references.

Medical illiteracy contributes to a significant “information asymmetry” that restricts opportunities to maximize value when shopping, and contributes to inflated product and service costs. In virtually every economic sector, providing consumers with access to actionable information is the goal. Analyzing factors such as price elasticity and the quality of options available to consumers informs decisions that maximize the utility of shopping. When consumers consider the relevant information effectively, better financial and quality outcomes can result. Informed decision-making is a powerful economic tool because it allows consumers the ability to align their internal incentives on cost, need, quality, and other benefits when making purchases.

Medical illiteracy is a fundamental market flaw that complicates the ability of people to effectively participate as consumers in their own care. Lawmakers have sought to address this flaw by creating a health care market that empowers intermediaries, such as medical doctors and insurance companies, to help people navigate the market. Thus doctors receive fees to help coordinate patient care, or navigators help guide patients successfully through various choices available to them.

However, these services deprive consumers of decision-making opportunities that can lead to higher costs. The use of intermediaries also results in higher consumption rates which contributes to spending waste, fraud and abuse that makes up roughly 25 percent of all health care spending in the U.S. Plus, these intermediaries have not managed to solve medical illiteracy. AI medical assistants offer lawmakers a possible way to finally solve this problem.  

The Opportunity: Consumer Medical Assistants

AI medical assistants can help bridge the medical literacy gap and reduce information asymmetries, restore consumer purchasing power, and offer policymakers a pragmatic strategy for lowering costs and improving outcomes.

AI represents a scalable, always-available workforce to help consumers navigate health insurance complexities, decode medical jargon, and offer advice on how to use medical information to reduce costs. This tool would help consumers ask better questions, make more informed purchasing decisions, and engage more actively in their own care.

AI assistants can also be part of a person’s medical care team by translating a doctors advice into plain language, provide personalized recommendations based on their own unique health information and symptoms, offer evidenced-based, self-guided programs for mental health, and even medical services such as therapy, all from the comfort of home. Non-medical wellness practices, long regarded as capable of reducing health costs by preventing disease and illness, can also be accessed and made easier for people with an AI medical assistant to motivate them.

Consumer-facing medical assistants can provide value to medical doctors and nurses by pre-screening patient information before appointments, or providing information on how a patient is adhering to their medical recommendations in real time. AI medical assistants can also amplify the benefits of a single medical visit by reminding patients to follow their doctors orders. The potential benefits also include better utilization of existing medical workforces without sacrificing quality amid a national shortage of doctors and nurses, especially in areas like primary care.

The result can be a consumer-centric system of the future where the capabilities of modern technology are leveraged to help consumers thrive in the market. A dynamic, user-centered ecosystem supporting proactive engagement before, during, and after clinical encounters is the opportunity for lawmakers. A real-time loop of communication to identify when appointments with medical professionals are warranted, limit unnecessary visits, and decrease the number of instances that require acute care, all while reinforcing preventive health behaviors and reducing unnecessary utilization.

The Economic Benefits of AI Medical Assistants

The most compelling argument for lawmakers might be the economic returns to consumers as well as other payers. Arming consumers with the ability to make informed purchasing decisions can help them lower their health care costs. More chances to make informed purchasing choices can lead to better individual outcomes that result in fewer purchases, and more care covered without fear of surprise bills.

Americans pay a portion of their own total health care costs as copayments and deductibles. This means that every time a consumer finds a way to reduce their own costs using an AI medical assistant, the federal government and insurance companies save money as well. As consumers become more informed, a shifting health care landscape is likely to occur, resulting in further economic gains for the government from population-level reductions in unnecessary procedures, improved adherence to effective treatments, and better-quality outcomes.

AI medical assistants already exist, as noted previously. The rapid pace of AI learning means that other platforms may soon follow because of the significant business opportunities created by 340 million potential customers. Lawmakers willing to implement modern coverage and payment reforms, including expanded coverage for innovative care pathways and regulatory clarity for patient-facing AI applications, are needed to make this vision a reality.

Fixing medical illiteracy would better align the economic benefits of consumerism with Americans’ desire to decrease their annual health care costs. Increasing consumerism in U.S. health care is an opportunity for lawmakers to align the economic interests of their constituents with those of the federal government. Doing so can improve market operations, increase the benefits of other consumer reforms like the recent executive order on price transparency, and create a better health care market for all Americans. 

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About the authors

Robert Horne is a nationally recognized author, former congressional staffer, and current president of Forest Hill Labs where he works to reimagine various aspects of society with new ideas including but not limited to health care markets. You can find out more about Robert and his work at: www.foresthilllabs.net. 

Saverio V. Feudo is a medical student at the Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine. He previously earned a master’s in international health policy from the London School of Economics and hosts the “Understanding Healthcare” podcast, exploring the intersection of clinical medicine and policy.