Administrative AI: Efficiency or Cost Explosion?

PHTI Report (Apr 2026)

AI is rapidly adopted for prior authorization, medical coding & billing — ambient scribes are now standard in large systems.

The catch:

It cuts individual costs (faster processing, fewer appeals) but *inflates overall system spending* through “bot wars”, higher coding intensity, and more back-and-forth.

Result: more activity, more revenue for some, no net reduction in the $350B+ U.S. admin waste.

→ Full report: https://phti.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2026/04/PHTI-Administrative-AI-Current-Use-and-Potential-Impact.pdf