How AI Is Revolutionizing Healthcare Admin: The Unsung Hero of Patient Care

In the ongoing conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, much of the focus tends towards diagnostics, drug discovery, or doctor-patient interactions. However, a less visible yet equally crucial part of the system is the administrative work that often stands between primary care doctors and specialist appointments. This gap can be vast and stubbornly manual, but it's increasingly attracting serious attention from venture capitalists.

Enter Basata, a Phoenix-based startup co-founded by Kaled Alhanafi and Chetan Patel. Both have deep experience in tech—Alhanafi from roles at Lyft and Cruise, while Patel spent a decade building cardiac devices at Medtronic. Their personal experiences led them to realize the inefficiencies in healthcare administration.

For Patel, the issue became particularly urgent when his wife fainted on a flight with their young children. Despite his extensive knowledge of cardiology and specific devices that could help her, navigating the administrative process was an arduous task. “We have the best doctors and some of the best medicines, but the care gap is just so wide,” he remarked.

Alhanafi echoed similar sentiments about a personal experience with his father. He was referred to three cardiology groups after a serious carotid artery diagnosis; however, only one practice called back within a couple of weeks, another responded after surgery had already been completed, and the third hasn’t contacted them yet.

These are not isolated cases. Basata’s system addresses this issue by automating the referral process using AI. When a referral comes in (usually via fax), their platform reads and processes it, extracts relevant clinical information, and then an AI voice agent calls the patient to schedule the appointment directly. Patients can also reach the practice at any hour for common administrative needs like prescription renewals.

Alhanafi notes that patients are often surprised by how quickly they're contacted after a referral is sent. The ultimate goal is for a patient to have a scheduled appointment by the time they leave their primary care doctor's office.

Basata integrates with specific electronic medical record systems used by specialists, which explains why it has moved carefully—starting with cardiology and urology before expanding further. The founders recently turned down a large deal in an unspecialized area due to insufficient mapping of the market. Their revenue model is usage-based: practices pay per document processed and per call handled.

Despite facing competition from well-funded rivals like Tennr, which has raised over $160 million, Basata claims to have processed referrals for roughly 500,000 patients with about 100,000 in the last month alone. The startup has secured $24.5 million in total funding, including a recent $21 million Series A round led by Lan Xuezhao of Basis Set Ventures.

The space is becoming increasingly crowded, and Lee from Sofeon highlights the importance of trust when selling to medical practices. She emphasizes that these doctors need reassurance about their partners' capabilities and reliability.

Basata’s founders argue that their differentiation lies in combining document intelligence with patient communication into a single end-to-end workflow tailored specifically for certain specialties. While better-funded competitors expand, there's clearly a market signal indicating demand.

As AI increasingly automates tasks currently done by humans, the question of how it impacts employment looms large. For now, Basata focuses on augmenting workers rather than displacing them, arguing that freeing administrators from repetitive tasks makes them more efficient in other areas. This approach seems to resonate with those closest to the problem: 70% of their new deals come through word-of-mouth.