Medicaid has a data reconciliation problem. AI can help

As 2024 draws to a close, First Opinion is publishing a series of essays on the current state of AI in medicine and biopharmaceuticals.

When I worked as a social worker in a community clinic in Detroit, I often saw James (not his real name), a patient on Medicaid who was struggling with chronic drug use. Each visit reveals deeper, more disturbing information impacting James’s life and care, including fragmented health records, conflicting medication lists, incomplete treatment session notes, and scattered commentary on detox treatments. Layers of systemic confusion were revealed. Given how long it took to compile his medical history, which left him with little time to address his immediate care needs, such disorganized care records may have contributed to his Treatment was often delayed.

This experience was by no means unusual. Many patients come to me for the first time to avoid hospital visits. But when care records are fragmented and disorganized, and patients like James’ lives are so disrupted that it is difficult to maintain regular primary care appointments without the right support, or Where this is not possible, access to aggressive preventive care is difficult to obtain.