How AI Closes the Prior Authorization Gap with Willie Brown | Podcast Shorts from ArceeHQ

In this clip

Willie Brown, Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Sentara Healthcare, describes how authorization management has become one of the most pressing AI use cases in revenue cycle. Payers have already deployed third-party vendor technology to evaluate authorization requests, creating a technology gap that providers must close. His team is using AI and automation to identify which procedures require authorization, navigate the approval process quickly, and pull clinical documentation directly from the EMR for peer-to-peer reviews. That combination reduces the manual labor that otherwise stalls authorization-related denials across all three phases: knowing what needs auth, getting it approved, and following up on status.

Key Takeaway

Because payers are already using automation to evaluate authorization requests, providers relying entirely on manual workflows face growing speed and accuracy disadvantages. AI that identifies authorization requirements and surfaces clinical documentation at the right moment is what levels that gap.

“You can get an authorization manually. You can do it and do it very well. The question you have to ask yourself is how long is it going to take you.”
Willie Brown, Vice President of Revenue Cycle, Sentara Healthcare

Agentic AIClaims Denial Management

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Willie Brown

Season 2 · Episode 2 · 34 min

Leading with ROI, Team Alignment, and Strategic Discipline: Building High-Performance Revenue Cycle with Willie Brown

Willie Brown · Vice President of Revenue Cycle, Sentara Healthcare

Willie Brown shares an ROI-first framework for setting strategic priorities in a not-for-profit health system under constant staffing and payer pressure. Drawing from his experience leading revenue cycle at Sentara Healthcare, he explains how aligning every initiative to organizational goals, measuring change impact, and building internal leadership capacity shapes everything from technology adoption to team culture. The conversation covers a six-month effort to build a charge reconciliation dashboard internally rather than acquire a vendor solution, the decision-making framework behind that choice, and the measurable outcomes Willie expects across gross revenue, denial rates, and coder productivity. Willie also shares his perspective on agentic AI in authorization management, a registration quality assurance tool his team is developing, and his approach to change leadership through clear communication, change champions, and an authentic open-door policy.

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