Ochsner Health has recently finalized a three-year agreement with Latent, a clinical AI company specializing in medication access. What began in 2023 as a limited pilot has since become standardized for prior authorizations across Ochsner’s specialty and retail operations, expanding into revenue cycle and real-time eligibility audits.
The results are staggering. Prior auth decisions that once took 20 minutes now take 4 to 5. Over 20,000 patients received faster access to therapy last year, and throughput per full-time pharmacy staff nearly doubled.
But increased efficiency isn’t the full story. Increased speed has knock-on effects.
Prior authorizations used to act as friction. They were frustrating, but they also built in time. Time to verify coverage and to make sure the pharmacist on duty could handle what was next. When that lag disappears, the work starts to land faster.
One approval triggers a series of human steps: documentation, verification, outreach, and education. And when dozens or hundreds of approvals hit in a single shift, the burden shifts onto care teams who now need to act in real time.
This is what many systems aren’t ready for. Not the automation itself, but the absence of delay. As technology gets faster, the infrastructure around it needs to adapt. We’ve made prior auth lighter, but we haven’t made the people more available. That’s where the disconnect begins.
As Amy Trainor, Ochsner’s CIO, put it: “We still insert our clinical pharmacists where they need to be inserted. But we make sure they’re given the information they need faster… It takes them a lot less time to get to that final spot.”
Getting to that “final spot” still requires a human. Faster data still requires clinical judgment, and when automation hands off the baton, someone has to catch it.
Our ShiftRx mission is to help absorb this velocity. When PA volumes surge, we provide the credentialed clinicians needed to follow through. Our value isn’t in replacing what AI removes. It’s in reinforcing what AI makes more urgent.
When tech speeds up the system, everything downstream compresses. What was once sequential becomes simultaneous. The people on the ground are expected to catch up instantly, and without support, they burn out quietly and completely.
Ochsner got ahead by treating automation as a signal, not a solution. Chief Pharmacy Officer Deborah Simonson saw morale rise as pharmacists were freed from tasks that didn’t require clinical judgment. It was about clearing the clutter so teams could focus on the work that truly drives patient care.
This is what AI should unlock: faster access and stronger care. But it only delivers if the workforce behind it is just as agile and human. Our ShiftRx team is helping pharmacies staff for the system they’re building, not the one they’re leaving behind.
Sources:
Ochsner Health partners with Latent Health