· Bot Pros · 4 min read
What doing it by hand costs, measured
Healthcare administration is one of the few fields that measures the cost of the same transaction done by hand, partly automated, and fully electronic. The numbers show where the savings are, and why adding a tool on top of a manual process captures only part of them.
Most businesses can't say what a single routine task costs them. US healthcare administration is an exception. Every year the CAQH Index collects data from provider organizations and health plans and reports the staff cost of common transactions, done three ways: by hand, partly automated, and fully electronic.[1]
The same task, three ways
Staff labor cost per transaction, medical, across the industry:[1]
| Transaction | By hand | Partly automated | Fully electronic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking a patient's insurance eligibility and benefits | $12.95 | $4.50 | $2.04 |
| Prior authorization | $16.29 | $8.98 | $5.43 |
The report puts the total opportunity at $20 billion a year for medical and dental administration, from moving manual work to automated workflows.[1] These figures count staff time only, not the cost of the systems.
What the middle column shows
The partly automated column is the one worth studying. A partly automated eligibility check still costs more than twice the fully electronic one. Adding a tool to one step of a manual process removes some of the work. The rest of the savings only arrive when the whole path runs without re-keying, phone calls, or a person copying an answer from one screen to another.
The same pattern in general business data
McKinsey's 2026 survey of 1,719 business leaders found the same gap at a larger scale. 80% said AI has improved their individual productivity, but only 37% attribute any impact on earnings to it. The small group seeing real financial results did something different: nearly three-quarters of them fundamentally redesigned their workflows around AI, compared with one-quarter of everyone else.[2] The survey is self-reported and leans toward large companies.
What we take from it
This part is our reading, not the reports'.
- Measure one transaction first. Pick a task you do hundreds of times a month and work out what it costs today, in minutes and in people.
- Automate the path, not a step. The savings in the table come from the work moving end to end without a person carrying it between systems.
- Expect the middle column if you only add a tool. It is better than doing it by hand, and it leaves most of the remaining cost in place.
Our article Your tools don't talk to each other covers why the path breaks between systems in the first place.
Sources
- CAQH. 2024 CAQH Index Report, released February 2025. Table "Average Cost and Savings Opportunity per Transaction by Mode, Medical," page 56 of the PDF. caqh.org (PDF)
- McKinsey & Company. "The state of AI in 2026: On the road to ROI." August 2026. Online survey, May 4 to June 8, 2026. mckinsey.com
Filed under Research, Automation