Move intelligence upstream: How Google Cloud’s Gemini and NTT DATA help healthcare prevent administrative friction

Summary

• Healthcare organizations have invested billions in electronic health records, revenue cycle platforms, claims systems, patient engagement tools, and data modernization initiatives.
• Administrative complexity continues to slow care delivery and increase costs for providers, payers, clinicians, and patients.
• Prior authorizations delay treatment, claim denials generate rework, clinicians spend valuable time on documentation, and patients often struggle to navigate a fragmented experience.
• Healthcare leaders aim to apply AI to remove unnecessary work, accelerate access to care, and improve outcomes and experiences for patients.
• The collaboration between NTT DATA and Google Cloud combines Gemini for governed, enterprise-wide agents with healthcare domain and operational expertise.
• This partnership transforms isolated agentic AI pilots into orchestrated, production-grade workflows that prevent administrative friction before it starts.
• Many AI initiatives focus on automating individual tasks while broader workflows connecting people, systems, and decisions remain fragmented.
• The next stage of AI involves enabling intelligent workflows where AI supports routine activities, agents execute coordinated actions across systems, and people focus on exceptions.
• NTT DATA acts as a Google Cloud Diamond partner and Gemini for healthcare launch partner to provide governed, multistep work across existing systems.
• Gemini provides models, search capabilities, deep research, and no-code tools for building agents.
• NTT DATA turns payer medical policies and authorization rules into curated, versioned knowledge sources that agents can rely on.
• Google Cloud's Healthcare API and Healthcare Data Engine store and standardize clinical and imaging data in formats such as FHIR, HL7v2, and DICOM.
• NTT DATA builds EHR, payer, clearinghouse, and FHIR integrations that feed and hold up data in production.
• NTT DATA brings four dimensions of expertise: clinical, financial, technical, and governance.
• The clinical dimension covers documentation, care coordination, decision support, and new care models.
• The financial dimension covers revenue cycle and administrative process transformation.
• The technical dimension covers electronic health records, modernization, cloud, APIs, interoperability, and governed data platforms.
• The governance dimension ensures agentic AI solutions align with regulatory requirements, organizational policies, security standards, and clinical oversight.
• Agentic workflows verify patient eligibility, check active coverage, and calculate out-of-pocket estimates before care is scheduled to reduce scheduling delays and surprise bills.
• Agentic workflows synthesize clinical documentation against payer medical policies to prepare and submit authorization requests while tracking response status and flagging exceptions.
• Agentic AI identifies potential issues before claims are submitted by reviewing documentation, validating coding requirements, and verifying payer-specific rules.
• Removing administrative friction improves timely access to care, returns capacity to healthcare teams, and reduces uncertainty for patients.
• Agentic capabilities can extend into utilization management workflows to coordinate utilization review, surface medical necessity evidence, and route complex cases.
• Thoughtful AI use can reduce administrative burden, improve coordination across systems, and allow people to focus on higher-value activities.
• The goal is to move intelligence upstream to eliminate administrative work that should not exist in the first place.