Clinician-led artificial intelligence platform Anterior and health tech company Stellarus entered a strategic partnership Thursday to tackle automating prior authorizations.
The partnership aims to support providers through automating tasks—such as case research and policy application—to allow teams to focus on complex determinations. The companies say providers will receive quicker, first-time approvals, ultimately giving members quicker care access.
"Stellarus provides the healthcare technology platform, integration expertise and operational experience to help health plans put AI into practice, while Anterior brings leading clinical AI to automate the research, documentation and policy application that support prior authorization," said Vanessa Colella, Stellarus president and CEO.
Colella told Fierce Healthcare in an emailed statement that Anterior has been "a leader in the clinical AI space," adding the current opportunity is to help health plans deploy solutions in safe and reliable manners.
"That is where Stellarus comes in - we were built inside a health plan, so we understand firsthand the operational, clinical and regulatory realities our customers navigate every day," Colella said. "That experience shapes how we help organizations adopt new technologies, integrate them into existing systems and workflows, and deliver measurable value without disrupting the way care is managed."
Through the partnership, Anterior’s clinical AI will integrate with Stellarus’s AtlasIQ platform to aid health plans in deploying quicker prior authorizations. All final determinations are made by licensed clinicians, not the AI tools, executives say.
“Every plan wants to use AI—it wants to transform,” said Abdel Mahmoud, M.D., Anterior CEO. “It knows [it] has the data, but doesn't know where to begin.”
The new partnership between Anterior and Stellarus aims to close that gap.
Stellarus is a healthcare technology company spun out of Blue Shield of California earlier this year. The health solutions company provides the tech backbone and digital capabilities for nonprofit, community and regional health plans.
Mahmoud told Fierce Healthcare the two companies have a “shared vision.”
“We see the same data challenges across all of healthcare—we see the interoperability issues, [but] we see the potential as well,” Mahmoud said. “A lot of the answers, a lot of the inefficiencies can be solved with today's technology.”
Prior authorizations are the “most obvious low-hanging fruit” for automation, Mahmoud said.
“There's a lot more downstream stuff we can do once we structure the prior auth,” he said. “We can pull a lot of proactive care forward.”
Skepticism and concern towards AI in healthcare “comes from a good place,” Mahmoud said, adding that Stellarus represents “good, proper use of AI.”
“The fact that we're partnering with them, it sends a signal to the market that we're taking it seriously,” he said.
As the partnership progresses, executives say it will expand into care planning, policy optimization and broader utilization management.
"At Stellarus, we see AI as an accelerator for healthcare transformation, not a standalone solution," Colella said. "When combined with the right technology foundation, operational expertise and responsible governance, AI can help health plans and healthcare organizations work smarter, respond faster and create better experiences for the people they serve."