AI Is Collecting the Money You're Leaving on the Table: Inside BAM AI With Christopher Chomenko

The average private medical practice has six figures sitting in unpaid claims over 120 days — and 90% of it was avoidable. In this episode of Vital Discourse, Dr. Ben Cilento and Dr. Lee Mandel sit down with Chris Chomenko, CEO and founder of BAM AI, to break down how agentic AI is transforming revenue cycle management for independent practices. Chris opens with a distinction that reframes the conversation: most AI software marketed to healthcare isn't actually agentic — it's a bot dressed up in AI clothing, making binary yes/no decisions automatically. True agentic AI does the work, not just the workflow. BAM AI applies that to RCM across five buckets: insurance verification, claim preparation, payment posting, denial management, and AR recovery. The episode walks through each in detail — from AI sitting on hold indefinitely for prior authorizations (while your staff burns out), to catching insurance rule changes overnight before they become 90-day timely filing traps, to following up on denials relentlessly without the human tendency to check something off and move on. Chris shares a real example: one insurance company that rhymes with "Igna" consistently underpays sleep studies at $43 instead of $186 — and BAM AI is trained to catch it, flag it, and resubmit before it posts. The doctors ask the hard questions: why now, what about HIPAA, and what actually makes BAM different from the hundreds of AI companies flooding physician inboxes. Chris addresses all of it — including the Mythos moment, the AI model Anthropic refused to release because it could exploit software vulnerabilities at expert level 73% of the time, and what that means for healthcare cybersecurity. He introduces Layer 5, a security layer that makes practice endpoints invisible to hackers entirely. The episode closes with a practical test: pull up your aging report and look at your 120-day-plus AR. If it's six figures, you have a problem AI could have prevented. The key message: the friends and family discount on AI is ending — practices that move now lock in better pricing, better margins, and higher valuations before private equity figures out the arbitrage.Chapters:00:00 Intro – AI Is Here and the Window Is Closing00:35 Introducing Christopher Chomenko — CEO of BAM AI01:28 From RepeatMD to BAM — Why RCM Was the Natural Next Problem03:04 The Two Buckets of RCM Today — Outsourced or In-House04:13 What Is RCM? What Is Agentic AI? Terminology Explained05:09 The Five Buckets BAM AI Deploys Agents To Solve05:26 Bucket 1: Insurance Verification and Prior Authorizations05:42 AI Can Sit on Hold Indefinitely — Your Staff Can't06:52 Bucket 2: Claim Preparation — Catching Errors Before Submission07:19 How Insurance Companies Change Rules Overnight and Pocket the Difference08:44 AI Checks Payer Rules Constantly — Humans Simply Can't10:54 What Happens When Claims Go Out Six Days Late vs. Same Day11:13 The Wizard of Oz Problem With Outsourced RCM12:07 Bucket 3: Payment Posting — Catching Underpayments Before They Post13:58 The Insurance Company That Rhymes With Igna — $43 Instead of $18615:07 Bucket 4: Denial Management — AI Follows Up Relentlessly15:54 Why Human Teams Fall Off Denials After Two Weeks16:45 Bucket 5: AR Recovery — Going After What's Owed17:19 The Goal: AR Over 120 Days at Zero18:32 Why AI Is the First Thing Private Equity Looks For19:11 What Makes BAM Different From Every Other AI Company in Your Inbox21:01 AI Wrappers vs. True Agentic AI — The Three Buckets Explained22:08 What Is an LLM? Claude, ChatGPT, Grok Explained23:04 BAM Is a Worker Software, Not a Workflow Software26:02 Why April 2026 Is the Inflection Point — Not a Year From Now27:42 Is Outsourced RCM Actually More Secure Than AI?29:49 The Uber Analogy — Why Early Adopters Win31:22 If You're Planning to Sell — You Need AI Before You List33:42 Pain Avoiders vs. Pleasure Seekers — Which One Are You?35:30 BAM's Total Satisfaction Guarantee — Asymmetric Risk36:18 How to Read Your Aging Report and Know If You Have a Problem38:41 The Mythos Moment — The AI Anthropic Refused to Release39:37 73% Expert-Level Hacking Success Rate — What That Means for Healthcare40:49 Hospitals Weren't at the Table. Banks Were.41:29 How BAM AI Thinks About Security in a Post-Mythos World43:48 Layer 5 — Making Your Practice Invisible to Hackers45:16 Closing — AI Isn't Going Away, How You Use It Is What Matters46:06 How to Reach BAM AI and Get Your Free Leak AssessmentIf you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts.