Healthcare Organizations Want Automation — But Choosing the Right Approach Is Critical
As MSOs, hospitals, and specialty groups look to modernize operations, one strategic question consistently arises:
“Should we buy an off-the-shelf automation platform or build our own custom solution?”
Both paths have advantages, but the differences in cost, scalability, maintenance, and long-term ROI are significant.
Below is a clear breakdown of how off-the-shelf automation platforms (like Honey Health) compare to custom-built systems — and which model delivers the best outcomes for growing healthcare organizations.
1. Speed to Deployment
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Go live in 6–12 weeks
- Prebuilt workflows for referrals, PAs, documentation, eligibility, faxes, billing, etc.
- Existing integrations with major EHRs and PM systems
- AI models already trained on healthcare data
Custom-Built Solutions
- 12–36 month development cycles
- Additional months for testing, integration, and piloting
- Must build every workflow and rule from scratch
- Requires constant iteration before achieving reliability
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — by a large margin.
2. Total Cost of Ownership
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Predictable subscription pricing
- Zero infrastructure costs
- No need for large internal engineering teams
- No ongoing development cost burden
Custom-Built Solutions
- High initial development costs ($2M–$10M+)
- Ongoing developer salaries
- Infrastructure, hosting, and security costs
- Endless maintenance and upgrades
- Cost of fixing bugs and keeping systems compliant
- High risk of project failure or abandonment
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — significantly more cost-effective.
3. Healthcare-Specific AI Intelligence
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Models trained on millions of clinical and administrative workflows
- Built-in payer rules and medical necessity logic
- Ready-to-use understanding of CPT, ICD-10, and clinical documentation
- Real-world automation accuracy from day one
Custom-Built Solutions
- Requires building or licensing your own AI models
- Needs massive datasets that most organizations don’t have
- Must maintain and retrain models continuously
- Hard to match healthcare-specific nuance
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — because healthcare AI requires enormous data and training infrastructure.
4. Maintenance, Updates & Payer Rule Changes
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Continuous upgrades included
- Automatic payer rule updates
- Bug fixes handled by vendor
- No burden on IT or engineering
- New features rolled out monthly or quarterly
Custom-Built Solutions
- You own every update
- Every payer rule change requires engineering work
- Must maintain QA, testing, and security
- Heavy workload for internal IT
- Slower to adapt to industry changes
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — dramatically reduces operational burden.
5. Scalability Across Multiple Sites or EHRs
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Prebuilt architecture for multi-site rollouts
- Handles multiple EHRs, PMs, and specialties
- Enterprise-level identity & permissioning
- Designed for MSOs, rollups, and hospital networks
Custom-Built Solutions
- Hard to maintain across multiple locations
- Must rebuild integrations for each EHR environment
- Scaling requires exponential engineering cost
- Difficult to standardize workflows across sites
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — built for complex enterprise scaling.
6. Risk & Reliability
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Proven performance across real clinical environments
- SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA compliance, security audits
- Backed by dedicated support and uptime guarantees
- Mature workflow reliability
Custom-Built Solutions
- High project risk (60–80% of custom healthcare IT builds fail or stall)
- Unpredictable downtime
- Security obligations rest entirely with the organization
- Inconsistent performance across departments
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — lower risk and higher reliability.
7. Functional Breadth
Off-the-Shelf Automation
Typically includes automation for:
- Prior authorizations
- Referrals
- Eligibility
- Fax/document ingestion
- Chart prep
- Documentation
- Coding support
- Billing readiness
- Scheduling workflows
- Multi-site operational dashboards
Custom-Built Solutions
- Must choose between building depth or breadth
- Limited by engineering bandwidth
- Often only one or two workflows get automated
- Hard to cover the entire back office
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — broader, deeper functionality out of the box.
8. Internal Staffing Requirements
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Minimal IT involvement
- No engineers required
- No internal data science team needed
- Staff training and support provided
Custom-Built Solutions
Requires:
- Engineers
- Data scientists
- QA testers
- Project managers
- Integration specialists
- Analysts
- Ongoing support staff
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — avoids building an internal software company.
9. Long-Term Sustainability
Off-the-Shelf Automation
- Develops continuously
- Gains intelligence across all customers
- Benefits from economies of scale
- Never becomes outdated
Custom-Built Solutions
- Risk becoming stale
- Needs constant investment
- Harder to modernize over time
- May be abandoned if leadership or strategy shifts
Who wins?
Off-the-shelf — future-proof and continuously optimized.
So Which Should Healthcare Organizations Choose?
For nearly every MSO, specialty group, or hospital system, off-the-shelf automation delivers better speed, lower cost, stronger accuracy, and higher ROI.
Custom-built solutions only make sense when:
- You have unlimited budget
- You have a large engineering and AI team
- You only need very narrow automation functionality
- You’re willing to maintain a software product long-term
This applies to fewer than 1% of healthcare organizations.
Why Honey Health Outperforms Both Options
Honey Health combines the best of both worlds:
Off-the-shelf benefits:
✔ Fast deployment
✔ Proven healthcare AI
✔ Prebuilt workflows
✔ Multi-EHR support
✔ Enterprise security
✔ Low cost of ownership
Custom-level flexibility:
✔ Workflow customization
✔ Specialty-specific logic
✔ Multi-site standardization
✔ Tailored routing and rules
✔ Scalable architecture
