The reason your healthcare premiums are skyrocketing? AI.

Rising healthcare costs are hammering Americans, and now artificial intelligence is raising the price tag even more.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), a consortium of insurers, released a new report showing that hospitals' use of AI is the biggest factor behind nearly $1 billion in added healthcare spending for the Blue Cross Blue Shield companies over two years.

The upshot of those additional payments made to hospitals: higher insurance premiums for you and me.

And the insurers contend that patients did not receive any extra treatments for the extra billings.

"Our research showed that there was a change in the way patients were coded, but no evidence of a corresponding change in the care delivered," David Merritt, senior vice president of external affairs at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, told Yahoo Finance.

The analysis of claims data between 2023 and 2025 found that "as more hospitals apply AI coding tools, an increasing number of patients are coded as medically complex."

Blue Cross Blue ​Shield Association's network of independent health insurance companies covers 1 in 3 Americans.

Using AI tools, hospitals are vacuuming up more information about their patients and submitting fatter claims, according to the BCBSA findings.

What that means is that patients often fall into a higher-cost billing category after a secondary diagnosis, flagged by AI, in addition to the condition that brought them in originally.

The secondary diagnoses for conditions like low sodium or anemia move the claim into a higher-paying category, according to the analysis.

AI-assisted billing software scans records and lab data for anything that can be coded, according to the research. With a majority of hospitals now tapping AI coding tools to document patient appointments and dissect lab tests and physicians' notes, insurers are responding by upping premiums.

"When the same care costs more, it flows through the system, driving up premiums and out-of-pocket costs for families who are already struggling with higher prices," Merritt said.

Soaring healthcare premiums are a serious concern for Americans.

The median proposed premium increase for 2027 is 15%, according to an analysis from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. That's likely to be the second consecutive year of double-digit premium hikes. This year, the median rate increase was 20%.