— Prior Authorization Management & RCM Support

Prior Authorization That Never Delays Patient Care

Prior authorization is the single greatest administrative burden in healthcare — consuming physician time, delaying treatments, and generating revenue-killing denials. Horizon Revenue Group's dedicated authorization team manages every request, renewal, appeal, and peer-to-peer review so your clinical staff can focus entirely on patient care.

HIPAA Compliant

600+ Payer Relationships

All Specialties Covered

<4hr Average Turnaround

— What Is Prior Authorization Management

The Biggest Administrative Burden in Healthcare — Finally Off Your Plate

Prior authorization requires providers to obtain payer approval before delivering specific procedures, medications, imaging studies, and therapies. Without a dedicated authorization infrastructure, your clinical staff spends hours on hold, navigating payer portals, compiling medical records, and writing letters of medical necessity — time that should be spent on patients, not paperwork.

Horizon Revenue Group operates a dedicated prior authorization team with deep payer intelligence across 600+ commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid plans. We know each payer's clinical criteria, submission portals, turnaround expectations, and escalation pathways — and we manage every authorization from initial request through approval, renewal, and appeal so nothing falls through the cracks.

● Initial Auth Requests

● Auth Renewals & Extensions

● Peer-to-Peer Reviews

● Expedited & Urgent Auths

— The Prior Authorization Challenge

Why Prior Auth Failures Cost Practices Millions Annually

Practices managing prior authorizations in-house with clinical staff spend an average of 14 hours per physician per week on auth-related tasks — time that directly translates to lost patient visits, delayed treatments, and preventable revenue loss.

Authorization Denials Triggering Claim Denials

When a prior authorization is denied, rejected, or not obtained at all, every subsequent claim for that service is automatically denied — often without any alert to your billing team until the EOB arrives weeks later.

Clinical Staff Buried in Administrative Work

AMA studies report physicians spend nearly 3 hours daily on prior auth alone. Nurses and medical assistants spend even more — pulling them away from direct patient care and driving staff burnout in already stretched practices.

Expired Authorizations & Retroactive Denials

Authorizations have expiration dates. Services rendered after an auth expires — or before renewal is confirmed — generate retroactive denials that are significantly harder to appeal and often result in full write-offs.

Payer-Specific Rule Complexity & Constant Change

Each payer maintains different clinical criteria, documentation requirements, submission portals, and turnaround timelines — and updates them frequently. Keeping up without a dedicated team leads to systematic submission errors and avoidable denials.

— Prior Authorization Services

Complete Authorization Coverage — Every Payer. Every Specialty.

A fully managed prior authorization program designed to eliminate delays, maximize approval rates, and free your clinical team from the administrative burden that is holding your practice back.

Initial Authorization Submission

Complete intake, medical record compilation, letter of medical necessity drafting, and electronic or phone-based submission to the payer — with same-day processing for standard requests and immediate escalation pathways for urgent or time-sensitive cases.

Urgent & Expedited Authorization

Dedicated expedited authorization protocols for urgent surgical cases, emergency admissions, time-sensitive oncology treatments, and same-day procedures — including direct escalation to payer medical directors and 24/7 on-call authorization support for your facility.

Specialty Drug & Infusion Authorization

Expert authorization management for high-cost specialty pharmaceuticals, biologics, infusion therapies, and chemotherapy regimens — including step therapy compliance, clinical exception documentation, manufacturer hub coordination, and prior auth through specialty pharmacy networks.

Auth Denial Appeals & Peer-to-Peer Reviews

Systematic appeal of every denied authorization — including written clinical appeals with evidence-based literature, coordination of physician peer-to-peer reviews with payer medical directors, and external independent review organization (IRO) submissions when required by state law.

Authorization Renewals & Extensions

Proactive monitoring of every active authorization's expiration date — with renewal submissions initiated 30 days in advance, extension requests when clinical timelines shift, and real-time alerts to your scheduling team so services are never rendered against an expired auth.

Real-Time Authorization Status Tracking

A centralized authorization tracking system gives your scheduling, clinical, and billing teams instant visibility into every pending, approved, denied, and expiring authorization — eliminating the phone-tag chaos of manual status checking and ensuring your OR and appointment schedule is always auth-ready.

Medical Necessity Documentation

Clinician-reviewed letters of medical necessity tailored to each payer's specific clinical criteria and evidence-based coverage policies — written to maximize first-pass approval rates by addressing every required element before the payer ever asks for additional information.

Retro-Authorization & Retroactive Appeals

When services are rendered without authorization due to emergency circumstances or payer processing failures, Horizon pursues retroactive authorization requests and payer appeals — recovering reimbursement for services that most practices simply write off as uncollectible.

Authorization Analytics & Denial Reporting

Detailed reporting on authorization approval rates by payer and procedure, denial root-cause analysis, average turnaround benchmarking, and revenue-at-risk tracking — giving your leadership team the intelligence to negotiate contracts and improve payer relationships proactively.

— Key Benefits

What Horizon Authorization Management Delivers

Practices that outsource prior authorization to Horizon see dramatically higher approval rates, faster turnarounds, and zero staff time spent on hold with insurance companies — from the very first week.

First-Pass Authorization Approval Rate
0 %
Average Auth Turnaround Time
0 hr
Denied Auth Appeal Win Rate
0 %
Weekly Physician Time Recovered
0 hr

No More Authorization-Related Claim Denials

Every billable service is confirmed auth-approved before it's rendered. Our proactive tracking system eliminates the scenario where your billing team discovers an auth error only when the claim comes back denied weeks later.

Your Clinical Team Focused on Patients — Not Paperwork

When Horizon manages your authorization workflow, physicians, nurses, and medical assistants are completely freed from payer phone queues, portal logins, and documentation requests — returning hours of patient-care capacity every single day.

Faster Treatment Delivery for Your Patients

Sub-4-hour average turnaround means treatments, procedures, and referrals move forward without delay — improving patient outcomes, satisfaction scores, and your practice's reputation for getting things done.

Higher Appeal Win Rates When Denials Happen

Our 85% appeal win rate on denied authorizations means your practice recovers revenue that in-house teams typically abandon. We pursue every denial with payer-specific clinical evidence and physician advocate coordination.

— Our Authorization Management Process

A Proven Workflow That Gets Approvals — Fast

Our 5-step prior authorization workflow is built for speed, accuracy, and zero gaps — handling every request from the moment an order is placed through confirmed approval and renewal.

1

Order Receipt & Triage

Auth requests received from your EHR, fax, or portal are triaged by urgency within 30 minutes — with urgent cases escalated immediately and standard requests queued for same-day submission.

2

Payer Rule Review & Doc Compile

Our team verifies payer-specific clinical criteria, retrieves required clinical records, and drafts a payer-tailored letter of medical necessity — built to meet each payer's exact documentation standards.

3

Submission & Confirmation

Authorization submitted via the most efficient channel — electronic portal, fax, or phone — with immediate confirmation number captured and logged against the patient's authorization record.

4

Follow-Up & Status Tracking

Active follow-up with the payer until a decision is received. All stakeholders are notified of approvals immediately — and denials trigger an automatic appeal workflow within 24 hours.

5

Renewal Monitoring & Reporting

Approved auths are entered into our renewal tracking system. Renewals initiated 30 days before expiration. Monthly reporting on approval rates, turnaround, and denial trends delivered to your team.

— Why Choose Horizon for Prior Authorization

Authorization Intelligence That In-House Teams Can Never Replicate

Your clinical staff knows medicine. Our authorization team knows payers. That combination — working together — is how you achieve 96% approval rates and <4-hour turnarounds across 600+ plans.

600+ Payer-Specific Playbooks

We maintain detailed, continuously updated workflow guides for every major payer — covering clinical criteria, required documentation, submission portals, turnaround SLAs, and escalation contacts — so no request is ever submitted blindly.

Dedicated Clinical Appeals Writers

Our appeals team includes former utilization management nurses and clinical documentation specialists who write payer-specific appeals grounded in peer-reviewed evidence — achieving an 85% reversal rate on denied authorizations.

EHR-Integrated Authorization Workflow

Horizon integrates directly with Epic, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and other leading EHR systems — receiving authorization orders automatically, updating approval status in real time, and triggering billing workflow upon auth confirmation.

Proactive Policy Change Monitoring

Payer medical policies change constantly. Our compliance team monitors every major payer's utilization management policy updates and immediately adjusts your submission workflows — so you're never caught submitting a request that was approved last month but denied this month.

What types of services require prior authorization?
Prior authorization requirements vary by payer and plan, but commonly required services include elective surgical procedures, advanced diagnostic imaging (MRI, CT, PET scans), specialty medications and biologics, infusion therapies, inpatient admissions, skilled nursing facility placement, durable medical equipment, home health services, physical and occupational therapy, behavioral health treatments, and specialist referrals. Horizon manages prior authorization for all of these categories across every major payer.
How quickly can you obtain an authorization?
Our average turnaround for standard prior authorization requests is under 4 hours from order receipt to confirmation number. For urgent and emergent cases, we have a dedicated expedited protocol that escalates directly to payer medical directors — with most urgent authorizations confirmed within 1–2 hours. Same-day surgical authorizations are a core competency of our team, and we maintain 24/7 on-call support for after-hours urgent cases.
What happens when an authorization is denied?
Every denied authorization automatically triggers our appeal workflow within 24 hours. Our clinical appeals writers review the denial reason, identify the applicable medical policy criteria, and draft a targeted appeal with supporting peer-reviewed clinical evidence. When appropriate, we coordinate a physician peer-to-peer review with the payer's medical director — which we manage from scheduling through completion. Our 85% appeal win rate means the majority of initially denied authorizations are ultimately approved and services are delivered.
Can you manage authorizations for multiple specialties and locations?
Yes. Horizon manages prior authorization across all medical and surgical specialties — including orthopedics, cardiology, oncology, behavioral health, ABA therapy, neurology, gastroenterology, radiology, and more. We support single-physician practices, large group practices, hospital systems, and multi-site organizations across multiple states — with centralized tracking and payer intelligence that scales with your organization's complexity.
How do you integrate with our existing EHR and scheduling system?
Horizon integrates with all major EHR and practice management systems — including Epic, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, and Cerner. Our implementation team configures a bidirectional workflow that receives authorization orders directly from your EHR, tracks status in our authorization management system, and updates approval or denial status back into your patient record and scheduling workflow — eliminating manual data re-entry and status phone calls entirely.

— FAQs

Prior Authorization Questions — Answered

Clear, data-backed answers to the financial questions your CFO cares about most.

— Start Today

Ready to Eliminate Authorization Delays & Denials?

Get a free prior authorization workflow audit and find out exactly how many hours your practice is losing — and how much revenue is at risk from auth gaps and denials.