How to use this tool: Pull your denial summary report from your clearinghouse or practice management system. For each denial category, enter the total denied dollars for the month and the number of denied claims (optional but improves the analysis). Select whether the denials are concentrated at one payer or spread across multiple — this changes the root cause and the fix.
Where to find this data: In most clearinghouse portals (Availity, Change Healthcare, Office Ally, etc.), look for a "Denial Summary by Reason Code" or "Denial Analysis" report. Group the reason codes into the categories below. Your practice management system may also have a denial dashboard — look for a report that shows denied dollar amounts by denial reason category for the current month.
All claims sent to payers this month
Total claims returned as denied
Sum of all denied charges this month
Denied Dollars by Category — Enter what you know, skip what you don't
Eligibility / Coverage
Patient not covered, inactive insurance, wrong plan billed, coverage terminated
Prior Authorization
Missing authorization, expired auth, wrong service authorized, auth not obtained
Coding Errors
Wrong CPT code, missing or incorrect modifier, unbundling, diagnosis code mismatch
Medical Necessity / Documentation
Service not medically necessary, insufficient documentation, doesn't meet coverage criteria
Timely Filing
Claim submitted after payer's filing deadline — these denials are generally unrecoverable
Duplicate / Coordination of Benefits
Duplicate claim submission, COB sequencing errors, primary/secondary payer issues

Your Denial Priority Action Plan

Ranked by dollars at risk. Highest-impact problems first.