How much does an outsourced prior authorization specialist cost?
Prior authorizations sent and chased, off your clinical team's desk.
A dedicated, full-time prior authorization specialist from Neon Link costs $2,995 a month, month to month, or $2,895 a month on the 6-month plan, with no setup fee and no charge per authorization. Working remotely from the Philippines or India on your US business hours, they verify eligibility and benefits before the visit, submit authorizations through payer portals with the clinical notes the payer's criteria call for, and track each one to approval, peer to peer review or appeal. It fits practices, groups and billing companies whose authorizations already take a big part of someone's week, while medical necessity calls and peer to peer conversations stay with your providers.
Rates come from our live rate card. Page updated .
See 3 candidate profiles for your role
Tell us the role. Within 48 hours our team emails you 3 anonymized profiles from people who applied for this kind of work with us: their experience, their region and the software they use.
What your Linker handles
- Verify eligibility and benefits before the visit, and confirm coverage, deductibles, copays and whether the service needs an authorization at all
- Submit prior authorizations through payer portals with the clinical notes and documentation the payer's criteria call for
- Track every open authorization to approval, denial, peer to peer review or appeal, and chase the payer when a request sits
- Tell your scheduler and provider early when an authorization is denied or still pending close to the date of service, so the visit can be moved or the provider can step in
- Request peer to peer reviews for your provider with the case details already gathered, and prepare appeal packets from the provider's documentation
- Work the rules that differ between commercial plans, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and workers comp on what needs an authorization and how to appeal
- Log every payer call and portal check with a reference number, a name, a date and the next step, so anyone on your team can pick up the case
- Send the practice manager a short weekly note on authorizations approved, pending and denied, and what is needed from the providers
We screen for the systems you run, such as Tebra (Kareo), AdvancedMD, eClinicalWorks, athenahealth, DrChrono, NextGen or Epic, and the payer portals and clearinghouses your requests go through, such as Availity, Office Ally or Waystar. If a finalist has not used yours, you'll know before they start.
How the work is measured
What your Linker is measured on. The targets are set with you in the first week, from your volumes and your hours, and written into your statement of work.
- How fast authorization requests go out after the order or referral comes in; the payer still decides how fast an approval comes back
- Required authorizations on file before the date of service, measured against the timelines you set
- Every open authorization carrying a current status and a next step
- Every payer call logged with a reference number, a name and a date
What a team costs
| Team | Month to month | 6-month plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Linker | $2,995 | $2,895 |
| 2 Linkers | $5,990 | $5,790 |
| 3 Linkers | $8,985 | $8,685 |
| 4 Linkers | $11,980 | $11,580 |
| 5 Linkers | $14,975 | $14,475 |
| 6 Linkers | $17,970 | $17,370 |
Per month. 40 hours a week per Linker. No setup fee. Prices from our live rate card.
How we vet your Linker
Our recruiting team in the Philippines runs a strict screening and review of every applicant, using a process built by our founder, Dan Betthauser, from twenty years running outsourced operations across the Philippines, Costa Rica and the United States. Every Linker goes through:
- A screen of the application against your role: the work, the software and the experience you need
- A recorded spoken English sample, reviewed by our team
- A practical skills test for your work, scored in our own system
- A live video interview with our recruiting team
- An ID check and a background check: NBI clearance in the Philippines, police clearance in India and Pakistan
- A workspace check before day one: a quiet, private room, wired internet, a backup connection and a plan for power outages
- A signed confidentiality agreement before they see any of your data
- Your own interview with the finalist: nobody starts until you say yes
How it starts
- Step 1Tell us the work: a 15 or 30 minute call with our team, or the sixty second scope on the homepage.
- Step 2Get a written quote at the published rate, held for 30 days.
- Step 3We recruit and screen for your work and your software, and you interview the finalist before they start.
- Step 4Your Linker works your queue on your hours. A Neon Link manager runs the account and answers when you need them.
- Step 5If the fit is wrong in the first 60 days, we swap them at no cost.
A good fit, and not a fit
- Practices where nurses, medical assistants or front desk staff spend hours a week on hold and in payer portals instead of with patients
- Specialty groups, such as orthopedics, oncology, imaging or behavioral health, where a large share of scheduled services need an authorization
- Billing companies that want to add authorization work for their provider clients without hiring for it in the US
- Medical necessity decisions, peer to peer conversations with the payer's physician, or anything clinical. Your Linker sets those up and gathers the case; your provider makes the call
- A practice that sends only a few authorizations a week. Your own staff, or a service that charges per authorization, costs less than a full-time person
- On-site work, such as checking patients in or collecting copays at the counter
- Practices whose state Medicaid program or payer contracts do not allow patient data to be handled offshore. Check yours before you start
Open roles behind this page
We recruit for this work now. These are the live postings we hire your Linker from:
See 3 candidate profiles for your role
Tell us the role. Within 48 hours our team emails you 3 anonymized profiles from people who applied for this kind of work with us: their experience, their region and the software they use.
Questions owners ask
How much does it cost to outsource prior authorizations?
$2,995 a month for one dedicated, full-time person (40 hours a week), month to month, or $2,895 a month on the 6-month plan. There is no setup fee, and pay, equipment and management are inside that one number. For comparison, a US medical records specialist costs about $5,990 a month fully loaded, using the BLS median wage plus employer costs.
How much time does prior authorization take a practice?
A lot. In the AMA's 2025 prior authorization survey of 1,000 practicing physicians, practices reported completing 40 prior authorizations per physician each week, and physicians and their staff reported spending 13 hours a week on them. The same survey found 40% of physicians have staff who work exclusively on prior authorizations, which is the job one dedicated Linker does.
Is one dedicated person cheaper than paying per authorization?
At low volume, no. When you send only a few authorizations a week, a service that charges per request, or the staff you already have, costs less. Once authorizations take a big part of someone's week, one flat monthly rate covers the requests, status calls and appeal packets they work in a full-time week. For scale, the 2024 CAQH Index put a manual prior authorization by phone, fax or email at 24 minutes of provider staff time and $12.88 in labor, and one through a payer portal at 16 minutes.
Who talks to the payer's doctor in a peer to peer review?
Your provider. Your Linker requests the peer to peer, gathers the case details, the clinical notes and the payer's criteria, and gets it on your provider's calendar, then tracks the outcome and prepares the appeal if the request is still denied. Medical necessity arguments and clinical judgment stay with your provider.
How is patient information handled?
HIPAA requires a business associate agreement before an outside party handles patient information, so one is signed before your Linker sees any. Your Linker signs a confidentiality agreement, passes a background check, and works from a private space where patient information cannot be seen or overheard. We screen for people who understand the HIPAA minimum necessary rule and keep patient records off personal devices, and they work inside your systems with the access you give them. Some state Medicaid programs and payer contracts limit offshore access to patient data, so check yours before you start.
How is this different from hiring a virtual assistant?
You get one dedicated person who handles your work on your hours, inside your software, and a Neon Link manager runs the account: pay, equipment, replacement if it comes to that, and a phone that gets answered. You never run offshore payroll or manage a freelancer alone. It is not a ticket queue or a 24/7 answering line.
How fast can someone start?
We start recruiting when you say go. You interview the finalist before anyone starts, and the start date is set with you once you pick the person. We would rather take the time to find the right fit than hand you whoever is free.
What if the person is not the right fit?
If the fit is wrong in the first 60 days, we swap them at no cost. After that, if they leave, we recruit the replacement at no charge and manage the handover. Training on your process runs at the normal monthly rate.
Do we have to sign a long contract?
No. Month to month is available on every plan. The 6-month plan trades a longer commitment for a lower monthly rate. A written quote at the published rate is held for 30 days.
Sources: AMA 2025 prior authorization physician survey (checked Oct 27, 2026); 2024 CAQH Index (checked Oct 27, 2026).
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1 US medical records specialist, fully loaded: ~$5,990/mo How we calculate this
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