The newsletter
First Pass
A first-pass claim gets paid without a fight. That is the standard this newsletter holds vendors to. One brief a week on the companies getting healthcare paid: funding rounds that matter, product launches worth a demo, category shifts before they show up in the analyst decks. Written for operators and buyers, readable in five minutes.
Sample issue · what a First Pass looks like
Prior auth is quietly becoming a payer product
The shift. Three years ago prior auth software sold to providers, promising fewer faxes. The money has moved to the payer side: platforms that process auths for health plans and auto-approve the requests that never needed review in the first place. Watch how CMS interoperability deadlines accelerate this through 2027.
Who moved this week. A payer-side platform expanded into cardiology bundles, a voice AI company crossed a million payer calls, and two point solutions in benefit verification quietly merged. Details and our read on each inside.
For buyers. If you run a specialty group, the practical question this quarter is whether your auth vendor can show touchless approval rates by payer, not averages. Averages hide the two plans that generate most of your write-offs.
First Pass ships Thursday mornings. Free.
Curated
We cover both sides of the claim and cover them properly. No fintech-adjacent filler.
Short
Five minutes. If a week is slow, the issue is shorter, not padded.