Free Tool

Prior Authorization Delay Cost Calculator

Missing and delayed prior auths drive 23–30% of preventable denials — and burn staff hours no one tracks. Put a number on your PA bottleneck.

Your PA Workload

Prior authorizations processed per month

Average staff time per PA (minutes)

AMA surveys: physicians and staff spend ~12 hours/week per physician on PAs

Loaded staff hourly cost ($)

Salary + benefits + payroll taxes, per hour

Average revenue per authorized service ($)

Average approval delay beyond same-day (days)

Time from request to approval; drives reschedules and patient drop-off

Services lost to PA delays (% of PAs)

Patients who never reschedule, abandon treatment, or go elsewhere

Claims denied for missing/expired auth (% of PAs)

total annual cost of PA friction

Staff hours on PAs per year0

Annual staff labor cost$0

Revenue lost to abandoned services$0

Revenue lost to auth denials$0

Revenue delayed in the PA pipeline$0

Assumes ~50% of auth-denied claims are ultimately unrecoverable. Sources: AMA PA physician surveys, industry denial analyses — see methodology.