How Headstart Health fills ABA insurance authorization forms in 2 minutes instead of 20–30
Headstart Health provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for autism spectrum disorder across several US states. Its therapy depends on timely insurance authorizations, and each of its more than 30 contracted payers has its own authorization PDF. With Instafill.ai filling those forms from the client's documents, a form that took 20–30 minutes by hand now takes about 2 minutes, review included.
At a glance
- Company Headstart Health
- Industry ABA therapy for autism spectrum disorder
- Location United States, multiple states
- Forms Initial and treatment authorization forms for 30+ payers
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Results
~2 min per form, down from 20–30 minutes
99%+ field accuracy after fine-tuning
100+ payers planned, without adding staff - Catalog forms Outpatient Behavioral Health ABA Treatment Request, Treatment Plan Request Form for Autism Spectrum Disorders, IHCP Prior Authorization Request Form, ABA Clinical Service Request Form, IHCP MCE Provider Enrollment Form
- Form categories ABA authorization forms, ABA forms, Prior authorization forms
The challenge
Two kinds of authorization form go out several times a day. An initial authorization (IA) is needed before therapy starts with a new client and asks for patient demographics, the diagnosis, the proposed treatment schedule and the provider's credentials. A treatment authorization (TA) is more complex: it pulls detail from a 30–40 page treatment plan, including CPT codes, service units, weekly schedules, behavioral goals, intervention targets, parent training and the treatment setting (home, clinic or telehealth).
Every payer has its own IA and TA forms, and most arrived as flat PDFs that could not be typed into. The data came from several places at once: treatment plans, insurance cards, diagnostic reports and provider rosters. The team processed up to 100 forms a month at 20–30 minutes each, and a single error meant the insurer could take 2–3 weeks to ask for a resubmission, delaying care and cash flow. Growing from 30 payers to the more than 100 Headstart Health planned would have meant more staff.
The solution
Headstart Health worked with Instafill.ai on five forms: the Outpatient Behavioral Health ABA Treatment Precertification Request, the Treatment Plan Request Form for Autism Spectrum Disorders, the IHCP Prior Authorization Request Form, the ABA Clinical Service Request Form and the IHCP MCE Practitioner Enrollment Form. Each flat form was turned into a fillable one with flat-to-fillable conversion, a one-time job of a few hours per form.
A treatment authorization draws on 3 to 5 source documents at once. They are uploaded together, and filling from several documents maps what each one holds to the right fields.
The treatment tables were the hardest part: units converted to hours, billing CPT codes matched to service descriptions, behavioral goals tied to therapy schedules. Through rounds of testing on Headstart Health's forms, the Instafill.ai team improved its table and list filling until those sections came out accurately and consistently, and after fine-tuning on each form, field accuracy is above 99%.
Company name, tax ID, NPI and service addresses are the same on every form, so they are saved into the form as fixed values and appear on every fill without anyone typing them.
The results
| Before | With Instafill.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Time per form | 20–30 minutes | About 2 minutes, review included |
| Flat payer PDFs | Typed by hand | Converted once, then filled |
| Company name, tax ID, NPI | Typed on every form | Saved once in the form |
| Field accuracy | Errors meant 2–3 week resubmissions | 99%+ after fine-tuning |
| Payers | 30+, limited by staff | Ready for 100+ without more staff |
The team still reviews each form before it goes to the payer, but manual data entry is down by 90%. The coordinator now spends their time on relationships with the insurers rather than on typing, and Headstart Health can take on more volume and more payers without hiring administrative staff.
"The cost of being wrong is very high. If we submit something wrong, insurance can take two or three weeks to tell us to resubmit. Automating the first pass and spending two minutes to review is a big win."
— Ali Pardesi, Co-Founder, Headstart Health
