Prior Authorization in Alabama
Soft Home Global provides authorizations submitted ahead of the date of service and chased to a decision for Alabama practices and billing companies at $1,800 per seat per month. Full time, worked during Alabama business hours, inside your own system.
What is specific to Alabama
Alabama has not expanded Medicaid and its programme stays largely fee-for-service, with care coordination through the Alabama Coordinated Health Network rather than full-risk managed care plans.
Alabama’s Medicaid programme is Alabama Medicaid. Practices with a meaningful Alabama Medicaid mix usually need it worked as its own queue rather than mixed into commercial follow-up, because the submission path, the timely filing window and the appeal route are all different.
What a prior authorization seat does in Alabama
Submitted before the date of service and chased through the payer's decision window.
An authorisation found after the visit is a write-off, not a denial to appeal. In Alabama the work is submitting ahead of scheduling and chasing the decision, against a payment clock that starts only once a clean claim lands.
- Authorizations submitted ahead of scheduling, not after
- Status chased rather than waited on
- Peer-to-peer reviews scheduled when required
- Clinical documentation gathered before submission
- Expiring authorizations flagged before they lapse
- Worked during Alabama business hours, not queued overnight
For the statute behind all of this — Alabama’s prompt-pay deadline, its Medicaid filing limit, and the wrinkle that catches people out here — see the Alabama billing page.
Working Alabama hours
Alabama runs on Central time, 11 hours behind our floor in Rawalpindi. To be at a desk for your nine to five, the shift here runs 8pm to 4am, and 7pm to 3am once the clocks go forward. Pakistan does not observe daylight saving, so the shift moves on this side rather than yours.
That is the part that decides whether follow-up happens at all: a payer’s phone lines are open on Alabama hours and nobody else’s.
What it costs in Alabama
$1,800
Per seat, per month, in US dollars — $21,600 a year for one full-time person, forty hours a week, on Alabama hours. No annual contract, no percentage of collections, no setup fee and no software to buy. Seat prices across all roles in Alabama run $1,400 to $2,350; the full list is published.
That is the entire invoice. Run your own figures against a percentage vendor or a hire rather than take ours.
Getting started in Alabama
About a week from a signed agreement to a person working your queue, and that week of training on your workflow is not billed on top. The work happens in your own system under a login you issue, so there is nothing to migrate and nothing to install. The week, step by step, and what is signed before anyone has access.
Questions
Do you work with Alabama practices?
Yes. Alabama accounts are worked during Alabama office hours rather than queued overnight, because a payer's phone lines are open then and at no other time.
What is different about Alabama?
Alabama has not expanded Medicaid and its programme stays largely fee-for-service, with care coordination through the Alabama Coordinated Health Network rather than full-risk managed care plans.
How long do we have to file a Alabama Medicaid claim?
1 year from the date of service (clean claim), measured from the date of service. Within 120 days of a third-party disposition notice, or 1 year of a retroactive award notice, where those apply. Past that date a claim is not late, it is unpayable, and no appeal recovers it. Source: Ala. Admin. Code r. 560-X-1-.17 — Providers' Claims.
When does a Alabama payer have to pay a clean claim?
30 calendar days for a clean electronic claim; 45 calendar days for a clean written claim (Ala. Code 27-1-17(a)). If the payer requests additional information, the claim must be adjudicated within 21 calendar days of receiving it. A claim sitting past that is not merely late, it is late against a statute, and the follow-up call changes from "when might this be paid" to "this passed your statutory window on a specific date".
How much does prior authorization cost in Alabama?
$1,800 per seat per month — $21,600 a year for a full-time person, forty hours a week. Every seat price is published at softhomeglobal.com/pricing.
What hours will somebody actually be working our Alabama queue?
Alabama is on Central time, 11 hours behind Rawalpindi. The shift here runs 8pm to 4am so your seat is at a desk for your full working day, shifting to 7pm to 3am while daylight saving is in force — Pakistan does not observe it, so the change happens on our side.
Do you handle Alabama Medicaid as well as commercial payers?
Yes, and as its own queue rather than mixed into commercial follow-up. Alabama Medicaid has its own submission path, its own filing window and its own appeal route, and working it in the same worklist as commercial claims is how the deadlines get missed.
Is this a percentage of what you collect?
No — a flat monthly rate per seat, published at softhomeglobal.com/pricing. A percentage bills you most in your best month and points the vendor at the easy accounts.
What is the minimum commitment, and how quickly can somebody start?
One seat for one month, cancellable on thirty days notice, and about a week from a signed agreement to a person working your queue. The week of training is not billed. The steps are at softhomeglobal.com/how-it-works.
Is our patient data safe offshore?
A Business Associate Agreement is signed before anyone has access, and the work happens in your own system under a login you issue, so every action is attributable to a person in your audit trail. The controls are listed at softhomeglobal.com/security.
Next step
One seat on your Alabama work
Twenty minutes on a call is enough to tell whether this fits. If it does not, I will say so.
Or write to ops@softhomeglobal.com