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Payer-Side

Prior Auth Backlog

The volume of pending, unprocessed authorization requests a payer or provider is working through, often cited as a symptom of manual/legacy systems.

What it means

Backlogs tend to grow disproportionately during periods of high request volume or staffing shortages, since manual review doesn't scale the way automated review does. A shrinking backlog is one of the more visible, easily understood signs that automation is working.