Prior-auth deadlines are a revenue tool if you track them

Since January 1, CMS-0057-F has required Medicare Advantage and Medicaid/CHIP plans to decide standard requests within seven calendar days and urgent ones within 72 hours, with a specific reason for denials. The lever is documentation: a provable submission timestamp for every request and a per-payer definition of late that accounts for extensions. Match those auth records against claims data and a late response becomes a dated pattern you can press, not a complaint about being slow (WCH Service Bureau: https://insights.wchsb.com/2026/09/16/the-prior-authorization-deadline-is-now-a-revenue-tool-if-you-track-it/).