Keep every prior authorization visible until the payer answers

The situation

Prior auths go out through a payer portal, a fax or a phone call, and then the tracking happens in someone's head. That works until that person is out sick or juggling four other things, and a medication authorization quietly expires while the patient calls twice asking why the pharmacy still shows a rejection.

Once a request leaves your hands, nothing brings it back into view. The payer might answer in a day or in two weeks. The gap between submitted and resolved is where prior auths get lost, not because staff are careless, but because nothing surfaces a request that has gone quiet.

Steps

1. Log it the moment you submit it Use the patient-page Task button and confirm Patient. In Description, write what is being authorized, the payer and the date submitted. Save that pattern as a task template in Task Settings, under Templates, with a clinic Tag such as Prior auth, and keep it that short: a log that takes longer than the submission gets skipped.
2. Give it one owner In Assigned to, choose one teammate who owns the request until it resolves, not whoever has time. If they will be out, reassign it with a handoff comment so the next person knows where it stands.
3. Set the follow-up date at submission Set Due on just before the payer's typical turnaround: if they usually answer in five business days, check on day four. Set the status to Waiting while the payer has it, and when a check finds it still pending, add a comment and a new Due on.
4. Keep every open request on one list Filter Tasks by the Prior auth Tag with Status set to To do, and select Save filter. When a patient calls, whoever answers can ask Sidekick for the open Tasks for this patient across the clinic.
5. Act on a denial or expiration the same day Record the payer's answer in Comments. A denial means a resubmission or a peer-to-peer call and an expiration means starting over, so select Mark as urgent and set Due on to today. When it is approved, note the approval's end date and create a follow-up Task due before it lapses, then mark this one Done. An approval that expires unnoticed means starting over.

The outcome

Every prior auth in flight has one owner, a follow-up date set the day it went in, and a place on a list the whole team can see. Nothing depends on the person who submitted it being at their desk, so the request stays visible for every day it sits with the payer, and a patient is not left at the pharmacy counter because it went quiet.