How do you prioritize denials in an AR work queue?

I prioritize denials by filing deadline, dollar value, likelihood of recovery, payer response time, denial age, recurring root cause, and any issue that could affect multiple claims.

A productive denial queue should not be worked only from oldest to newest or highest balance to lowest.

I would consider:

• Appeal or reconsideration deadline
• Claim balance
• Days in AR
• Probability of overturn
• Payer turnaround time
• Volume of similar denials
• Whether resolving one root cause can release many claims

Deadline risk usually comes first because a high-value claim can become unrecoverable if the appeal window expires.

• Protect filing deadlines first.
• Consider balance and recoverability.
• Prioritize systemic issues affecting many claims.
• Use denial age and payer turnaround strategically.

A $500 claim has three days left to appeal, while a $5,000 claim has 45 days remaining. The smaller claim may require immediate action first because its recovery window is about to close.

• Working only by dollar value.
• Ignoring appeal deadlines.
• Failing to identify high-volume root causes.

Explain your prioritization logic with a deadline example.