Authsnap, an AI-powered healthcare technology company focused on insurance denial management, has raised $1.1 million in grants and funding to help hospitals recover denied claims. The company, co-founded by registered nurse Gretchen Heinen and Dr. Wael Khouli, combines AI-generated appeals with human clinical review to address the estimated $262 billion in denied claims annually in the U.S.
Heinen, who spent nearly two decades in utilization management and hospital case management, said the idea for Authsnap came from a specific observation about how denial appeals are handled. "Appeals could take 1-2 hours per case. Outcomes varied based on clinician fatigue and time of day," she said. "Many valid claims were never appealed due to capacity constraints."
How the platform works
Authsnap's platform automates the synthesis of EMR data and creates structured, payer-aligned appeal letters. Every appeal then goes through a human-in-the-loop clinical review by an RN or MD to ensure accuracy and clinical defensibility. The company says this reduces appeal time from 1-2 hours to 5-10 minutes, cutting clinical workload by up to 95%.
The company reports a 75-80% appeal success rate, compared with the 60-65% industry baseline. Hospitals pay only on recovered revenue, and the system can go live in 48 hours without IT overhaul. The platform works alongside existing EHR and RCM systems.
Addressing clinical labor scarcity
Heinen identified clinical labor scarcity, particularly appeals-trained nurses, as the biggest constraint in the sector. Backlogs, variability in clinical argumentation, missed filing deadlines, and increasing payer complexity all contribute to the problem. The company's approach is to "augment clinicians with AI rather than replacing them" and standardize evidence assembly and payer alignment.
Authsnap has evolved from a sepsis-focused MVP to a scalable, cloud-based platform with EMR ingestion and workflow automation. The company has filed a patent for its AI-driven appeals system and was selected for the Walleye Tank 2026 innovation showcase.
Why this matters for insurance professionals
For insurance professionals, the operational shift here is worth watching. Authsnap's model treats denials as a recoverability problem, not just a prevention problem. That means claims teams may see more structured, clinically documented appeals that are harder to dismiss on technical grounds. Insurers should expect more consistent, payer-aligned arguments from providers using AI-assisted workflows, which could change how appeals are evaluated internally and how denial rates are reported.
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