How Much Do Insurance Calls Cost a Medical Billing Company? (2026 Guide)
Every insurance call takes time away from claims your team could be working on. In the 2024 CAQH Index, a manual claim status inquiry took an average of 25 minutes of staff time and cost providers $13.80. For a billing company making dozens of calls a day, that time adds up fast.
These are the latest detailed benchmarks CAQH publishes (2023 data), not 2026 prices. Below is what they mean for a billing company and how to cut the phone work.
What one insurance inquiry costs
CAQH measures how long healthcare admin tasks take and what they cost. It splits each task into three ways of doing it: manual (phone, fax, mail or email), a payer portal or phone menu, or fully electronic (the X12 270/271 and 276/277 transactions).
| Task (medical) | Manual | Portal | Electronic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claim status inquiry: time | 25 min | 10 min | 7 min |
| Claim status inquiry: cost | $13.80 | $5.24 | $3.64 |
| Eligibility check: time | 16 min | 8 min | 4 min |
| Eligibility check: cost | $8.57 | $4.46 | $2.00 |
Source: 2024 CAQH Index (2023 data). CAQH reports that a manual claim status inquiry is the most time-consuming admin task it measures. The newer 2025 CAQH Index puts the average manual transaction, across all tasks, at $8.03 versus $2.65 electronic.
Two things make the real cost higher than this table:
- CAQH counts only the inquiry itself. It leaves out gathering the claim details before the call and writing up notes after it.
- The cost has gone up. A manual claim status inquiry cost $11.37 in the 2023 Index and $13.80 a year later.
What that means for one biller
Here is a simple example. It is our own math, built on the CAQH numbers.
Ten claim status calls a day add up to more than four hours of staff time. Across 250 workdays, that is about 1,042 hours a year. Using CAQH's manual inquiry cost, that is roughly $34,500 a year in staff labor for one biller.
That is the value of the work the calls use up. It is not money that disappears once the calls are automated: someone still reviews the results, and any tool has its own cost.
For comparison, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for medical records specialists, a closely related role, at $24.59 an hour.
Your numbers will differ. Put your own call volume, call length and wages into our savings calculator to see what the phone work costs your team, and what you would pay to hand it off.
Why the calls keep coming
Billers call insurers about pending, delayed and missing claims, and about denials. Denials remain high:
- 40% of providers say 10% or more of their claims are denied, compared with 31% in 2022 (Experian Health, State of Claims 2026).
- Insurers on HealthCare.gov denied 20% of in-network claims in 2023 (KFF). That covers HealthCare.gov plans only, not all commercial insurance.
- 48% of practice leaders name denials and appeals as their biggest source of lost revenue (MGMA, January 2026).
Practices feel the phone load too. In a March 2026 MGMA poll, 45% of practice leaders said eligibility and prior authorization calls take the most staff time of any phone task.
How to cut the cost
- Go electronic first. Use 276/277 claim status and 270/271 eligibility checks through your clearinghouse wherever the payer supports them.
- Use the portal next. A portal check takes about 10 minutes instead of 25.
- Save phone calls for what really needs a person: denial reasons that the 277 code doesn't explain, reprocessing requests, and missing records.
- Batch the calls you do make. Group them by payer, have the claim details ready, and use the right provider line. Our payer phone guides list the provider numbers and what to have ready for the biggest insurers.
- Take the hold off your billers. This is where an AI phone agent helps.
Where an AI phone agent fits
Some calls still need to happen. Your billers just don't have to spend their day making them.
iAllo calls the insurer, gets through the phone menu, waits on hold and talks to the rep. Your team gets the call summary, the transcript, the reference number when the rep gives one, and the next steps. If something needs a person, a biller can join or take over.
That frees your team to work on more claims while iAllo handles the repetitive phone work.
FAQ
How long does a claim status inquiry to an insurer take?
About 25 minutes of staff time for a manual medical claim status inquiry, according to the 2024 CAQH Index. An electronic inquiry takes about 7 minutes.
How much does a manual claim status inquiry cost?
$13.80 per inquiry for medical providers in the 2024 CAQH Index, up from $11.37 the year before. An electronic inquiry costs $3.64.
How much does a manual eligibility check cost?
$8.57 and about 16 minutes per check, compared with $2.00 and 4 minutes electronically (2024 CAQH Index).
Why do billers still call insurers when electronic checks exist?
Electronic responses often don't explain a denial well enough to fix it, and some payers or plans don't support every transaction. Billers call to get the real reason, ask for reprocessing or find missing paperwork.
Still spending hours calling insurance companies?
Let iAllo handle the phone menus, hold time and repetitive claim status calls. Your team can step in whenever needed.