From weeks to hours: How Aspire Allergy & Sinus automated prior authorizations across 63 offices
Forus partnered with Aspire Allergy & Sinus to cut prior authorization turnaround times from two to four weeks to under two days — submitting PAs in under 24 hours, averaging approvals in just 1.7 days, and serving 1,500+ patients across 63 offices in the first few months.
As one of the largest allergy practices in the country, Aspire Allergy & Sinus contends with the same prior authorization (PA) pressures every specialty practice faces - but at a scale where every delay is compounded across hundreds of patients.
With Forus, patients who once waited two to four weeks for critical medications now receive them in days. By submitting PAs in under 24 hours and averaging approvals in just 1.7 days, Aspire ensures no patient falls through the cracks.
When Scope Outgrows Structure
Lori Garcia, Biologics Care Coordinator Supervisor, describes the reality of managing a massive multi-state practice with a lean team. Her incredible four-person department handles all specialty medication renewals and new orders across all 63 Aspire offices - a workflow volume that would stretch any team to its limit.
"We handle all specialty medications for all five states. As you can imagine, doing something like that takes a lot of time. The team was very far behind. Patients were waiting two to four weeks for their medication."
At a practice processing 150+ prior authorizations every week, a multi-week bottleneck affects the entire operation. Providers lacked a transparent way to track authorization statuses, and the biologics team was left with zero bandwidth for complex clinical work because they were buried under routine specialty pharmacy renewals.
Seamless Implementation from Day One
Integrating a new platform across a 63-office, five-state practice can be a daunting operational undertaking. Forus designed an onboarding process that felt seamless and required no downtime.
The initial technical integration with Aspire’s EHR, NextGen, was completed the same day. From there, the Forus team deployed comprehensive staff training, provided patient-facing educational materials to explain the text updates patients would receive, and established ongoing, bi-weekly operational check-ins with the Forus Provider Experience team.
"The training team was wonderful. They walked us through absolutely everything and were available for any additional questions. Everything ran in a smooth process, including integration with our EHR."
Putting Clinical Expertise Back in the Driver’s Seat
By partnering with Forus, Aspire automated its high-volume administrative tasks and cleared its backlog. At first, Aspire routed routine specialty pharmacy prescriptions and high-volume renewals through the Forus platform, instantly offloading the manual, time-consuming paperwork associated with those orders.
After the initial success, Aspire’s physicians quickly expanded their use of Forus beyond biologics, utilizing the platform for all medications like inhalers, topical creams, and nasal sprays to maximize their time with patients.
This operational shift unlocked significant efficiencies across the practice:
- Clinical Focus: The internal team redirected their time and expertise away from administrative tracking and back to complex clinical operations. Offloading routine renewals to Forus "freed the team up quite a bit," allowing them to shift their daily attention to "focus on the medical side of what they do."
- High-Quality Appeal Letters: On the post-denial side, Forus generates “very well-written” appeal letters that staff can choose to review, edit, and submit in a few clicks.
- Frictionless Patient Affordability: Forus embeds and autofills PAP and enrollment forms directly in the platform, replacing hours of paperwork and providing "a much better experience than having to go back and fill out an entire form on your own."
The Results
The impact showed up quickly across the practice:
- Under 24 hours to submit a prior authorization after a prescription is written
- 1.7 days average time to approval, down from 2-4 weeks
- 1,500+ patients supported in the first few months
- Thousands of prior authorizations processed across all 63 offices
The Ultimate Impact: A Patient Story
The clearest measure of what Forus has changed at Aspire isn't found in a dashboard: it's felt in patient care.
Recently, an internal administrative oversight left a severely distressed patient without a timely authorization. Facing an urgent situation, the Aspire team sent the script to Forus for immediate intervention soon after they started leveraging the platform. Forus secured the insurance approval that very same day.
"The patient was notified about the pharmacy transfer that day. She was extremely happy, called back, and was very grateful for us taking such quick action. Not only does it look good for Forus – it looks good on us for her to get her medicine in a timely manner."
That moment reflects the broader shift Forus has enabled at Aspire: from a team perpetually struggling against the volume to one that can respond, adapt, and act on behalf of patients at the moment they need it. With thousands of prescriptions supported and 1,500+ patients served in just the first few months, the practice’s prior authorization function is no longer just a workflow, but a distinct patient access advantage.
Supporting your practice
If your allergy or specialty practice is ready to streamline prior authorizations and accelerate access to therapy, sign up your practice for Forus today or book a demo to learn more.
