Faster approvals & stronger appeals: Family Allergy & Asthma’s prior authorization transformation

As one of the largest independent allergy practices in the country, with 700+ employees across nine states, Family Allergy & Asthma contends with the same prior authorization (PA) and appeals pressures every specialty practice faces – but at a much larger scale. With Forus, PAs and appeals have become one of the practice’s clearest operational wins.

Forus Impact at a Glance

The challenge: A system strained by manual workflows

Before Forus, Family Allergy’s PA process was highly manual, leading to delays. It often took a full week just to initiate a request, followed by another week or more of waiting for a payer response.

Nursing staff were forced to handle complex administrative loads while juggling dozens of patient care priorities, making every step a challenge. When denials occurred, appeal letters were written by hand while juggling dozens of other priorities, often lacking the comprehensive clinical context required to successfully overturn inappropriate denials; when PAs were approved, they were still often guessing which specialty pharmacy was in-network.

An onboarding experience that has outperformed every vendor

That’s why upon first hearing about Forus, Family Allergy moved forward quickly with onboarding. The practice’s EMR had historically been a friction point for third-party vendors, but Forus broke the mold by deploying resources to move quickly.

A new rhythm for the clinical team

With Forus, the "Monday prescription" no longer sits until Thursday. PA initiation now happens same-day, creating a faster, more predictable operational rhythm. By identifying insurance-preferred specialty pharmacies instantly, Forus eliminates guesswork and delays that previously stalled therapy.

• Same-Day Initiation: PAs are now initiated the moment the prescription is written, with time to approval at a median of 1.1 days.
• Total Staff Relief: The administrative workload on nursing staff has been reduced by 70%.
• Intelligent Pharmacy Routing: Forus identifies the insurance-preferred specialty pharmacy instantly, eliminating manual rerouting.
• Proactive Patient Communication: Patients receive real-time text updates and proactive support for bridge programs and copay assistance.

Transforming post-denial outcomes

The most significant clinical win has been the transformation of the appeals process. Previously, many denials led to grueling cycles of second-level reviews or peer-to-peer calls, because staff didn't have the time to mine years of clinical data for every letter.

Forus’ system automatically pulls the patient’s full clinical history to generate a comprehensive letter whenever needed.

Forus’ "glass box" supporting data-driven leadership

Forus has replaced administrative blind spots with a "glass box" view of the entire PA lifecycle. Leadership now has a real-time pulse on approval rates, turnaround times, and payer-level patterns, while team members can track the status of any specific prescription with a few clicks.

That same visibility has strengthened Family Allergy's broader strategic conversations. With real performance data at their fingertips, leadership can surface patterns, pinpoint where the process can improve, and drive more productive discussions across the full medication access workflow.

The freedom to focus on patients

With Forus, nursing staff have traded paperwork for patient care, and providers prescribe with confidence knowing the backend is handled.

This shift has been so transformative that the practice now treats Forus as foundational to how it operates. As the team explores more clinical tools, upholding the Forus workflow is a part of the conversation, because it is a platform the team is not willing to go without.

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.