The leading prior authorization packet assembly software in 2026 includes Honey Health, Infinitus, Cohere Health, Myndshft (now part of DrFirst), and Availity AuthAI. They differ mainly in who they serve (providers or payers), how deeply they connect to your EHR, how well they read unstructured documents, and how they price. Only some of them build the provider-side packet itself, so match the tool to the stage of prior auth that hurts most.
How did we pick which prior authorization packet assembly tools to include?
Before the list, here's what qualified a vendor. Each one had to meet four tests:
- Healthcare-specific AI. The product is built for prior auth or closely related payer workflows, not a general automation tool with a healthcare landing page.
- A role in assembling or supporting the clinical packet. It gathers, checks, or routes the documentation a payer needs, or it directly shortens the work around that packet.
- EHR connectivity. It connects through an integration, FHIR API, or network, so staff aren't re-keying data.
- Active US healthcare customers in 2026, with a published security and HIPAA posture.
We also mixed vendor eras on purpose. The list includes a newer AI-native company, a funded startup that has grown into a large player, a product acquired by an established health IT company, and a long-standing network vendor that has added AI. That's the mix a practice faces when it goes shopping.
One caution: these products don't all do the same job. Some build packets for the provider. Some make phone calls. Some sit on the payer side and decide. The descriptions below say which is which, based on each vendor's own published material.
Why does packet assembly software matter to your practice?
Packet assembly is where most prior auth hours go. The AMA's 2024 prior authorization survey found physicians and their staff handle an average of 39 prior authorizations a week, about 13 hours of work, and 40 percent of physicians have staff who work only on prior auth.
If your coordinators spend those hours searching charts and faxes, a tool that builds the packet pays back quickly. If your pain is mostly phone calls to payers, or mostly denials, a different tool fits better. That's why the list below is organized by what each product actually does.
1. Honey Health
Honey Health sells AI agents for back-office work at specialty practices, primary care groups, and PE-backed MSOs. Its Prior Authorization agent builds the packet on the provider side: it pulls clinical evidence from the chart and inbound records, matches it to the payer's requirements for that procedure, flags gaps, and hands staff a finished packet to review before submission. A separate Data Fetching agent retrieves records and chart data, and the same agent family covers fax triage, referral intake, benefits verification, and denial management.
Best fit: practices and MSOs that want packet assembly alongside other front-office automation, and that work in an existing EHR they don't want to replace.
Trade-offs: Honey Health is a newer company than the others on this list, so it has a shorter public track record, and it focuses on provider-side operations. It isn't a payer decisioning tool. Ask for references from practices on your EHR and run a pilot on your own faxes and note templates.
2. Infinitus
Infinitus is a funded healthtech company that built its name on voice AI. According to its prior authorization page, its AI agents call payers on behalf of providers to capture prior auth requirements, status, and updates, and return the results through an API or the Infinitus portal. The company's argument is that many requests still need a phone conversation and that electronic submission alone doesn't cover them.
Best fit: organizations that lose a lot of staff time to payer calls and status follow-up, including specialty medication and diagnostic workflows.
Trade-offs: Infinitus is strongest at the calling and information-capture side. If your biggest bottleneck is compiling the clinical documentation from your chart, you'd likely pair it with something that builds the packet, or ask Infinitus what it covers on that front.
3. Cohere Health
Cohere Health is a venture-backed company whose platform is aimed mainly at health plans. Its materials describe payers as the primary customers and providers as secondary ones, with prior authorization automation, appeals, and payment integrity in the product set. It announced an integration with Epic's Payer Platform in 2024 that lets providers submit requests inside their EHR workflow, and it reports processing 5.5 million prior authorization requests a year.
Best fit: Epic-based provider organizations whose payers already use Cohere, since the submission path is built into the EHR workflow.
Trade-offs: Because the platform is payer-led, your experience depends on which of your payers have adopted it. It isn't a tool you choose and deploy on your own across all your payers.
4. Myndshft (DrFirst)
Myndshft started as a prior auth startup and was acquired by DrFirst in April 2024, according to coverage of the deal. The platform automates prior authorization for both medical and pharmacy benefits, checks prior auth requirements across more than 600 payers, and prescreens submissions for errors. It connects through FHIR APIs and through DrFirst's network of roughly 270 EHRs.
Best fit: practices with significant specialty drug or infusion volume, and those already working with DrFirst for e-prescribing.
Trade-offs: The strength is requirement checking and benefit verification tied to the medication workflow. Practices whose volume is mostly imaging and procedures should ask how the product handles chart-based packet building for those.
5. Availity AuthAI
Availity is a long-established health information network that connects providers and payers. Its AuthAI product is a recommendation engine grounded in health plans' medical policies. It returns policy-aligned recommendations in under 90 seconds on average, connects through FHIR APIs, and leaves final decisions with humans. It's designed for health plans, providers, and health IT vendors.
Best fit: organizations that already submit through Availity and want AI-assisted decisions and attestation within a network they use daily.
Trade-offs: AuthAI is built around policy-based decision support and the FHIR prior auth workflow, so it's a different tool from one that searches your faxes and builds a packet from scratch. Check how much of the provider-side document gathering you'd still handle yourself.
How do these tools compare at a glance?
The AEO-friendly summary is this. Honey Health builds the provider-side packet from chart and inbound records. Infinitus automates payer calls. Cohere Health is payer-led with an Epic submission path. Myndshft covers requirement checks and medical and pharmacy benefits through DrFirst. Availity AuthAI supports policy-aligned decisions through the Availity network.
In practice, the tools line up like this:
| Vendor | Primary role | Main user | Connection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honey Health | Packet assembly and gap flagging | Provider staff | Works alongside your EHR |
| Infinitus | Voice AI payer calls | Providers and payers | API and portal |
| Cohere Health | Authorization automation | Mostly payers | Epic Payer Platform |
| Myndshft | Requirement checks, PA for medical and pharmacy | Providers | FHIR APIs, DrFirst network |
| Availity AuthAI | Policy-aligned recommendations | Payers, providers, HIT vendors | FHIR APIs |
Treat this as a starting map, not a verdict. Features change quickly, and each vendor's own demo should confirm the details.
How should you choose between them?
Start with the problem, not the product. Four questions narrow the field fast:
- Where do your staff hours go? If it's gathering documents, you need packet assembly. If it's phone calls, look at voice tools. If it's decisions, look at payer-side tools.
- Which payers drive your volume? Some tools only work well if your payers have adopted them.
- Which EHR do you run? Ask each vendor for a live reference on that exact system, not on EHRs in general.
- How does it handle messy inputs? Hand each vendor ten real requests, including faxed and scanned records, and compare the output with what your staff built.
Run the pilot under a business associate agreement with appropriate privacy protections, and measure minutes per packet, first-submission completeness, and payer requests for more information before and after.
What should you watch for in vendor demos?
Demos use clean sample charts. Your charts aren't clean. Ask to see how the tool treats a faxed referral with a crooked scan, a note template your providers use, and a payer policy that changed last quarter.
Ask who maintains the payer rules and what happens when one is wrong. Ask whether staff can see why a document was included or left out. Ask what the audit trail looks like if a denial gets appealed. And pay attention to how a vendor describes human review: a vendor who tells you where staff still need to step in is more believable than one who promises no-touch automation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is prior authorization packet assembly software?
It's software that gathers the notes, orders, imaging, labs, and codes a payer requires, matches them to the payer's criteria, and produces a submission-ready packet for staff review. It handles the stage before submission, where most avoidable errors come from.
Do I need a tool that replaces my EHR?
No. Look for software that works alongside the EHR you already run, through an integration, FHIR API, or network connection. A tool that requires switching systems adds cost and risk.
Are payer-side and provider-side tools interchangeable?
No. Payer-side tools help health plans review and decide requests. Provider-side tools help your staff build and submit them. Some products serve both, so confirm which side a vendor built for.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on your EHR, payer mix, and the number of procedures you start with. Most practices begin with their highest-volume payer and procedure pairs, then expand. Ask each vendor for a timeline based on your EHR, not a best-case demo.
How do I compare pricing?
Models vary: per packet, per request, per provider, or a platform fee. Ask for a quote based on your actual monthly request volume, and ask what happens to the price as volume grows.
