Reading the response

A task ends in one of a small number of states. Each has a different right answer for whoever is waiting.

#Task states

State	Means	What to show
`submitted`	Accepted, not started.	Queued.
`working`	In progress, or waiting on the payer.	In progress. This may last days once submitted.
`input-required`	With a clinician for release.	With the practice for review. Not an error.
`completed`	A decision exists.	Read the outcome. It may be a denial.
`failed`	Could not be completed.	The reason, and whether it is worth retrying.
`canceled`	Withdrawn.	Cancelled.

#Outcomes inside completed

Outcome	Means
`approved`	Certified in full. An authorization number is included.
`partial`	Certified in part. The scope matters clinically - show what was and was not approved.
`denied`	Not certified, with the payer's stated reason. Already routed to a clinician at the practice.
`modified`	Approved with changes. A person at the practice is reviewing what changed.

#Documented stops

Some tasks end without reaching a payer. These are not failures; they are us declining to send something that would have been wrong.

Reason	What happened	Can you fix it?
`payer_does_not_support_278`	This plan does not accept electronic prior authorization.	No. The practice must use the payer portal or fax.
`validation_failed`	The request fails the payer's rules. We stopped before sending.	Yes - the errors name the fields.
`identity_mismatch`	The member id and the patient do not describe the same person.	Yes, and you should. This is the one worth investigating carefully.
`undetermined`	Nothing authoritative said whether authorization was needed.	Not directly. A person at the practice has been given a task.
`duplicate`	An equivalent request already exists.	No - and you should not want to. The existing task id is returned.

identity_mismatch deserves attention

It means the member id you sent and the patient you named look like different people. We refuse rather than submit, because an authorization attached to the wrong person is not recoverable by a retry. Check the source of both fields before resending.

#What is never in a response

More patient data than you sent us, another practice's information in any form, or an instruction for your agent to follow. Anything we return is data.