What the provider receives

A determination that says only “unsupported” cannot be answered: the provider cannot tell which question was decided, so the appeal addresses the wrong one and the reviewer has nothing to audit. This letter separates the three questions, numbers them, and says what would overturn each.

Back to the audit Reasoning trace

Drafted by Autonomize · not sent

Overpayment notice — Dr. Jane Smith

$4,089.23

Re: claim CLM-0000001 · member MBR-12345 · date of service 25 March 2026

A post-payment review of the claim above identified $4,089.23 as recoverable. The review separates three questions, and each is answered in its own numbered section below. Each section can be disputed on its own; disputing one does not put the others in issue.

Policy basis

This review applied each policy as it stood on 25 Mar 2026, the date of service, not as it stands today. No policy cited below has changed since then, so the current version and the governing version are the same document.

1 Coding Was the service coded according to the coding rule? Finding

Billed 99215 · level 5, high complexity. The classic up-code: a higher level billed than the documentation carries. The payer's remedy is to down-code to the supported level, not to deny the visit.

Remedy: Reprice to the level the record supports, and recover the amount paid above the allowable.

CPP-014 v4.2 Evaluation and management level selection

To dispute section 1 Cite the coding rule or payer guidance under which 99215 · level 5, high complexity is correct on this record, or submit a corrected claim at the level the record supports.

2 Clinical documentation Does the record support the service that was coded? Finding

Z00.00 does not support a level-5 visit. A routine adult examination without abnormal findings does not support the high-complexity medical decision making 99215 requires. The encounter reads as preventive, not problem-oriented.

CPP-014 v4.2 Evaluation and management level selection

To dispute section 2 Submit the part of the medical record for 25 Mar 2026 that documents what the billed code requires. The review was conducted on the documentation submitted with the claim; anything not sent with it was not seen.

3 Payment What, if anything, is recoverable? Finding

Paid $4,280.00 against a $190.77 allowable. The 2026 physician fee schedule allows $190.77 for 99215 in a non-facility setting in this locality. The paid amount is 22 times the allowable and is recoverable in full above it.

Line	Code	Paid	Allowable	Recoverable
1	99215 1 × per service	$4,280.00	$190.77	$4,089.23

Priced against

The 2026 fee schedule allows $190.77 for 99215 in a non-facility setting: work 2.8 + practice expense 2.75 + malpractice 0.21 RVU, conversion factor 33.4009. CMS Physician Fee Schedule 2026, TX locality 09

To dispute section 3 Show that the allowable applied here is the wrong one — wrong site of service, wrong locality, or wrong fee schedule year. The arithmetic above is shown in full so it can be checked directly.

Your rights

You may dispute any section on its own. Name the section number and send what that section asks for; the other sections are unaffected.
Submit a dispute within 30 days of the date of this notice and payment activity is held pending review.
You may instead remit the amount above within 30 days, or notify us in writing that you elect offset against future payments.

Payment Integrity · 1-800-000-0000 · recoveries@example.org

What the agent did not do

Said on the letter itself, not only here. The case for putting an agent this close to a recovery rests on where it stops.

This letter was drafted by the review and has not been sent.
No recoupment has been taken and no offset has been applied.
No provider record was corrected and no authorization was changed.
A named reviewer signs, or does not.

Every figure is derived

The addressing — who it is to, which claim, the phone number — comes from the audit book. Everything that asserts something is computed from the claim when the page is built: the amount is the sum of the line variances, the sections are the finding's own layers, and the policy version is resolved at the date of service. A seeded sentence can drift from the claim it describes. This cannot.

Sections in dispute

Each is answered separately. A provider who disputes one does not put the others in issue, and the analyzer routes their argument to the section it actually contests.

1 Coding

separately appealable

2 Clinical documentation

separately appealable

3 Payment

separately appealable

Analyze an appeal