Weekly payer policy brief
Every Thursday: what changed in payer policy that affects your codes.
Medicare coverage determinations, MAC policy articles and commercial payer bulletins, matched to your HCPCS and CPT list. One page of changes, one page of dates, every item linked to its primary source. Delivered by email and PDF.
Five sections, in the same order, every week.
The brief is built to be read in four minutes. Nothing in it is an opinion about your product, and nothing in it says whether a device is covered.
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The two or three changes with money attached
A short opening list of the changes most likely to move a claim this quarter, in plain language, each one linked to the document behind it.
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Items, one block per change
What changed, the effective date, who it applies to by contractor or plan, what to check this week, and the source. Summaries quote the document; they do not paraphrase it from memory.
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Dates in the next 90 days
Comment deadlines, notice periods and effective dates, so a change with a six-week runway does not arrive as a surprise.
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Sources checked
A count of how many sources were reached and parsed. A source that fails produces a visible banner, never a silent "no changes this week".
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Disclaimer and scope line
Every issue states the codes, payers and states it was scoped to, and states plainly that it is informational and not coverage, billing or legal advice.
A reimbursement lead with no analyst.
PayerBrief is written for the person at a device or diagnostics company who is accountable for coverage and who has no department behind them. Typically that is a company of 10 to 200 people, one to three products, and revenue that depends on a specific code set.
It is also used by billing and revenue-cycle firms that manage several specialty practices, and by consultancies that put their own name on it.
The failure is usually silence.
Coverage policy changes in dozens of places on different schedules: national determinations, contractor articles, commercial bulletins, state Medicaid notices. Each one publishes its own revision history.
None of them call you. A company without a monitoring process finds out when a claim denies — which is the most expensive possible notification.
Public sources, checked on a schedule, each with a canary.
Every source has an expected shape: a minimum item count, required strings and a maximum age. A source that stops returning that shape is treated as an incident and reported, not treated as a quiet week.
- CMS Medicare Coverage Database — final and proposed LCDs, NCDs, policy articlesEvery 12h
- Medicare Administrative Contractors — Noridian, Palmetto, CGS, NovitasDaily
- Aetna Clinical Policy BulletinsDaily
- Cigna coverage policies and provider newsroomDaily
- UnitedHealthcare medical and reimbursement policy updatesDaily
- Federal Register — rules and notices affecting paymentDaily
- State Medicaid provider bulletins for the states in your scopeWeekly
- Commercial payer fee schedules and prior-authorisation listsWeekly
Additional sources are added per customer scope. Nothing behind a login, no paywall bypass, no patient or claims data. Full detail on the method page.
One subscription, one scope, no procurement cycle.
Billed by card. Cancel any time; annual plans are refunded pro rata for unused months.
Founding
$499 / month
Billed annually at $4,990 — two months free. Available to the first ten subscribers.
- One customer scope, up to 40 codes
- National commercial payers and Medicare
- Weekly issue, Thursday 07:00 ET
- Email plus PDF, archived per issue
- Direct line to the analyst for source questions
Standard
$749 / month
Billed monthly. Same scope and cadence as Founding.
- One customer scope, up to 40 codes
- National commercial payers and Medicare
- Weekly issue, Thursday 07:00 ET
- Email plus PDF, archived per issue
- Cancel any time
Partner
$1,250 / month
For consultancies and revenue-cycle firms putting their name on the brief.
- Your logo and sending identity
- Up to three scopes
- Unlimited recipients within your firm
- Quarterly review call
- White-label PDF template
A single uncovered or denied code path usually costs more in a quarter than the subscription costs in a decade. Before you buy, read a full sample issue and decide whether the format is worth it — that is the whole evaluation.
What buyers usually ask first.
Can you tell me whether a specific device is covered?
No, and that is deliberate. PayerBrief reports what changed and links the document that changed. Coverage determinations belong to the payer and the treating clinician. What you get from us is the change, the effective date and the source — not a verdict on your product.
How is this different from a policy alert service?
Alert services deliver everything and let you filter. We deliver only the changes that match the codes and payers you gave us, in a format that fits on two pages. The scope is set once at signup and adjusted when your product or code set changes.
We already watch this internally.
Then you know how long it takes and who does it. If it is a reliable hour a week with nothing missed, you do not need us. If the honest answer is that revisions get missed during a launch or a funding round, that gap is what the subscription covers.
What data do you hold about us?
A business email address, a list of billing codes, the payers and states in your scope, and an invoice record. No patient data, no claims data, no protected health information. Details are in the privacy notice.
What happens when a source goes down?
The issue states it at the top: which source failed and what was not checked. A failed source never produces a "no changes" issue, because that would be the single most dangerous thing this product could get wrong.
Can I see the issue before I pay?
Yes. A complete sample issue is published here, and if you send us your code list we will scope one real issue for your company and send it free. That scoped issue is the close — if it is not useful, do not subscribe.
Request a scoped sample issue.
Send your name, company and the codes you bill. We will scope one issue to those codes and send it at no cost, with no obligation and no sequence of follow-up emails.
If you would rather not use the form, write to hello@payerbrief.com.