PRICING GUIDE · UPDATED JUNE 2026

How Much Does Denial Recovery Cost? (2026 Pricing Guide)

Here's the first thing to know about denial recovery pricing: most of the time, you can't actually find it. Enterprise RCM, per-claim tools, and most software quote you through a sales call and a custom contract, often with minimums or an annual commitment. Two things are roughly knowable. Full-service billers take about 4 to 9 percent of everything you collect, and contingency recovery runs somewhere around 20 to 35 percent of what's recovered. Volari sits in that contingency range at a flat, published 25 percent of recovered dollars, with no lock-in and nothing owed if nothing comes back. If you run an independent practice, that transparency matters as much as the number, because you can see the actual deal before you ever talk to a salesperson.

The four pricing models, compared

Model	What you'll find	Risk to you	Best for
Outcome-based contingency	Across the industry, roughly 20 to 35% of recovered dollars. Volari publishes a flat 25%, with no lock-in.	None, if it's true contingency. You only pay on money that comes back.	Independent practices working written-off claims with no appeals team.
Per-claim fee	Rarely published. You're quoted by sales inside a contract; third-party reviews cite figures around $10 a claim, but terms vary.	You pay on the misses too, and the real terms get negotiated.	Practices with a billing team and a high-confidence queue.
Software subscription	Custom quote via sales. Often per-provider per month plus setup fees; enterprise deals can top $50k a year.	You pay no matter the result, and your team does the work.	Groups with RCM staff who want their own tooling.
Full-service billing	About 4 to 9% of total collections. It's the one fairly standard range, though still set inside a contract.	You pay on every dollar, and denials get triaged by volume.	Practices that want to outsource all of their billing, not just denials.

In plain terms: Outcome-based contingency is a percentage of what's actually recovered, and nothing if nothing comes back. Per-claim fee is a flat fee for every claim worked, recovered or not. Software subscription is a recurring license for a platform your own staff runs. Full-service billing is a percentage of everything you collect to run your whole billing operation.

The part most pricing pages skip

Notice what's missing from that table: an actual number for most of them. Enterprise RCM, per-claim tools, and software almost always quote you on a sales call, inside a contract. The only price here you can read without booking a meeting is the contingency rate, and even that is usually negotiated. Volari's is a flat 25% of what it recovers, published up front, with no lock-in and nothing owed if nothing comes back.

Frequently asked questions

How much does denial recovery cost?

For most vendors, you won't find a number without a sales call. Enterprise RCM and per-claim tools quote you inside a custom contract. The two ranges that are roughly knowable: full-service billing runs about 4 to 9 percent of everything you collect, and contingency recovery runs around 20 to 35 percent of what's recovered. Volari publishes a flat 25 percent of recovered dollars with no lock-in, and nothing is owed if nothing is recovered, so for claims you've already written off there's no upfront cost.

Why is denial recovery pricing so hard to find?

Because most vendors quote it through sales and tailor it to your claim volume, payer mix, and specialty, usually inside a contract with minimums. That's normal in RCM, but it means you often can't compare real numbers without booking several calls. The per-claim figures you see online (around $10 a claim, for example) tend to come from third-party reviews, not the vendors themselves. Volari publishes its price, a flat 25 percent of recovered dollars with no lock-in, so you can see the deal before you talk to anyone.

Is a 25% contingency fee too expensive?

It's actually mid-range. Contingency recovery across the industry runs about 20 to 35 percent, so 25 percent sits in the middle, and it's one of the few you can see published up front. More to the point, look at what it's replacing: a written-off claim brings in zero today. If a no-risk service recovers it, you keep about 75 percent of money you were never going to see, and you pay nothing on the claims it can't recover. Against zero, that's upside, not a cost.

What's the difference between per-claim and contingency pricing?

Per-claim charges a fixed fee for every claim worked, so you pay even on the ones that don't get recovered, and you negotiate those terms in a contract. Contingency only takes a share of what actually comes back, so the risk sits with the vendor. Per-claim can make sense for a billing team that's confident in its queue. Contingency fits a practice that wants no downside on claims it had already given up on.

Are there hidden costs or setup fees with denial recovery?

Often, yes. Setup fees, minimums, and annual contracts are common with enterprise RCM and software, and they're usually where the real cost lives. When you're comparing, ask straight out about setup fees, minimums, contract length, and whether you can start with a single test batch. A transparent service should answer all of that in public, with no minimum and no long lock-in.

See what no-risk recovery would cost you. Nothing, unless it works.

Volari AI (the publisher of this guide) gives you a free assessment of your recoverable denials, and only charges on what it recovers.

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