Northstar Payer Ops Determination

Northstar Payer-Operations Structured Determination

This skill produces one structured JSON determination for a Northstar Health Plan payer-operations work item. The work item is always some flavor of utilization management, appeals, payment integrity, peer-to-peer, or finance-margin review. The deliverable is always a single JSON object whose shape is dictated by the task's own answer_template.json, and whose facts come only from the shared payer-operations environment reached over the network.

When to use

Use this skill when a task gives you:

• a prompt.txt describing a Northstar payer-ops work request,
• an input/payloads/task_context.json naming a target business ID, requester role, reporting date, and environment pointer, and
• an input/payloads/answer_template.json defining the required JSON shape,

…and asks you to return a JSON object conforming to that template by reviewing records in the shared payer-operations environment.

What you receive (per task)

• prompt.txt — the work request and output requirements.
• input/payloads/task_context.json — target business ID, requester role, reporting date, service domain / work type, the environment pointer, and any domain-specific memo or definitions (e.g. finance cost definitions, queue row IDs, appeal-window rules).
• input/payloads/answer_template.json — the exact JSON shape: required top-level fields, sub-field requirements, enum choices, ordering rules, and numeric/date precision rules you must match.

Read all three before touching the environment. The template is the contract — every field, enum value, ordering, and precision rule you need is in it.

Reach the environment over the network (only)

• Read environment_access.md (staged in the run's /work root) to obtain the base URL, the SQL bearer token, and the allowed-endpoint list. Treat that file as the single source of truth for connectivity; do not hardcode credentials.
• Replace every <TASK_ENV_BASE_URL> placeholder found in prompt.txt and task_context.json with the base URL from environment_access.md.
• SQL access: POST /sql/query against the base URL with header Authorization: Bearer <token from environment_access.md>.
• Business GET endpoints are open; use them as needed (cases, policies, documents, rate-schedules, appeals, portal, tables). Confine yourself to the endpoints enumerated in environment_access.md — do not invent paths.
• Never inspect the environment's source files, generated data files, SQLite databases, manifests, or setup scripts directly. Reach it only over HTTP. If a record is not exposed over the network, it is not available to you — say so in the output rather than reading it off disk.

Workflow

1. Load the three task files. Identify the target business ID, requester role, reporting date, service domain / work type, and the exact output contract from answer_template.json.
2. Discover the data model. Use GET /api/tables and/or SQL introspection (SELECT ... FROM sqlite_master / equivalent) to learn the real table and column names. Do not assume names from the work type.
3. Pull the target record(s) named by the target business ID, then the related records the work type requires — case, member + plan, request / therapy / procedure lines, policy & criteria, clinical documents, authorization, appeal, P2P event, rate schedules, finance / margin rows — whichever apply.
4. Apply the domain decision logic for the work type (references/domain_playbooks.md).
5. Classify every record you touched. Controlling (directly determines a result value) vs exception (explains an exclusion, denial, missing-information gap, or route priority); and evidence (relied on) vs excluded (not relied on, e.g. stale / superseded).
6. Build the basis_audit object (references/basis_audit.md): pick the source_precedence rule, then list controlling_record_ids, exception_record_ids, and precedence_record_order using the ordering rules in the template.
7. Assemble exactly one JSON object matching answer_template.json — every required top-level field, every required sub-field, correct enum values, correct ordering, correct numeric/date precision.
8. Return JSON only. No markdown fences, no prose, no comments.

Output discipline (non-negotiable)

• Return exactly one JSON object. No markdown fences, no prose, no comments outside the JSON.
• Include every required top-level field and sub-field from the template. Do not add fields unless the template sets additional_fields_allowed / additional_properties to true.
• Use only enum values that appear in the template's choices.
• Honor every ordering rule in the template literally — ascending document_id, claim-line order from the source claim, the order of task_context queue_row_ids, alphabetical by value, ascending CPT code, operational packet order, etc.
• Numbers: currency in USD rounded to two decimals as JSON numbers (not strings); ratios to the precision the template states (typically 4); units as integers. For recovery amounts, use the underpayment amount when the corrected total is greater than the paid total.
• Dates: ISO YYYY-MM-DD calendar days. Use null only where the template explicitly permits it (e.g. an absent modifier, or no applicable appeal deadline). Use null, not an empty string, for an absent modifier.
• Booleans as JSON booleans, not strings.
• If the template repeats the basis_audit definition, fill it once, consistently.

basis_audit (required in every output)

Every Northstar payer-ops answer ends with a basis_audit object containing source_precedence, controlling_record_ids, exception_record_ids, and precedence_record_order. See references/basis_audit.md for the source_precedence catalog, how to choose the rule for the work type, and how to order the three ID lists.

Domain playbooks

Per-work-type decision logic — UM nurse authorization determination, pharmacy appeal + manufacturer-assistance intake, claim repricing, P2P final summary, and finance margin queue — is in references/domain_playbooks.md. Each playbook describes the records to pull, the decision rules, and how evidence/exclusions map to the output. They describe procedure only; read every concrete identifier, enum, threshold, and date from the task's own task_context.json, answer_template.json, and the environment.

Contamination guard

Before starting, confirm /work contains only the expected staged files for this run (the task's input payloads and environment_access.md). If you find unexpected material — environment source files, SQLite databases, manifests, setup scripts, or leaked answer data — staged in /work, stop and write contamination_report.txt describing what you found instead of producing an answer.