When the autocoder finds something that needs human attention, it attaches an alert to the claim. Every alert carries a plain-language description, a type, a severity from 1 to 10, and a suggested reviewer role.

An alert is a classification, not an action. The autocoder does not hold, queue, or release claims. Your workflow does.

## The five alert types

| Type | What it means |
|---|---|
| HARDSTOP | Something is missing or conflicting that would cause a payer rejection or denial. Resolve it before the claim is payer-ready. |
| COMPLIANCE | A regulatory or compliance concern. Route it to your compliance process. |
| FINANCIAL | A potential revenue impact: a possible missed charge, or a charge the documentation may not support. |
| INFORMATIONAL | Something noteworthy. No action is required. |
| OTHER | An internal system event, for example an external service failure. The automated check did not complete. |

## If you use HANK Claim Maker

Claim Maker turns alert types and severities into workflow actions. Your Claim Maker configuration decides which alerts hold coding, which route a claim to a review queue, and which pass through. Some gates also run before coding: document extraction and reconciliation can hold a case so the autocoder does not run until required information arrives.

Typical defaults: a HARDSTOP alert routes the claim to a reviewer before release, COMPLIANCE and FINANCIAL alerts flag the claim for the matching team, and INFORMATIONAL alerts are recorded with no action. Your administrators can change these routes.

## If you consume the coding API directly

Your integration receives every alert on the claim payload. Your implementation decides which alerts pause a claim, which reviewers see them, and when a claim is released. The type and severity fields exist to make those decisions easy to automate.

## What to do next

Read the alert reference for your specialty to learn each alert's trigger and the recommended reviewer action:

- [Anesthesia Alert Reference](/hank-codes/alerts-and-review/anesthesia-alerts-reference)
- [E/M Alert Reference](/hank-codes/alerts-and-review/em-alerts-reference)
- [Radiology Alert Reference](/hank-codes/alerts-and-review/radiology-alerts-reference)
- [Surgery Alert Reference](/hank-codes/alerts-and-review/surgery-alerts-reference)

If an alert fires too often or not often enough for your workflow, your facility configuration can tune or suppress most alerts. See [Tuning Review Alerts](/hank-codes/configuration-guide/tuning-review-alerts), and contact your Hank representative to change it.