In the Denial Rate formula, the denominator is:

• A. Number of claims or line items submitted
• B. Number of claims or line items denied
• C. Total dollars billed
• D. Total number of submitted lines

Answer: (A)

Denial rate measures how often submitted claims are denied, so the denominator must reflect the total set of items that could be denied. That means the total number of claims or line items submitted. Using dollars billed as the base would shift the metric from frequency of denial to financial impact, which can distort interpretation since large claims would disproportionately affect the rate. The numerator is the count of denied items, so comparing it to the total submitted items provides a clear proportion of denials relative to what was actually submitted.