Quickstart

You need an email address and a terminal. Signing up is free, and there is no call to book.

1. Sign up

Create an account at backworkhealth.com/sign-up and finish onboarding to create your organization. Every organization gets 100 free starter credits, once. You do not need to enter a card. Most calls cost 1 credit; see Pricing and credits for the rest.

2. Create a live key

Open API usage and keys. The Request balance card shows your starter credits.

Under Live API keys, name the key (for example, local testing) and choose Create live key. Copy the key right away: Backwork shows the full bwk_live_ key only once and stores only a hash of it.

Keys created here have the read scope, which covers every lookup, policy, coverage, prior-auth, claim, and read-only agent-tool endpoint. Only organization owners and admins can create keys. See Authentication for scopes and revoking.

Keep the key out of your code:

export BACKWORK_API_KEY=bwk_live_...

3. Make your first call

Look up CPT code 99213 and the coverage policies that list it:

curl "https://backworkhealth.com/api/v1/codes/lookup?code=99213&include=policies" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BACKWORK_API_KEY"

The response has this shape (values shortened):

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "code": "99213",
    "code_system": "CPT",
    "found": true,
    "description": "...",
    "policies": [
      {
        "policy_id": "L...",
        "title": "...",
        "policy_type": "LCD",
        "disposition": "...",
        "source": "document",
        "jurisdiction": "...",
        "effective_date": "...",
        "source_url": "https://..."
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_...",
    "timestamp": "...",
    "includes": ["policies"],
    "fuzzy_enabled": true,
    "attributions": { "disclaimer": "..." }
  }
}

Each policy entry says where its code came from in source. document means the policy document lists the code; inferred_title_match means Backwork attached it because the policy title names the drug. See Code sources.

The full schema and every parameter are in the lookupCode reference.

4. Check your remaining credits

This call cost 1 credit. Open API usage and keys to see the balance and the recent activity for each endpoint.

When the balance cannot cover a call, the API answers 402 with BILLING_CREDITS_EXHAUSTED and does not run the call. Buy a Credits pack or start a monthly pack on the same page, then send the request again. See When credits run out.

Next steps

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