Arintra Raises $21M to Automate Medical Coding and Combat Claim Denials

Healthcare providers continue to face mounting challenges in securing fair reimbursement from payers, who are increasingly using sophisticated tactics to deny claims. San Francisco-based Arintra emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $21 million in Series A funding to help health systems and physician groups fight back through AI-powered medical coding automation.

The funding round was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Counterpart Ventures, Endeavor Health Ventures, Spider Capital, Ten13, and Y Combinator. The company, founded in 2020 by computer scientists Nitesh Shroff and Preeti Bhargava, aims to transform how providers handle the complex medical coding process that determines their reimbursement.

The startup's origin story stems from Bhargava's personal encounter with the healthcare billing system. After a four-hour emergency room visit, she received a $19,000 bill that required months of negotiations with her health plan to reduce significantly. This experience illuminated the complexity of medical coding and inspired the co-founders to develop a solution that could help hospitals code visits accurately and secure timely payments.

"Arintra dives into the documentation to spot potential gaps, asking context-specific questions, such as, 'When the practitioner completed X procedure, did she also conduct Y and Z?' based on our universal knowledge of what practitioners typically do in such procedures," explained Shroff, who serves as CEO while Bhargava leads as chief technology officer.

The platform's approach goes beyond traditional coding by combining documentation analysis with deep understanding of payer policies and historical denial patterns. Shroff described the technology as functioning like "a highly skilled coder operating at her peak performance 24/7."

Documentation gaps represent a critical vulnerability in the reimbursement process, often resulting in revenue loss even when coding is technically accurate. Arintra addresses this by providing actionable, chart-specific feedback and continuous documentation improvement features to ensure each chart achieves the highest compliant level of coding.

"Additionally, Arintra generates payer-aware claims informed by both contractual rules and historical denial patterns. As a result, more claims are first-pass accurate — reducing denials, rework and documentation-related delays," Shroff stated.

The company operates on a transaction-based model, charging a small fee for each chart successfully processed through its platform. Importantly, the solution integrates directly within existing electronic health record systems, eliminating workflow disruptions.

The current landscape presents both challenges and opportunities. Most hospitals still rely on manual coding processes or complete outsourcing, both of which have significant limitations. Manual coding struggles with scalability, while outsourcing often introduces security risks, quality issues, and turnaround delays.

"Our biggest challenge is changing the status quo. Fortunately, health systems already feel the pain and know they have to adopt technology — more so because insurance companies are using automation to deny claims," Shroff declared.

As insurers increasingly leverage automation to deny claims, Arintra positions its technology as the countermeasure providers need to level the playing field and secure the reimbursements they deserve.

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