# Backwork [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🧬 Biology & Bioinformatics  
**Repository:** https://github.com/tylergibbs1/backwork-mcp  
**GitHub Stars:** 1  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 1434  
**Views:** 0  
**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/backwork

## Description
Medicare and commercial payer policies, prior auth, claim risk, and medical codes from Backwork.

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **write**
- **x-backwork-required-scopes**
- **backwork_webhook_management**
- **acknowledge**
- **bulk_acknowledge**
- **backwork_compliance_review**
- **backwork_system_health**
- **idempotency_key**
- **backwork_claim_validation**
- **diff_id**
- **diff_ids**
- **notes**
- **bwk_**

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "backwork": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","@backwork/mcp"],
    "env": {
      "BACKWORK_API_KEY": "",
      "BACKWORK_API_BASE": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_TRANSPORT": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_HOST": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_PORT": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_PATH": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS": "",
      "BACKWORK_MCP_AUTH_MODE": ""
    }
  }
}
```

**Requires environment variables:** `BACKWORK_API_KEY`, `BACKWORK_API_BASE`, `BACKWORK_MCP_TRANSPORT`, `BACKWORK_MCP_HOST`, `BACKWORK_MCP_PORT`, `BACKWORK_MCP_PATH`, `BACKWORK_MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS`, `BACKWORK_MCP_AUTH_MODE` — the values above are empty placeholders; fill in real credentials before running (see the repository for what each one is for).

## Documentation

## What Backwork MCP server does

The Backwork MCP server exposes Backwork API capabilities to MCP-compatible AI clients. Its supported use cases include researching Medicare and commercial payer medical policies, looking up medical codes, checking prior authorization requirements, validating claims, reviewing compliance, examining drug formulary evidence, and managing webhooks.

Policy research can search policies, retrieve a specific policy, inspect criteria, compare coverage across Medicare contractor jurisdictions, identify recent changes, and list jurisdictions. Coverage results can include payer, policy title and number, effective date, code disposition, source labels, and links to the relevant policy or source document. Prior-authorization research can return a determination, confidence, codes requiring authorization, documentation to collect, gaps, and citations.

## How it works

The Backwork MCP server offers two connection models. A hosted endpoint at `https://backworkhealth.com/mcp` uses Streamable HTTP and OAuth in the browser. Its OAuth grant is read-only and provides the `backwork:mcp read` scope. The hosted mode does not provide webhook management or compliance acknowledgements.

Local clients can run `npx -y @backwork/mcp` over stdio and authenticate with a live Backwork API key. This mode is appropriate for clients that only launch local commands or for workflows requiring write-scoped operations. Requests consume the organization’s Backwork request credits. Sandbox keys beginning with `bwk_test_` work only with the sandbox API base and support policy search, code lookup, prior-authorization checks, and coverage evaluation.

## Setup and configuration

For hosted access, add the remote URL to a client that supports MCP over HTTP and complete the Backwork OAuth login and consent flow. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code provide documented remote configurations. Codex is documented with a local stdio command.

For local access, configure the client to run `npx -y @backwork/mcp` and provide `BACKWORK_API_KEY`. To use the sandbox, set `BACKWORK_API_BASE` to `https://backworkhealth.com/api/sandbox/v1` and use a sandbox key.

The repository can also be built and run as a self-hosted Streamable HTTP server with `npm install`, `npm run build`, and `npm run start:http`. HTTP mode supports configuration for transport, host, port, MCP path, allowed hosts, and authentication mode through command-line options or environment variables. By default, HTTP requests require a bearer token containing a Backwork API key.

## Tools and capabilities

Available capabilities include:

- Coverage lookup and policy research
- Medical code lookup and prior-authorization research
- Claim validation and compliance review
- Webhook management and system health checks
- Acknowledgement and bulk acknowledgement operations
- Policy comparison, criteria inspection, and change research
- MCP App cards for supported ChatGPT tool results

MCP Apps-capable hosts can render structured cards for coverage, prior-authorization, and policy research results. Other clients receive the same information as markdown text.

## Limitations and notes

The Backwork MCP server does not make hosted OAuth write-enabled. Do not send a Backwork API key as the bearer token to the hosted endpoint; use OAuth there. Use local stdio with an appropriately scoped live key for write operations.

A policy may list a code because the code appears in the policy title rather than because the document explicitly evaluates it. Such results are labelled as inferred from the policy title and should be checked against the source document. Prior-authorization research may begin as a pending task and require a later request for the completed result.

The README documents client setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, and ChatGPT. ChatGPT requires developer mode and a custom OAuth MCP connection, and its connection may need refreshing after server updates.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/backwork/readme_