Nirvana API Overview

Our goal is to take the complexity out of insurance verification, so your team can focus on care, not coverage.

Nirvana’s API lets you verify a patient’s insurance eligibility, estimate their financial responsibility for any appointment, identify plan-level details that could lead to a denial, and recover active insurance using only basic demographic information. 🧠⚡

By normalizing complex payer data into structured, consistent JSON, Nirvana surfaces the details that matter most - to prevent denials before they happen, improve your patient conversion funnel, and confidently schedule more session knowing coverage & cost is handled by Nirvana

🔌 Endpoints

All responses are payer-normalized and returned in clean JSON.

💡 Use Cases

• Show cost estimates at intake or appointment scheduling
• Auto-verify coverage before care is rendered
• Reduce claim denials with real-time benefit checks
• Support RCM and billing teams with complete payer data

🔐 Authentication

All requests must include your API key in the Authorization header:

headers = {  
'apikey': "yourapikey",
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

curl -X POST  \
  -H "apikey: yourapikey" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{REQUEST PAYLOD}'

🔑 Creating an API Key

🛠️ Using your API Key

• Contact Nirvana to set up an api key for you. The api key is required to make actual coverage calls.
• The api key should be passed in as a header as “apikey”.
• Sample curl request for your reference:

curl --location --request POST 'https://coverage-api.meetnirvana.com/v1/estimate' \
--header 'apikey: [APIKEY]' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
   "payer_id": "60054",
   "provider_npi": "1234567890",
   "member_id": "MEMBERID",
   "member_first_name": "",
   "member_last_name": "",
   "member_dob": "YYYY-MM-DD",
   "provider_first_name": "",
   "provider_last_name": "",
   "provider_session_cost": "20000",
   "in_network": true
}

import requests

url = "https://coverage-api.meetnirvana.com/v1/estimate"

headers = {
    "apikey": "[APIKEY]",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

payload = {
    "payer_id": "60054",
    "provider_npi": "1234567890",
    "member_id": "MEMBERID",
    "member_first_name": "",
    "member_last_name": "",
    "member_dob": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "provider_first_name": "",
    "provider_last_name": "",
    "provider_session_cost": "20000",
    "in_network": True
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

⚠️ Error Responses

If the Nirvana API can’t process a request, it will return an HTTP response code in the 4xx or 5xx range. The response body will include the following fields:

• error – A code indicating what went wrong
• message – A easily-interpretable explanation of the issue

You can use the error code to write robust error-handling logic, and refer to message when troubleshooting or debugging.

In some cases, the response may also include an errors array that lists multiple issues. When this happens, the error and message fields will still be included at the top level for convenience.

It’s possible to receive a response that contains both a result and an error, indicating a partial or best-effort response. You should check the presence of an error field before assuming the result is fully valid.

🚫 403 Unauthorized

A 403 Forbidden response usually means one of the following:

• Your API key is missing, expired, or incorrect
• You used an incorrect HTTP method (e.g., GET to a POST endpoint)
• Your IP address was blocked due to security filters or rate limiting

Nirvana uses layered security protections to help keep our systems safe. If you believe you're being blocked in error - contact [email protected] for review.

Please see below for a brief description of common errors responses. Errors are provided in the below response format:

Error: 
 code: “error category”
 message: “cause of the error + next steps”
 details: 
      validation failures:
      suggested payer:
} ]

🧰 Error + Alert Guidance for EHR Customers