The complex, highly manual prior authorization (PA) system continues to frustrate clinicians, negatively impact patients, and cost practices huge sums of money. The PA process causes frequent delays in care, often at the expense of patient health. Technology is a significant part of the problem, despite years of efforts to streamline systems and speed up processes.
A lack of coherent electronic systems has some practices resorting to paper faxing while others struggle to submit documents to multiple health plans’ proprietary web portals. As health plans add more drugs, procedures, and medical equipment to the long list of items requiring prior authorization, many practices have been forced to hire staff dedicated entirely to submitting and tracking requests. To read the full article, authored by eFax Corporate’s Brenda Hopkins, visit Physicians Practice: