In the 2018 legislative session, ISMA and other stakeholders agreed on new guidelines to make the prior authorization (PA) process less burdensome for Indiana physicians. Now, results of a new AMA survey confirm that physicians and patients across the U.S. could benefit from reforms like those just signed into Indiana law.

AMA’s survey of 1,000 patient-care physicians found 92 percent said PA requirements delay patients’ access to necessary care, while 78 percent said that PA can sometimes, often or always cause patients to abandon a course of treatment. It also found that medical practices complete an average of 29.1 PA requirements, per physician, every week, which takes an average of 14.6 hours – the equivalent of two business days.

“In practice, insurers eventually authorize most requests,” AMA Chair-elect Jack Resnick Jr., MD, told the AMA. “But the process can be a lengthy administrative nightmare of recurring paperwork, multiple phone calls and bureaucratic battles that can delay or disrupt a patient’s access to vital care.”

Results of the new PA survey are discussed in detail on the AMA’s website. Several helpful infographics explaining the results are available here.

ISMA members can also read more about P.L. 77-2018, as well as the changes it makes to Indiana’s PA process, in the March 16 issue of Legislative News.