A recent STAT poll found providers are handling more prior authorization requests in 2017, according to an American Academy of Family Physicians release.
Here are four notes:
1. Of those polled, 86 percent said the number of prior authorizations they deal with has increased year-over-year.
2. Only three percent said the number was decreasing and 11 percent said the number was stagnant.
3. Clinicians spend a substantial chunk of time addressing insurance company preauthorization requests. In a release about the poll's results, MGMA President and CEO Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, said, "Health plan demands for prior approval for physician-ordered medical tests, clinical procedures, medications and medical devices ceaselessly question the judgment of physicians, resulting in less time to treat patients and needlessly driving up administrative costs for medical groups."
4. AAFP has referred to the request as a very "manual, time-consuming process" that places burden on family physicians.