The powerful House Ways and Means Committee has advanced provisions that would help bring badly needed reforms to the prior-authorization process within Medicare Advantage.

The provisions passed last week hew closely to the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act. That bipartisan legislation was introduced by Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Mike Kelly, R-Pa., Ami Bera, MD, D-Calif., and Larry Bucshon, MD, R-Ind. The bill’s provisions are strongly supported by the AMA, which played a major role in securing enough cosponsors to ensure it passed the House of Representatives (PDF) last September. The legislation, however, stalled in the Senate due to a flawed $16 billion cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.