The country’s No. 1 health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and another insurance giant—Cigna Healthcare—recently announced tentative steps to reduce the volume of care-delaying, time-wasting prior authorizations they require.

Starting this month, several UnitedHealthcare plans will start eliminating the prior authorization requirement for many procedure codes that the insurer says account for nearly 20% of its overall prior authorization volume. The company also said that next year it will implement a “gold card” program allowing those who qualify to follow a “simple administrative notification process for most procedure codes” instead of prior authorization. Cigna, meanwhile, said it is removing nearly 25% of medical services from prior authorization requirements.

The insurers’ efforts “begin to reduce the overwhelming volume of prior authorization requirements that are threatening patients’ health and wasting valuable health care resources,” said AMA Immediate Past President Jack Resneck, MD.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Bipartisan legislation called the “GOLD CARD Act” to give physicians relief from the time-wasting burden of prior authorization has been introduced in this session of Congress.

H.R. 4968, the Getting Over Lengthy Delays in Care as Required by Doctors Act of 2023, would exempt physicians from Medicare Advantage plan prior authorization requirements so long as 90% of the physicians’ prior authorization requests were approved in the preceding 12 months. Medicare Advantage plan-issued gold cards would be applicable only to items and services—and exclude drugs—and remain in effect for at least a year. The legislation is based on a similar law enacted in Texas that took effect in 2021.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.