The time-wasting, care-delaying payer cost-control process known as prior authorization is the bane of physicians’ existence.

According to the most recent AMA survey (PDF) of 1,001 practicing physicians, 89% of respondents said prior authorization had a significant or somewhat negative clinical impact, with 33% reporting that prior authorization had led to a serious adverse event such as a death, hospitalization, disability or permanent bodily damage, or other life-threatening event for a patient in their care. …

As the physician’s powerful, relentless ally in health care, the AMA’s hard work to ease the burdens of prior authorization is starting to pay off. There is a long way to go yet, but below you will find some positive signs of progress in the AMA’s long-standing, focused effort to fix prior authorization.

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.