A recent study by CAQH ( CAQH 2019 Index ) shows that providers spend almost $11 per prior authorization when the same transaction, if done electronically, costs about $1.88. The study shows that providers could save as much as $454 Million by transitioning to electronic pre-authorizations. This is a snapshot in time, as the costs of manual transactions continue to rise year on year while costs of electronic transactions fall.
According to Anders Gilberg, senior vice president of government affairs at MGMA, “The just-released CAQH 2019 Index confirms MGMA’s findings that the financial burden of prior authorization requirements on physician practices is increasing at an alarming rate… In 2020, practices should not be forced to rely on fax machines to complete manual prior authorizations when health plans could modernize the process”
There are many forms of administrative waste, but the study shows that across medicine in general, just 8 common activities consume more than $13.3 Billion MORE when done manually than when done electronically.
For more on this, see this article in Fierce Healthcare: Alarming Rise in Costs for Prior-Authorizations
