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Prior authorization: Valuable cost-saver or bureaucratic black hole?
Insurance companies require prior authorization as a cost-saving measure, but the current system doesn’t benefit patients or providers. Dr. Danielle Ofri says that, in theory, this is a reasonable way to control costs by making it harder to prescribe costlier medications. However, in practice, it is a wasteful administrative nightmare, a cavalcade of recurring paperwork, lengthy phone calls and bureaucratic battles.