After weeks of protest from AGA and the GI community, UnitedHealthcare shelved the prior authorization policy for GI endoscopy planned to go into effect today, but replaced it with a nebulous Advance Notification Program.
This program requires you to provide even more data on top of the current burdensome paperwork requirements. It is a temporary patch – patients will not be denied care immediately, but the downstream effects of the program could be as bad or worse for patient access.
This is not the end of the road.
AGA is in this battle for the long haul, and we’re prepared to continue fighting for you and your patients.
What’s next? We need to hear from you – share your stories and data about how this policy change is affecting your patients and practice.
This misguided program involves a poorly defined and complicated administrative process that will ultimately impact millions of Americans who require colonoscopies or endoscopies and exacerbate administrative burdens.
Read more about the policy and AGA leaders’ comments about it in Axios and Managed Healthcare Executive.
