The bottleneck is not clinical: it is administrative. 39 prior authorizations per physician per week consume 13 staff hours.

Prior authorization (PA) is the most time-consuming administrative process in healthcare. Each request requires clinical documentation, treatment history, diagnostic codes, and payer-specific criteria. Forty per cent of physicians employ staff who work exclusively on PA. The result: delays in urgent treatments, unsustainable administrative burden, and staff burnout. Partial digitisation has created a patchwork of portals, faxes, and phone calls that has not reduced the average time per authorization.

CAQH Index 2022, AMA Survey 2024