Health Insurers Pare Back Some Prior-Approval Requirements

US health insurers have made it easier for doctors to get approval before providing certain types of treatment, industry groups said, calling it a sign of progress toward alleviating burdensome delays for patients.

Major health plans said they collectively removed thousands of prior authorization requirements for medical procedures since they pledged to cut red tape last year. About 11% of the approvals they mandated in 2024 are no longer in place, according to data from two leading insurance trade associations. That would mean about 6.5 million fewer requests in Medicare and some commercial plans, holding everything else constant, the group said. The data don’t cover prior approvals for prescription drugs.