Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday that major health insurers have promised to streamline the prior authorization process.
The arrangement is expected to make it easier for people to get advance approvals from their health insurance provider, which are often required for common health tests or prescription services, and procedures like childbirth or colonoscopies.
The voluntary agreement between HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services involves about 40 of the top insurers and hospital systems in the United States.
Insurers are pledging changes that will standardize electronic submissions, reduce the number of services that are subject to prior approval, honor authorizations during insurance transitions, expand transparency around decisions and appeals and ensure medical professionals review cases in the event of a denial.
This could be good news for the approximately 85% of Americans who say that they've been impacted by medical delays because of snarls with prior authorization.
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Officials said insurers are on board with the proposed changes.
"257 million patients are covered by the group that we met with morning," HHS Secretary Kennedy said on Monday. "And while we were in that meeting, another company joined the group. And we expect we're going to have rolling enrollment. So we expect many other companies will also join. The other difference is we have standards this time. We have deliverables. We have specificity on those deliverables. We have metrics and we have deadlines and we have oversight."
Health officials said more details would roll out starting in January of 2026, including a portal to gather data from government and hospitals for the public to review.
