I’ll believe it when I see it.
Health insurance pre-authorization, for example, is when your eye specialist recommends removal of your cataracts so you can see again, but your insurance company wants some clerk or administrator to review everything and either agree or disagree with your physician. If disagree, no eye surgery for you. Unless you’re willing to pay entirely out-of-pocket. Mind you, the clerk does not have a medical degree and has never examined you or spoken to you. Isn’t this one of the reasons Luigi Mangione executed that healthcare executive?
From American Greatness:
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined other federal health officials on Monday to promote an initiative to end the practice of healthcare insurance pre-authorization.
Kennedy was joined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz as part of a roundtable discussion with insurers to discuss pledges made by the health insurance industry to streamline and reform the prior authorization process for Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Managed Care and Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace plans which account for most insured Americans.
The HHS Secretary commented on how when he joined the presidential transition team, he was told that the single most important thing he could do to improve the experience of patients across the nation was to “end the scourge of pre-authorization.”
Of course, the unsurers will argue that pre-authorization is necessary because those greedy doctors are recommending that surgery, MRI scan, specialty consultation, or physical therapy merely out of greed.
Steve Parker, M.D.
Advanced Mediterranean Diet 