08/04/2026
One year ago, more than 60 health insurers pledged to streamline prior authorization. This month, the industry's own trade group reported the results: roughly 6.5 million prior authorizations eliminated — an 11% reduction (AHIP, July 2026).
Physicians aren't feeling it the same way. In AMA's May 2026 survey of 1,000 practicing physicians, 95% still say prior authorization delays necessary care, 79% report patients abandoning treatment because of it, and 92% say it negatively affects clinical outcomes. Only 16% of physicians working with the two largest plans in the pledge say anything has actually changed for them.
Here's the part that doesn't show up in either number: prior authorization isn't a waiting room. There's no line, no chair, no sign telling the patient why nothing's happening. It's just delay — a treatment a physician already approved, sitting in a queue at the payer, invisible to the person waiting on it. For the staff behind it, it's very much real: physicians and their teams complete an average of 39 prior authorization requests a week (AMA).
That gap — between a pledge existing and a pledge changing anything on the ground — is exactly where workflow automation earns its keep: flagging what needs prior authorization before treatment starts, not after a denial letter arrives.
Has your organization felt any real difference since the insurer pledge — or does prior auth still run exactly like it did a year ago?
