A package of California bills aiming to streamline the prior authorization process recently passed out of Senate and Assembly health committees, the California Medical Association said April 28.
The four-bill “Prioritizing Patients, Empowering Physicians” package was unveiled April 10 by the CMA, state legislators and dozens of physicians.
The bills are:
SB 306: Requires health plans to remove prior authorization requirements from any service that they approve more than 90% of the time, according to the CMA.
AB 510: Requires that appeals of prior authorization denials be performed by a provider of the same or similar specialty.
AB 512: Requires health plans to respond to urgent prior authorization requests within 24 hours and to nonurgent requests within 48 hours. Plans currently have 72 hours for urgent requests and five days for nonurgent requests, the CMA said.
AB 539: Extends the validity of an approved prior authorization to one year. The current industry standard is 60 to 90 days, according to the CMA.
The bills will next be heard in the appropriations committees in their house of origin, according to the CMA.
