Indiana Senate advances bill to slash prior authorization turnaround, increase price transparency

Indiana lawmakers are pushing forward a bill that aims to increase payer price transparency and cut down prior authorization turnaround time, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal

The bill, which advanced past the state Senate Health and Provider Services Committee, would require payers to post annual lists of the 30 most-billed medical codes, as well as the percentages of those codes that were approved. 

A hospital may also circumvent prior authorization for a procedure if the payer has approved 90 percent of authorizations for that procedure in the past six months, according to the Journal

The bill would also decrease the time payers have to respond to prior authorization requests. Urgent request timelines would be reduced from three days to one day, and non-urgent procedures must be responded to in two days, down from seven days. 

While the bill has support from legislators and providers, insurers are pushing back, saying the bill may actually decrease transparency. 

"It’s doing nothing but intentionally confusing all of you and your constituents," Logan Harrison, attorney for Indianapolis-based Anthem, told the Journal. "This is not doing anything but increasing cost and confusion. I can't be more blunt about it."

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