Clinician Survey Reveals the Path Forward for Prior Authorization Innovation

One thing is clear: pharmacists and prescribers are frustrated by the typical process required for prior authorizations, which they say is a major contributor to clinician burnout and can cause patient harm, according to a new survey.

Despite these challenges, clinicians remain optimistic that using innovative technology can eliminate barriers and improve access to timely, effective treatment for patients in their care.

Go deeper

Healthcare Professionals Highlight Medication Prior Authorization Challenges & Solutions

Why It Matters:

Prior authorization aims to protect patient safety and support overall better-quality care—but when the process is slow, manual, and inconsistent, it may do the opposite. The result can mean hours of additional administrative work for prescribers and pharmacists and worse, delaying patients from accessing needed treatments.

What It Means for Healthcare:

One of the questions asked clinicians what would you do with one extra hour per week? It doesn’t come as a surprise that most prescribers and pharmacists said they would spend it providing direct patient care.

These insights are valuable because they confirm for us where innovation and collaboration could have the greatest impact on how healthcare is delivered for care providers and their patients.

Informing the Path Forward:

The prior authorization challenge is complicated and affects all sides of the care team – prescribers, pharmacists, and care managers. Solving this challenge, however, relies on a relatively simple premise: innovation through collaboration.

Leveraging existing interoperability and key partnerships, Surescripts was able to develop its Touchless Prior Authorization capability. Collaborating with health systems and health plans meant this technology wouldn’t just shift the burden but eliminate it from impacting any part of the care team.

Most importantly, it meant helping patients get started on treatment faster.

Results that Matter:

UNC Health’s Angela Odham says automating prior authorization is enabling providers to “spend time with the patient.” Her team’s reaction? “Over the moon.”

It’s not just about moving faster; it’s about getting it right.

At HIMSS25, Lauren Hackenberg, Senior Director of Provider Capabilities at Optum, shared that Touchless Prior Authorization not only saves time but may improve accuracy.

“The frustration comes with the administrative burden and the back-and-forth,” she noted. And now, with Touchless Prior Authorization, “we're getting it right the first time.”

“We would actually argue that there's more clinical rigor when we're pulling that clinical information from the EHR—versus the manual entry that goes on with prior authorization today,” said Hackenberg.