Prior Authorization Harms Cancer Care, Radiation Oncologists Say

Medscape December 5, 2024
Edited by Carol Cruzan Morton

TOPLINE:

Prior authorization may cause treatment delays for patients, prompt physicians to choose less optimal treatments, cause patients to abandon treatments, and result in adverse events and sometimes death, according to the latest survey of US radiation oncologists.

METHODOLOGY:

• The physician specialty with the highest rate of nondrug prior authorization is radiation oncology, found a study of a major Medicare Advantage private insurers, raising concerns about the impact on the 1 million US patients who receive radiation treatments for cancer every year.
• An online survey was sent to all 4601 US-based radiation oncologists in the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) member database, with 754 respondents completing more than half of the questions (response rate, 16.4%) between September 2024...

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