What Are Prior Authorizations?
What Are Prior Authorizations? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Prior authorizations are another big issue many patients may encounter. Joanna Morales, Esq, CEO of Triage Cancer describes what a prior authorization is.
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Transcript
Diahanna Vallentine:
Let’s go into prior authorizations, that’s another big issue, that patients have…What are prior authorizations?
Joanna Morales:
So prior authorizations are a requirement that an insurance company wants you to get permission from them before you actually get any medical care or get access to a prescription drug, and prior authorizations can be called different things, so they might be called prior auths or pre-authorizations or pre-auths, so if you hear these terms, they mean the same thing, but unfortunately, most interns company is don’t give you a list of the things you need to get prior authorizations for. So, you always have to be proactive as a patient and ask your insurance company if you need a prior authorization for any of the medical care that you’re going to receive, now, if you happen to be getting care at a larger hospital, your healthcare team might actually be submitting the prior authorizations for you, but it’s still your responsibility as the consumer and the patient to be checking if you need that prior authorization because if you don’t, and your healthcare team fails to get the prior authorization, if you get that medical care, then your insurance company could come back and say, we’re not covering that care because you didn’t get the prior authorization. So, it’s always important to proactively find out if you need the prior authorization before you get any care.
