Neurosurgery Urges Congressional Leaders to Include Prior Authorization Reform in Year-End Spending Bill

• The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
  Speaker
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington, DC 20515
• The Honorable Charles E. Schumer
  Majority Leader
  U.S. Senate
  Washington, DC 20510
• The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
  Minority Leader
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington, DC 20515
• The Honorable Mitch McConnell
  Minority Leader
  U.S. Senate
  Washington, DC 20510

Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, and Leaders Schumer and McConnell:

We strongly urge you to advance the “Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act” (H.R. 3173/S. 3018) in any year-end legislative package under development by the House and Senate.

This legislation would establish an electric prior authorization program in Medicare Advantage (MA) and would require MA plans to provide real-time decisions in response to requests for items and services that are routinely approved. Notably, the legislation was created with the basic policy proposition that Congress can and should ensure proper transparency and oversight of the MA program to protect our nation’s seniors. Therefore, the bill would also require MA plans to provide data about their use of prior authorization to the public.

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