The New York Times has published a video opinion entitled “What’s My Life Worth? The Big Business of Denying Medical Care,” which illustrates how “profit-seeking insurance companies” use the prior authorization process “to create intentional barriers between patients and the healthcare they need.” As stated in the video: “At best, it’s just a minor bureaucratic headache. At worst, people have died.”
The authors interviewed over 50 patients and physicians, who described “horror stories” with the prior authorization process. Some of the interviews are shown on the video, including a woman who went blind when her insurance company delayed treatment for blurry vision, a man who was paralyzed when his insurance company stopped his medication for multiple sclerosis, and a woman whose father died after his insurance company repeatedly delayed chemotherapy, all as a result of the prior authorization process.
The video describes the prior authorization process as “medical injustice disguised as paperwork” and concludes that insurance companies are “weaponizing a mundane process to control doctors and inflate their profits.” The video also states that one-third of physicians have reported that delays in prior authorization had caused serious medical issues, including deaths.
Although prior authorization was originally intended to reduce costs, the video finds that it “actually creates a lot of expensive bureaucracy,” estimated at $35 billion in administrative costs every year. At the same time, insurance companies have been very profitable. Last year, UnitedHealthcare earned $22 billion in profits, Elevance (formerly Anthem) earned $6 billion in profits, and Cigna earned $5.2 billion in profits.
The video opinion concludes that “prior authorization gives your insurance companies more power than your doctor.” As a result, the video recommends that the government either abolish prior authorization or at least reform it.
The New York Times opinion video is linked here.