By Leigh Burchell (Altera Digital Health), EHRA Public Policy Leadership Workgroup Chair

This is part three in a four-part series examining the need for ePA, the barriers presented by the current environment, necessary capabilities and functionality for progress, and the EHR Association’s policy recommendations. Read part two here. 

There is a strong use case for electronic prior authorization (ePA), given the frustration providers have with the burdensome current processes, and health IT developers recognize the potential that exists for our technologies to assist with making our clients’ lives easier in this area. However, the road to success with ePA will be rocky if it is not broadly rolled out at a pace and with a legal/regulatory cadence that aligns with the ability of stakeholders to deploy and use solutions that follow consistent standards. Therefore, the EHR Association supports the promulgation of ePA requirements only when undertaken in a way that avoids prior policy mistakes of pushing faster than standards development can keep up. 

Rolling out ePrior Authorization will be complex, even moreso than similar efforts at digitization we’ve already accomplished. This complexity stems from the need for change – and adoption of agreed-upon standards – by multiple stakeholders with varying levels of readiness.  For example, it is important to work closely with payers to ensure their readiness for the required bidirectional information flow using standards and to ensure functionality can be sufficiently tested. This also helps avoid a scenario in which payers roll out individual requirements to which EHR developers and providers will have to respond, which would be highly inefficient.