Evaluation of the Fast Prior Authorization Technology Highway.

Background: Prior authorization (PA) is a utilization management tool used by health plans and pharmacy benefit managers where the payer requires additional documentation from health care providers before authorization of payment for a medication or procedure. PA processes are hypothesized to be more efficient if electronic transmission is utilized instead of manual submission.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of electronic PA (ePA) on approval rate and time to decision and to assess health care provider perception of using ePA.