What We’re Doing and Why It’s Working
IngenioRx’s proactive PA process focuses on timeliness, scientific accuracy, and provider feedback. Here are key measures we’re taking to achieve these goals:
- Smart Utilization Management (UM) Process: IngenioRx has developed a best-in-class smart UM process that uses proprietary support tools such as:
- Automating decision-making: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) speeds up and automates PA reviews through stored member, provider, and clinical data. Our system can automatically complete a PA when we identify a required medical diagnosis in a medical claims system.
- Automating the utilization review process: IngenioRx uses predictive analytics to automate the utilization review process in real-time when PA requests are received electronically or through our Interactive Care Reviewer (ICR) portal. Members and providers can submit a PA for approval before a prescription is sent to a pharmacy. If approved, the pharmacy claim then pays without interruption.
Improved Electronic Prior Authorization Process: Electronic PAs (ePAs), which integrate with electronic medical record data, are the fastest way to submit and receive PA reviews and determinations. Providers can submit through their electronic medical record systems if the systems have ePA capabilities. ePAs are easier for providers to use and faster than traditional phone and fax methods. As a result, health plans’ operational efficiencies are increased, and members receive PA determinations sooner. In a study published by the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, a pharmacy ambulatory care clinic using ePAs realized a 62% decrease in PA turnaround time.2
Enhanced Utilization Management (UM) Portal: IngenioRx uses an innovative provider-facing UM portal known as the Interactive Care Reviewer (ICR). The ICR allows providers to submit electronic PA requests 24 hours a day and track their status.
Quarterly Reviews: IngenioRx reviews our clinical criteria quarterly and whenever new clinical evidence is available. In addition, we identify drug services, therapies, or treatments with high approval rates to determine if a PA requirement should be removed.
The Bottom Line
IngenioRx is committed to enhancing our PA process, and our improvements are working. To date, we’ve reduced approximately 133,000 PAs per year (12% of total PAs) and successfully approved 800,000 ePAs in real-time.3 We will continue to find new ways to save time and money for members and healthcare providers. If you’re a provider, you can learn more about our ePA process, including how to submit a PA request and whom to contact if you have questions.
1Lyu, Heather, Tim Xu, Daniel Brotman, Brandan Mayer-Blackwell, Michol Cooper, Michael Daniel, Elizabeth C. Wick, Vikas Saini, Shannon Brownlee, and Martin A. Makary. 2017. “Overtreatment in the United States.”
2Birdsall, Ashley D., Ashley M. Kappenman, Bryce T. Covey, and Matthew H. Rim. Implementation and impact assessment of integrated electronic prior authorization in an academic health system, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, July 2020.
3Internal IngenioRx data, 2020.