New Ohio law aims to streamline medical authorization

A bill designed to streamline preauthorization of medical treatments was signed into law Monday by Gov. John Kasich (Source: “New Ohio law to speed medical authorization,” Toledo Blade, June 14, 2016).

Senate Bill 129, sponsored by Sens. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green) and Capri Cafaro (D., Hubbard) requires private insurers and Medicaid to make decisions more quickly. It streamlines the appeals process and requires insurance companies to retire their old fax machines in favor of processing requests through new Internet portals.

The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously.

The measure is a reaction to complaints from patients, physicians, and other medical providers that they were often caught in the middle when requests to preauthorize payment for medical treatments, drugs and devices lingered unanswered or when insurers initially approved the requests and then changed their minds. When presented with such requests by medical providers under the new law, insurance companies would have to make decisions within 48 hours in urgent cases and within 10 days in nonurgent cases, beginning in 2018.