Proceedings of the AMCP partnership forum: NCPDP electronic prior authorization standards-building a managed care implementation plan

Today's manual prior authorization (PA) process is often viewed by providers, payers, pharmacists, and patients as cumbersome, costly, and inefficient. The recent approval by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs of a standard transaction for electronic prior authorization (e-PA) has paved the way for more rapid and efficient processing of PA requests. On April 23, 2014, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) convened a meeting of key stakeholders to explore how to support the process of implementing the new standard transactions for e-PA and to recommend activities and programs that AMCP can promote to speed the adoption of e-PA. This Partnership Forum included individuals from managed care organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacy benefit managers, electronic prescription hubs or networks, and health information technology vendors. The speakers and panelists recommended that AMCP should develop measurable goals for staged and full implementation of e-PA. To accomplish this, it was recommended that AMCP work to collaborate with organizations representing these stakeholders. Additionally, it was recommended that AMCP develop managed care e-PA implementation and e-PA criteria guides, as well as an e-PA scorecard.