Contact your elected state officials about pharmacy prior authorizations
Pharmacy prior authorizations are making ever-greater demands on physician offices and are consuming an increasing share of doctors’ time. I simply ask that you write to your Governor, your State Senator, and your State Assembly Person. (Insurance is regulated by the state.)
You may copy and paste the following letter and send it electronically to each of your elected state officials. For NJ residents, use this link and paste the letter, modifying it as you wish:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/SelectMun.asp
For people in other states, an internet search will provide your elected state officials.
……………………..
Dear Governor:
Dear State Senator:
Dear Assembly Person:
I am urging legislation that will reform pharmacy prior authorization demands by health insurance companies, a critically important patient protection, to ensure that psychiatrists, other physicians and health care professionals can prescribe the medications they believe are the most appropriate and efficacious for their patient’s condition. This is especially important at a time when we need to reduce avoidable hospitalizations – a strong component of which is ensuring that patient receive the medications they need.
Currently, psychiatrists are spending nearly a fifth of their time on prior authorizations, time their patients need in order to remain healthy and out of the hospital. Among other things, legislation should remove the requirement that a prescriber “demonstrate” that a medication is medically necessary and warranted – a process that health insurance companies have used to demand endless evidence and documentation. Furthermore, these demands vary among the more than two dozen health insurance companies who each have their own formularies.
Continuity in prescribing psychiatric medication is especially important as different patients with the same diagnosis respond differently to the same medication. There is no one-size-fits-all in psychiatric practice. it takes time to find the most effective medication and dose for any given patient.
As such, I urge you to support legislation that allows doctors to treat patients.
Very truly yours,
leslinetmd 