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Posted on 06/23/2025 6:39:39 PM PDT by Macho MAGA Man
In a press conference on Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a landmark agreement with the nation’s largest health insurers to tackle the number one healthcare problem plaguing hundreds of millions of Americans: prior authorization.
Prior authorization is the requirement for doctors and patients to get advance approval from insurance companies BEFORE certain treatments, tests, or procedures are covered. It was meant to control costs, but for 85% of Americans, it’s become a serious barrier to care.
“Doctors like myself are continually struggling with this issue,” Dr. Oz said, explaining how the bureaucratic process not only delays treatment but deeply frustrates both providers and patients.
In 2023 alone, Medicare Advantage (which covers about 32 million people) initially denied 3.2 million prior authorization requests. Dr. Oz made clear these are not just numbers: they represent “individuals who often, in the most vulnerable time in their lives, needed something done and it was denied.”
The burden also falls heavily on physicians. On average, doctors spend 12 hours per week on paperwork, handling about 40 prior authorization cases weekly. Dr. Oz said it contributes to burnout, slows down care, and “erodes public trust in the health care system.”
But under RFK Jr.’s leadership, things are changing for the better.
An HHS press release announced today that “health insurers pledged six key reforms aimed at cutting red tape, accelerating care decisions, and enhancing transparency for patients and providers.”
These changes aim to ensure that patients and their doctors no longer have to battle insurance companies just to access common treatments like imaging, outpatient surgery, or physical therapy.
The cooperating insurers include UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, The Cigna Group, Centene Corporation, Elevance Health, Highmark Health, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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There should be no bureaucratic delay. It should be like car insurance. I can phone my agent and state what I want covered about my car. It takes two minutes once I am talking to him.
There should be a plain language front sheet that outlines everything that you are covered for, in front of the rest of the policy, and that’s it. If you want to make adjustments, phone your agent and two minutes later he has also adjusted the price.
Now do deductables.
> In 2023 alone, Medicare Advantage (which covers about 32 million people) initially denied 3.2 million prior authorization requests. <
Ah, Medicare Advantage. Their plans offer lots of goodies. Free this, and free that. But when you really need them, they show their fangs.
I read somewhere that Medicare Advantage makes sense if you are on a tight budget AND are very healthy. Otherwise, stick with original Medicare and buy a supplement.
That’s what I did.
Your mileage may vary.
One of our doctors calls it “Medicare Disadvantage”.
I’m glad RFK jr and Dr. Oz can work together. This was what I had hoped for. Righteous determination plus extensive medical and nutrition experience on a professional level.
Both men very much media savvy, so less minor mistakes getting started.
Winning!
Keep going, Sec. Kennedy, the changes you’re making can help generations of Americans in substantial ways.
I have not had any problem with pre-authorizations. Occasionally I’ve had to have my doctor talk to insurance and then it got approved, but generally it’s a simple and fast process.
AWESOME NEWS!!
I would like to see group insurance made available through organizations other than employers (e.g. churches).
Nope, not tired of winning yet
So many ill-informed, big-media-blinded Americans don’t realize that Trump, RFK Jr. and DOGE’s aim isn’t some sinister plot, it’s an effort, for the first time in history, to eliminate the crushing bureaucracy that is choking the life out of every one of us. It’s obvious our media mavens are 100% behind all the bureaucracy they can get. Unless, of course, it messes with them.
Definitely churches could do it, because it would be ministerial and there is no limit on how a church could minister.
Bkmrk
Co pays should be on all procedures. When the patient has no stake in the cost the cost escalates. There are people in this world who would be glad to spend their entire day, every day, in care or procedures.
And bring back catastrophic coverage.
And independent doctors offices because when your doc works for a health system, you may be the patient, but he/she isn’t working for you.
Also open up slots in medical schools.
Limiting the supply is great for Big Med, but really screws patients.
A very mangy version of Medicare Advantage (this one offered by Aetna) was being forced on retired teachers and other municipal retirees of NYC, by the idiot mayor AND the utterly corrupt municipal union presidents. Though we won 11 court challenges to this, they are still trying to hit what they perceive as the most vulnerable targets, former City employees in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. They claim they need to save money, on the backs of retirees, to offer raises to current employees. It has been on the books for maybe 60 years, that the City provides its retirees with Medicare and a supplemental insurance. What has changed over that time period? The City would rather squander millions of dollars on ILLEGALS who never did a single thing for the city, rather than provide the municipal retirees, who built that city, the insurance they were promised. And, of course, there are pockets to be lined.
According to some polls, the leading candidate in the dimmocrap primary is a muzzlime radical who is short on actual work experience but awash with experience pushing radical muzzlime causes. Take a look at this picture. Look like London to you? Look like typical NYers to you? And see what happened to London after they elected Khan. 
I am 100% satisfied with my Medicare advantage plan.
i cant get thru a Walmart line without some old geezer talking non stop to the poor cashier for 5 minutes after she rung him up.
Anyone who works around old people will soon realize they have a lot of gas built up in their lungs they will unload on anyone who will listen.
And if going from Dr office to Dr. Office is the only people they talk to, and its free, THEY WOULD DO IT!!
especially the ones who have moved to the promised land in North and south carolina from NY, NY, Connecticut. They will tell you endless stories about some damn restaurant or bakery they had at home and how they wish there was one around here.. MOVE BACK KAREN.
We have a family member who just went through hospital hell, on their MediScare Disadvantage plan.
Getting the authorization for PT rehab was a nightmare, even though the PT facility wrote numerous emails and made several calls to the hospital case worker and floor doc - that they had PLENTY of beds available. The PT facility doc said it would’ve been a no hold up/no questions asked, had our family member been on Original Medicare ... which they will be switching to in October.
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