8 prior authorization fixes that save staff hours

Prior authorization has become one of the most expensive administrative tasks in a medical practice, measured not in dollars but in hours. The 2025 AMA Prior Authorization Physician Survey found that physicians complete an average of 40 prior authorization requests a week, that physicians and their staff spend roughly 13 hours on the process, and that 40 percent of practices now employ someone who works on prior authorization and nothing else. For most groups, that is among the largest blocks of staff time spent on work that generates no revenue.

Relief has been slow to arrive. Only about a third of physicians believe last year's insurer pledge to streamline prior authorization will make a meaningful difference, denials have climbed over the past five years and MGMA reports that practice spending on prior authorization staffing jumped 43 percent between 2019 and 2024. There is, however, new leverage. Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, affected payers must decide expedited requests within 72 hours and standard requests within seven calendar days, and must give a specific reason for any denial.

Much of the lost time is a workflow problem, not a volume problem, which means a good share of it can be recovered without new staff or new software. The fixes below are about process: who owns the work, when it happens and how it is tracked. Here are eight places to start.