On June 12, a bipartisan group of House (135 members) and Senate (45 senators) members introduced an updated version of the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act (S.4532 and HR 8702). The legislation tackles the overuse and abuse of the prior authorizations by Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. It seeks to restore plan accountability and transparency around their prior authorizations practices and guarantees these utilization management tools do not serve as a barrier to care or a burden to providers.
LeadingAge and LeadingAge Kansas are two of the nearly 400 organizations who are supporting the legislation. The bill was updated to reflect changes CMS made on prior authorizations in its Interoperability and Prior Authorization rule (CMS-0057-F) finalized in March 2024 and to eliminate the high cost of implementation that the Congressional Budget Office estimated when the legislation was last introduced.
