pre-authorization

noun

pre-au·​tho·​ri·​za·​tion ˌprē-ˌȯ-th(ə-)rə-ˈzā-shən 

variants or preauthorization

: prior authorization

pre-authorization of credit card purchases

especially : authorization (as by an insurer) that is required prior to performance of a health-care service (such as a surgery or prescription of a drug)

Hospital leaders expect the new managed care companies to demand pre-authorization for many treatments, which could lead to fewer reimbursements and more hospital staff time devoted to hashing out billing differences.

—Tony Leys

Preauthorization requires doctors, like me, to spend time we do not have dealing with insurance companies to get the medicine our patients so desperately need.

—Chinazo Cunningham

pre-authorize

ˌprē-ˈȯ-thə-ˌrīz 

transitive verb

or preauthorize

Examples of pre-authorization in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On the minus side, though, the obesity drugs are expensive and often require doctors to fill out burdensome pre-authorization forms for insurance. —Gina Kolata, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2024

Staying in-network and getting pre-authorizations when needed could save you a lot of money. —Elizabeth Davis, Verywell Health, 27 Feb. 2024

Similarly, if a plan has fewer pre-authorizations or if pre-authorizations are cleared up faster than in other plans, consumers don’t get to learn about those facts either. —John C. Goodman, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024

The Pentagon has called the strikes self-defense, which would not require pre-authorization from Congress. —Martha Raddatz, ABC News, 26 Jan. 2024

These include the use of step edits to discourage doctors from prescribing the more expensive drugs first; or requiring pre-authorization, usually in the form of a specific diagnosis and data on the patient, such as the presence of co-morbidities before dispensing and reimbursing a product. —Joshua Cohen, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023

Maritime experts have proposed ideas like government pre-authorization for icebreakers from either country to cross the strait to respond to oil spills, said Paul Fuhs, a former mayor of the Aleutian town of Unalaska who’s worked on international maritime issues. —Nathaniel Herz, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Sep. 2023

Insurers have slashed their reimbursement rates, cost them patients by excluding them from their provider networks, and forced them to spend extra time seeking pre-authorizations for ever more procedures and battling denials of coverage. —Cezary Podkul, ProPublica, 14 Aug. 2023

Get pre-authorization for tests, procedures Before a medical test or procedure - even when the testing center, doctor’s office or hospital tells you that it has been authorized by your health insurance provider - verify it. —Lindsey Bever, Anchorage Daily News, 15 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1949, in the meaning defined above