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Insurers are easing up on prior authorization.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Beneshore in New York. United Healthcare, the nation's biggest

insurer, announced that it's cutting back on its requirements for prior authorization by 30%.

Prior authorization is where your doctor orders a medical procedure or a test or a drug, but you can't

get it until your insurance company approves it. From the insurer's perspective, it's a way to cut costs and prevent people from getting expensive or unnecessary care. For doctors and patients, it has been a source of massive frustration. United Health isn't the only one to cut back on the requirement, though, and other insurers have been doing this in the past year as well.

Marketplaces Samantha Fields has more.

If you have a chronic health condition, you're probably quite familiar with prior authorization.

Amy Killalay at Georgetown's Center on Health Insurance Reforms has done a lot of research

uncovered for diabetes.

And I will say continuous glucose monitors are often, if not predominantly,

covered with prior authorization attached to them. Lots of other durable medical equipment

prescribed by a doctor often requires insurer approval too, like insulin pumps and wheelchairs.

So do certain surgeries, imaging tests like MRIs, and many

prescription drugs and therapies. K-Pestana at the health policy nonprofit KFF says in polling

people with chronic illnesses... After cost, they say that prior authorization is the biggest

administrative hassle they have. It's also increasingly an issue even for people who don't have a chronic illness.

Pestina says that's likely why there's growing pressure for something to change.

It's coming at a time where costs are going up.

People are signing up for coverage and then realizing that something that they need, the care of their need is not being covered.

...