Cost of Prior Authorization Requests Over a 4-Week Period in Study 1* and Over a 3-Week Period in Study 2†
| Practice | Total Requests (n) | Total Time (min) | Mean Time Per Request (min) | Projected Annual Cost ($) | Mean Requests Per Week (n) | FTE Physicians (n) | Per FTE Physician | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requests Per Week (n) | Time Per Week (min) | Cost Per Week ($) | Cost Per Year ($) | ||||||||
| Study 1‡ | 1 | 103 | 972 | 9.4 | 3804 | 25.8 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 54.6 | 18 | 926 |
| 2 | 49 | 874 | 17.8 | 5020 | 12.3 | 3 | 4.1 | 72.8 | 35 | 1813 | |
| 3 | 63 | 899 | 14.3 | 5112 | 15.8 | 5 | 3.2 | 45 | 21 | 1108 | |
| 4 | 51 | 1,231 | 24.1 | 4647 | 12.8 | 3 | 4.3 | 102.6 | 32 | 1678 | |
| 5 | 38 | 582 | 15.3 | 4250 | 9.5 | 1 | 9.5 | 145.5 | 89 | 4604 | |
| 6 | 29 | 375 | 12.9 | 1979 | 7.3 | 3 | 2.4 | 31.3 | 14 | 715 | |
| 7 | 21 | 382 | 18.2 | 1968 | 5.3 | 2 | 2.6 | 47.8 | 21 | 1066 | |
| 8 | 32 | 434 | 13.6 | 2540 | 8 | 1.5 | 5.3 | 72.3 | 35 | 1835 | |
| 9 | 49 | 735 | 15 | 5278 | 12.3 | 3 | 4.1 | 61.3 | 37 | 1906 | |
| Study 2§ | A | 66 | 1180 | 18 | 13,139 | 22 | 7 | 3.1 | 56.6 | 35 | 1798 |
| B | 14 | 587 | 42 | 7280 | 4.7 | 3 | 1.6 | 65.3 | 47 | 2427 | |
| C | 50 | 1354 | 27 | 17,888 | 16.7 | 3 | 5.6 | 150 | 117 | 6067 | |
↵* Using cost estimates based upon U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010 salary figures.
↵† Using estimates based on data from Salary.com and verified as reasonable by practices.
↵‡ Four weeks during the Autumn of 2010 at each of 9 practices in Upstate New York (from the SALT-Net practice-based research network).
↵§ Three weeks during March 2009 at each of 3 practices in Southeastern Pennsylvania.