The American Medical Association inked a letter to the National Association of Attorneys General asking its members to consider working with health insurers to end preauthorization policies for medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder.
The request references two recent settlements with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Anthem and Cigna ending preauthorization for the treatment.
"The AMA believes that attorneys general can reach the same agreement with all payers, and we pledge our public support in making that happen," James Madara, MD, CEO and executive vice president of the AMA, wrote on behalf of the association.
Dr. Madara said manual and time-consuming processes used in preauthorization policies interrupt care for patients with opioid use disorder. "There is no medical, policy or other reason[,] for payers to use prior authorization for MAT, and we hope that New York's efforts will be the first of many similar ones across the nation," he added.