Unfortunately, prior authorization continues to be a burden for providers, practices, and patients. Effective Jan. 1, 2019, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) will retire fax numbers used for medical prior authorization (PA) requests. After this date, UHC will require PA requests to be submitted through their Prior Authorization and Notification tool. Providers who can’t submit requests electronically may call UHC’s provider services line to submit a request by phone.
Certain states and types of plans have a requirement to allow faxed medical PA requests. Although UHC encourages all providers to use its online tool to submit requests, a fax number will still be available for the following states:
- Arizona (commercial only);
- California (community plan only);
- Louisiana (community plan only);
- Massachusetts (commercial and community plan);
- Michigan (community plan only);
- Mississippi (community plan only);
- Nevada (commercial only);
- New York (community plan only);
- Pennsylvania (community plan only); and
- Texas (commercial and community plan).
For more information, including a list of the fax numbers being retired, see UHC’s Prior Authorization Fax Retirement Website. An announcement on this change was also included in UHC’s September Network Bulletin.
Need Assistance?
If you need assistance with a payer issue, visit the ACR’s Insurance Advocacy webpage to submit information about your issue, request assistance from the ACR, and view tools and resources to assist with insurance problems and inquiries.
