Look Beyond Single-Use Prior Authorization Solutions: Jeff Hunnicutt

As new vendors enter the prior authorization space, community oncology practices should rigorously vet potential partners, looking for solutions that can scale beyond a single use case, Jeff Hunnicutt, chief operating officer at Navista, told The American Journal of Managed Care^® earlier this week at the Community Oncology Alliance Payer Exchange & Innovation Summit.

At the meeting, Hunnicutt was a part of the “Oncology Innovation Showcase: Prior Authorization Solutions” session, in which he, alongside fellow panelists Glenn Balasky and Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, MPH, provided an overview of available programs, vendors, and support tools to help streamline prior authorization workflows, supporting timely patient access to cancer care.

During the interview, Hunnicutt described prior authorization as a challenge affecting every practice and has intensified over the past 10 to 15 years as insurers pile on requirements. As a result, practices are often forced to outsource resources or dedicate significant full-time-equivalent hours to staff who do little else but follow up with insurance carriers, a process he called inefficient and a major drag on operations.

Hunnicutt pointed to a wave of new market entrants tackling prior authorization, many built around large language models and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) rather than the portal-based or offshore outsourcing solutions that have dominated in recent years. Several vendors are developing tools to automate the "hunter-gatherer" work of tracking down information for insurers. While pilot programs have picked up over the past 6 to 12 months, he noted that the space is still young, with limited evidence yet on which solutions actually deliver results.

When evaluating vendors, Hunnicutt emphasized that practices must look beyond a single-point solution, urging the practices to interview vendors in return and assess their “appetite and aptitude” for building a broader suite of tools for their needs.

“Working with these guys, you’ve got to make sure that you're really, really diligent [about] seeing who has the ability to be able to do more than just what they're selling at that moment,” he said.

Looking ahead, Hunnicutt noted that he expects the next wave of innovation to focus on automating the back-and-forth communication between practices and insurers, much of which still happens manually by phone or digital message. He said he is particularly optimistic about advances in voice-based AI agents, ultimately freeing up staff time currently spent on administrative tasks for more direct patient care.