The way forward for prior authorizations
Prior authorization remains one of the biggest administrative challenges in healthcare — driving delays, denials, and staff burden. Organizations like Mercy and WakeMed are using automation and real-time workflows to reduce manual effort and improve performance.
Reducing manual work at scale
For large health systems, prior authorization volume can be overwhelming — requiring significant time and resources to manage.
Kim Green, Director of Patient Access/Central Insurance Authorizations at Mercy, shared how automation is transforming that workload:
“We submit about 120K transactions monthly, and 72% get automatically approved.”
By automating large portions of the authorization process, teams can reduce manual effort and focus on higher-value work.
“We do see a tremendous reduction,” says Green. “We’ve been able to repurpose [staff] into future automation ideas.”
Balancing automation with trust
As organizations adopt AI and automation, building trust across teams is critical to success.
Ruby Floyd, Director of Financial Clearance at WakeMed, emphasized that accuracy and reliability drive adoption, ensuring consistent performance helps teams feel confident relying on automation in their day-to-day workflows.
Connecting authorization workflows
By combining automation, real-time payer connectivity, and AI-driven workflows, organizations can reduce administrative burden, improve authorization outcomes, and accelerate care delivery.
Learn how Waystar can help you streamline prior authorizations and reduce operational complexity.
