The controversial prior authorization policy for colonoscopies that UnitedHealthcare wanted to put into effect today will not take place, the company said last night in a statement.
Instead UHC wants to implement an alternative advance notification process that would require physicians to collect and submit patient data before performing non-screening and nonemergent colonoscopies, capsule endoscopis and esophagogastroduodenoscopies.
That doesn’t settle the matter and in fact could be interpreted as being more ominous to patients and the physicians who perform colonoscopies, Barbara H. Jung, M.D., the president of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), said in a statement last night.