Turning Fragmented Patient Data into Faster Therapy Starts

While the doctor works to hunt down critical patient data, the patient spends days or weeks waiting for therapy.

“Sarah” came away from the clinic with a new diagnosis: a serious autoimmune condition. Her doctor prescribed a breakthrough biologic therapy that showed positive clinical outcomes for other patients with her diagnosis. Sarah was excited about the prospect of managing her condition, hopeful because of the results other patients had seen, and optimistic about returning to work and family life. Her doctor even thought that she might resume her beloved morning runs again.

Then prior authorization ground it all to a halt because of missing information.

It’s an old story. But it’s more than that. It’s an old story with a twist: Technological advances are delivering real value for life sciences companies, and as a result, breakthrough medications are becoming more common. But these medications often require prior authorization due to their cost and complexity.

Scattered bits of patient data—information that’s missing when you need it most—makes the problem worse. And so, the prior authorization is delayed or denied, and the patient is stuck in limbo.

The Cost of Missing Information

Missing information isn’t the only reason prior authorizations get delayed or denied, but it’s a big one. Fragmented and missing patient data costs American healthcare billions each year because of time lost when critical information isn’t available at the point of care.

In other words, missing information blocks patient access:

• There’s uncertainty around medication costs and coverage gaps
• This leads to prior authorization delays that can stretch for days or weeks
• Gaps in care coordination then make it difficult for health systems and health plans to know that patients don’t have their medication or have become non-adherent

Some patients give up altogether, while life sciences companies see their breakthrough therapies reach fewer patients than they should.

How to Find and Glue Patient Data—And Make It Stick

Surescripts Prior Authorization Platform for Life Sciences accelerates patient access to breakthrough therapies for life sciences companies, so when Sarah is prescribed biologic therapy, her doctor already knows about her insurance coverage and medication history, and whether prior authorization is required.

This platform is the glue that’s needed to complete the picture, as it’s designed to work within health system and health plan workflows, reducing friction, delays and rework in prior authorization for clinicians and care managers, and speeding time to therapy.

Prior Authorization Platform for Life Sciences:

• Supports therapy uptake and adherence, helping ensure that approved prescriptions translate into actual therapy starts
• Enables same-day therapy starts in many cases because prior authorization can be initiated and completed automatically at the point of prescribing
• Reduces risk of treatment abandonment, as faster determinations create a shorter path from prescription to fulfillment

Intelligent prior authorization workflows generate high‑fidelity signals, and in turn, our network‑validated data transforms those signals into actionable intelligence. This gives life sciences companies a near‑real‑time, trusted view of where prior authorization and coverage barriers delay therapy, enabling smarter access strategies that help patients start treatment sooner.

With 83% of prescribers citing prior authorization as the biggest impediment to improving speed to therapy, Prior Authorization Platform for Life Sciences addresses this challenge by helping pharmaceutical and biotech companies get their innovative therapies from prescription to fulfillment.

Most importantly, it helps patients like Sarah get back to work, back to morning runs, and back to life.