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Already in effect (January 1, 2026): Standard PA decisions within 7 calendar days (down from 14) Urgent PA decisions within 72 hours Specific denial reasons required on every denial (not just not medically necessary) Applies to Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, CHIP, and ACA Marketplace plans Coming March 31, 2026: Payers must publicly report PA metrics for calendar year 2025: approval/denial rates, average decision times, and appeals outcomes Providers will be able to compare payer performance for the first time Coming January 1, 2027: FHIR-based Prior Authorization APIs required providers check PA requirements, submit requests, and receive decisions electronically through their EHR Expected to reduce average PA processing time from days to minutes for standard requests Medicare WISeR Model (live in AZ and WA): The Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction pilot launched January 2026 in six states including Arizona and Washington

What Doctors Recommend Doctors are increasingly prescribing GLP-1s for long-term weight and diabetes managementespecially when lifestyle changes alone dont work
Because of this, study designs in female populations sometimes prioritize different measurement endpoints, such as changes in regional fat distribution, over total-body-fat metrics more commonly used in male-focused research