Health insurance companies require prior authorization for certain medical procedures, treatments or drugs as a cost-saving measure, but excessive insurer-imposed approval processes can actually increase health costs for employers, according to the American Medical Association. The association on Thursday released data from a new survey that details the adverse impacts that prior-authorization requirements can have. “Benefit plans with excessive authorization controls create serious problems for employers when delayed, denied or abandoned care harms the health of employees and results in missed work days, lost productivity and other costs,” AMA’s president, Dr. Gerald Harmon, said in a press release. According to the AMA survey, 51% of physicians who care for patients in the workforce reported that prior authorization had interfered with a patient’s job responsibilities. Additionally, 34% of physicians reported that prior authorization led to a serious adverse event, such as hospitalization, disability or even death, for a patient in their care. On the clinical side, 88% of physicians surveyed describe the burden associated with prior authorization as high or extremely high. On average, practices complete 41 prior authorization requests per physician per week, according to the survey, with 13 hours spent each week completing authorizations. A national association, the AMA convenes more than 190 state and specialty medical societies and other stakeholders.