From Paperwork to Precision: The Case for AI in Utilization Management

In Utilization Management (UM), nurses often spend hours reviewing lengthy clinical records to identify the small subset of information needed for a medical necessity determination. These files—sometimes exceeding dozens or even hundreds of pages—contain physician notes, lab results, imaging reports, and discharge summaries scattered throughout, with no standardized structure or clear prioritization of relevance. Extracting the critical details requires reading line-by-line, cross-referencing across sections, and manually piecing together the patient’s clinical story.

This process is not only labor-intensive but also misaligned with the role of skilled clinicians. Instead of applying their expertise to complex medical decision-making, UM nurses are forced into the role of document synthesizers. Across thousands of cases, this leads to slower review cycles, increased administrative costs, elevated burnout risk, and unnecessary delays in care. According to the American Journal of Managed Care, prior authorization processes already contribute billions in wasted administrative time annually¹ — inefficient record summarization is a major driver of that burden.²

As case volumes rise and the complexity of medical documentation grows, the challenge is accelerating. Without tools that can rapidly distill large records into clear, accurate summaries, UM operations will remain constrained by a bottleneck that limits both efficiency and clinical focus.

In addition to navigating lengthy records, UM nurses must also manually cross-check clinical details against InterQual, MCG, or CMS criteria to determine medical necessity. This process often requires flipping between multiple systems or documents—matching diagnosis codes, lab values, imaging findings, and treatment history against guideline requirements. It is a time-consuming and error-prone task that diverts focus from clinical judgment to administrative box-checking. Without automated assistance to align extracted data with the appropriate guidelines, even straightforward cases can take far longer than necessary, delaying care and increasing the risk of inconsistencies in determinations.

AI-Powered Tools That Empower Clinical Reviewers

The next generation of AI offers a powerful set of tools designed to address the core inefficiencies in Utilization Management. Rather than replacing the nurse’s clinical judgment, these technologies support it—streamlining routine tasks, improving information access, and accelerating decision-making while maintaining compliance and auditability. Some examples of how health plans can harness AI in their clinical review workflows are:  

• Automatically summarize complex clinical records, distilling hundreds of pages into structured briefs that highlight only the clinically relevant information tied to medical necessity criteria.
  

• Contextualize clinical details within InterQual, MCG, or CMS guidelines, using large language models (LLMs) trained to understand and map patient data directly to the applicable authorization framework—eliminating the need for constant manual reference.
  

• Intelligently route cases based on urgency, flagging high-priority or time-sensitive cases for immediate review, while categorizing lower-risk cases accordingly to optimize nurse workload distribution.
  

• Enable real-time support through clinical chat assistants, which can answer reviewer questions about documentation, summarize patient history on request, or locate specific data points in the medical record—saving time and reducing cognitive load.
  

• Standardize case outputs across reviewers and case types, ensuring consistency in how data is presented, interpreted, and acted upon.

The impact is immediate and measurable. Nurses begin reviews with the essential information already organized, supported by tools that minimize administrative overhead and reinforce clinical accuracy. What once took hours now takes minutes. Teams can handle higher case volumes without increasing staffing—and nurses are empowered to focus on clinical determinations, not paperwork.

A Call to Action for Health Plan Leaders

The reality is clear: manual summarization of complex medical records is one of the most persistent inefficiencies in UM. It consumes valuable clinical resources, slows authorizations, and increases the risk of burnout among nurses. The cost—both operational and human—will only rise as case volumes increase and medical documentation grows in length and complexity.

Health plan leaders have a choice: continue absorbing the costs of manual summarization or adopt AI solutions that deliver ready-to-review summaries while preserving full compliance and audit integrity. The technology is ready, the ROI is clear, and the benefits extend beyond efficiency to workforce well-being and member satisfaction.

It is time to remove the bottleneck that forces nurses to act as document compilers. Let AI handle the paperwork, intake complexity, and information retrieval. Let nurses focus on what they do best—making informed clinical determinations that ensure appropriate care and efficient use of healthcare resources.

Reach out to discover how Mizzeto is helping plans modernize their UM workflows – book time with our team here!

Sources

1. Prior Authorizations and the Adverse Impact on Continuity of Care

2. Influence of Prior Authorization Requirements on Provider Clinical Decision-Making

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The Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

For health plans, few operational bottlenecks are as quietly persistent—and costly—as prior authorization (PA) intake. Every day, thousands of requests pour in through fax, email, portals, and clearinghouses. Yet despite the sophisticated systems built to handle medical necessity review, authorization routing, and compliance tracking, the starting point of it all—the intake process—is often neglected.

The reality is that many health plans still rely on fragmented, manual workflows to manage the flood of prior auth submissions. Intake teams are stuck toggling between scanned PDFs, legacy document management systems, outdated provider rosters, and multiple eligibility files just to determine if a request is complete and processable. The result is a slow, error-prone, resource-intensive gatekeeping function that delays care, frustrates providers, and drives up administrative overhead.

Ironically, most plans don’t struggle because they lack infrastructure. They struggle because their infrastructure was built to handle review—not to parse and process messy, unstructured incoming data. The core systems weren’t designed for the intake chaos of 2025, where information arrives in every format imaginable, and basic data like member ID, provider NPI, and service codes often require interpretation before integration.

This intake inefficiency sits upstream from every subsequent step—and yet it’s rarely prioritized. Why? Because fixing it has traditionally meant either adding manual labor or undertaking a high-risk replacement of core utilization management platforms. Neither path is attractive to CIOs or COOs already managing legacy migrations and regulatory deadlines.

But the cost of inaction is growing. With CMS’s 2026 Prior Authorization mandate (CMS-0057-F) tightening turnaround windows and requiring electronic PA capabilities, intake can no longer be treated as a clerical function. It’s the new front line of compliance and performance.¹

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Why Intake Inefficiency Is a Strategic Liability

While the pain of prior authorization delays is felt most acutely by providers and patients, the underlying operational burden falls squarely on health plans. When intake is slow or inconsistent, it doesn’t just delay care—it ripples downstream into nearly every facet of plan operations.

Incomplete or misrouted requests lead to longer turnaround times, increased denial rates, and a surge in resubmissions. Nurses are pulled away from clinical review to correct simple data entry issues. Providers call in to clarify missing details. Members wait longer for procedures or medications to be approved. And compliance risks mount as aging requests near regulatory deadlines.

According to the CAQH 2023 Index Report, manual prior authorization costs $13.40 more per transaction than its electronic counterpart, largely due to intake and rework inefficiencies . Yet over 88 million prior auths are still processed manually each year, with 80% of them initiated by fax or unstructured forms.²

Meanwhile, a 2022 American Medical Association survey found that 93% of physicians report care delays due to prior authorization, with 34% citing serious adverse events tied to those delays . The bulk of these delays are not caused by clinical complexity but by administrative friction at intake.³

This creates a strategic liability. Health plans are under increasing pressure to reduce administrative spending (which accounts for 15–25% of total expenditures) while improving provider experience and regulatory compliance . But none of those goals are achievable if the intake function remains slow, manual, and error-prone.⁴

The real cost isn’t just in labor—it’s in opportunity. Health plans are investing in automation, AI, and real-time decisioning tools. But these investments won’t yield full returns if they’re fed by an intake process that can’t reliably deliver clean, structured, validated data to downstream systems. In effect, sophisticated engines are being starved of usable fuel.

The Solution: Modernizing Intake Without Starting Over

The good news is that fixing PA intake doesn’t require a full rip-and-replace of your core UM system. In fact, the most effective path forward is often modular: implementing intelligent intake layers that sit alongside and integrate with your existing systems, without disrupting what already works.

This modern intake model starts with intelligent document processing. Using OCR tailored for healthcare forms, NLP trained on clinical data, and AI-powered classification engines, health plans can automatically extract structured information from scanned faxes, PDFs, and web forms with high accuracy. These tools go beyond traditional OCR, understanding context and flagging ambiguous or missing data for real-time resolution.

Next comes automated validation. As data is captured, it’s cross-referenced against the plan’s eligibility files, provider rosters, and benefit rules. Does the member exist and is coverage active? Is the provider in-network and authorized? Is the requested service a covered benefit—and does it require prior auth? These checks can now be performed instantly, ensuring only clean, actionable requests proceed to clinical review.

Critically, this new intake layer doesn’t replace your core UM platform. It augments it—feeding clean data into existing workflows, auto-generating work queues, and routing validated requests to the right teams. Most vendors offering intelligent intake solutions provide robust API integrations, ensuring compatibility with legacy systems and allowing gradual rollout across lines of business.

Some health plans are even piloting “zero-touch” intake models, where fully validated requests bypass manual review and move directly to rules-based auto-authorization. While not every case qualifies, even a 20–30% reduction in manual intake workload can deliver measurable ROI within months, according to McKinsey & Company.⁵

Importantly, these tools also support compliance. By logging when a request was received, when data was validated, and when it moved to review, plans can easily demonstrate adherence to CMS’s forthcoming 72-hour and 7-day turnaround requirements. And because the system ensures eligibility and provider validation before clinical review, the risk of improper denial due to administrative error is dramatically reduced.

Now Is the Time to Act

For health plan leaders, the message is clear: fixing prior authorization starts at intake. And in today’s environment, doing so doesn’t require overhauling your entire system architecture.

The technology exists. The regulatory pressure is building. And the return on investment—lower admin costs, faster approvals, improved provider satisfaction—is compelling. The real question is whether intake modernization will be treated as a strategic imperative or remain buried under more visible initiatives.

C-suite leaders should prioritize intake transformation as a foundational component of digital utilization management. That means investing in tools that turn unstructured faxes and PDFs into structured, validated data. It means automating eligibility and provider checks before clinical review. And it means doing all of this without disrupting the systems your teams already rely on.

As 2026 approaches, health plans that wait to address intake risk falling behind. Plans that act now can turn a persistent bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

At Mizzeto, we help health plans modernize UM intake—without ripping out their core systems. Our intelligent intake suite integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, automating fax, form, and eligibility workflows so your teams can focus on decisions, not data entry. If you're preparing for CMS's 2026 mandate—or simply want to deliver faster care at lower cost—now is the time to act.

Let’s talk about what smarter intake could look like for your organization. Visit www.mizzeto.com or reach out directly to start your transformation.

Sources

¹ CMS

²CAQH

³AMA

⁴Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker

⁵McKinsey & Company

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Modernizing UM Intake

For health plans seeking to modernize utilization management (UM), streamline operations, and meet the evolving expectations of regulators and providers alike, one core issue remains persistently overlooked: the absence of integrated, real-time validation within the UM intake process.

Each day, thousands of prior authorization (PA) requests arrive via fax, web portals, and clearinghouses. Before a nurse or decision engine can determine whether a service is medically necessary, the system must first answer a more fundamental question: Is this member eligible for coverage — right now, for this service, from this provider?

Surprisingly, this foundational step is still often handled manually, inconsistently, or retroactively. The result? Delays, denials, and widespread frustration across the healthcare ecosystem.

Intake is not a back-office task. It is the gateway to care. Without embedding real-time validation at this crucial entry point, the rest of the UM process — no matter how advanced — remains inefficient, error-prone, and reactive.

Why This Remains a Problem in 2025

On paper, eligibility verification should be simple. Health plans maintain detailed member rosters and benefit files. Providers know their patients and the services they’re requesting. Yet in practice, the data submitted — often via scanned faxes or portal uploads — frequently doesn’t match what’s on file.

Typos, outdated coverage, incomplete fields, and mismatched provider information are routine. When a request arrives with a missing member ID or an out-of-network provider, the workflow stalls. Intake staff are forced to search across multiple systems or call provider offices for clarification. What should take seconds can drag into days.

The problem is compounded by the fact that many health plans treat eligibility and provider validation as a downstream function — something checked only after clinical review has begun. This leads to wasted clinical resources, avoidable denials, and costly rework that strains provider relationships.

The impact is significant. Delays in eligibility confirmation are a leading cause of pended or returned prior authorization requests. When plans can’t confirm who the member is, what their benefits include, or whether the provider is in-network, decisions are delayed or denied entirely. This drives up call center volume, inflates administrative costs, and erodes trust with both providers and members.

With prior authorization already under scrutiny for creating access barriers, these avoidable intake failures represent a growing risk — operationally, financially, and reputationally.

A Modern Solution: Embedded, Automated Validation at Intake

The solution begins by reimagining intake as more than just document collection. It must become a real-time eligibility engine.

As faxes, PDFs, and form submissions are received, their data should be immediately digitized, validated, and cross-referenced against the plan’s enrollment and provider systems — before clinical review begins.

The first step is intelligent data capture. Using tools like optical character recognition (OCR), AI-powered form parsers, or integrated EDI feeds, intake systems can now reliably extract key fields such as member name, ID, date of birth, service requested, and provider NPI. Any uncertainty or inconsistency should automatically trigger flagging or human review.

Once extracted, real-time eligibility and provider validation can occur. The system checks whether the member is active for the requested date of service, whether the provider is in-network, whether the benefit covers the requested service, and whether prior authorization is required at all.

Done well, this validation happens in seconds. Clean, accurate requests are routed directly to clinical review — or even automatically approved based on rules. Errors are flagged for correction or returned to the provider with clear guidance, eliminating long-cycle rework.

Leading health plans are beginning to treat these validations not as post-intake audits, but as real-time filters. This ensures that only actionable, member-matched requests move forward. Intake teams and nurses spend less time correcting data, and more time making decisions. Turnaround times improve, and providers experience fewer frustrating delays.

The business value is clear. Plans that have implemented real-time validation of member, provider, and benefit information report a 30–50% reduction in pended requests due to data errors, a 25% improvement in turnaround times, and significantly lower call center burden. These changes directly improve provider satisfaction and help meet regulatory expectations — especially in states adopting prior authorization transparency laws.

Strategically, embedding validation checks at intake reduces the total cost of ownership for UM systems. With fewer unnecessary clinical reviews and resubmissions, plans can achieve more with leaner staffing while maintaining or increasing throughput. That’s not just operational efficiency — it’s defensible ROI.

‍Why Now Is the Time to Act

For health plan executives, the takeaway is simple: validating member, provider, and benefit data is no longer a task for the call center. It’s a critical enabler of modern utilization management and should be treated as such.

The technology is ready. OCR and AI can accurately digitize most intake documents. APIs can perform real-time queries to enrollment and provider databases. Provider directories are becoming increasingly standardized and accessible. The obstacle isn’t technical — it’s organizational focus.

As health plans invest in broader digital transformation — from automated decision engines to generative AI support tools — they must not neglect the foundation. A truly intelligent UM process begins with intelligent intake.

That means ensuring the request is clean from the start: the right member, the right benefits, the right provider. Once that’s established, every subsequent step — clinical review, approval, communication — can proceed faster, with greater confidence.

Plans that prioritize this foundational step today will be better positioned to reduce administrative costs, meet regulatory mandates, and deliver faster, safer care. In an environment where delays can have real clinical consequences, getting the first step right has never been more important.

It’s time to modernize eligibility and validation checks — and unlock the full potential of utilization management.

Navigating CMS’s 2026 Prior Authorization Turnaround Time Mandates

Health plan leaders are approaching a pivotal deadline in utilization management. Beginning on January 1, 2026, new federal regulations from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will significantly reduce the turnaround times for prior authorization decisions. These changes stem from the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS-0057-F), which aims to streamline approval processes and improve timely access to care. Under this rule, Medicare Advantage plans, state Medicaid agencies, managed care plans, CHIP programs, and exchange-based Qualified Health Plans must respond to expedited prior authorization requests within 72 hours and standard requests within seven calendar days.

Historically, prior authorization processes could extend up to 14 days, making this change particularly impactful for health plans. CMS projects these accelerated decisions and electronic processing will save approximately $15 billion over ten years by reducing administrative inefficiencies. Given the magnitude of this regulatory shift, utilization management (UM) directors and chief medical officers need to rapidly adjust their operations, technology infrastructure, staffing, and reporting mechanisms to ensure compliance.

Background and Rationale of the New Requirements

Prior authorization delays have long hindered patient care by postponing necessary treatments. Acknowledging these persistent issues, CMS finalized the 2024 Interoperability and Prior Authorization Rule to promote quicker, more transparent decisions. The rule standardizes response times, sets clear expectations for denial explanations, and mandates annual public reporting of key authorization metrics, including volumes and average decision times.

Simultaneously, CMS is pushing health plans towards broader adoption of electronic prior authorization and interoperability standards, specifically through FHIR-based APIs to be fully implemented by 2027. This digital transformation seeks to eliminate outdated practices like faxed or phone-based authorizations, dramatically modernizing utilization management processes.

Operational Changes in Utilization Management

The new turnaround requirements compel health plans to thoroughly reengineer their prior authorization workflows. Health plans must now swiftly triage incoming authorization requests, classify them as urgent or routine, and ensure rapid, proactive outreach to providers if necessary information is missing. Many health plans are proactively reassessing the necessity of prior authorizations for lower-risk services, thus reducing the total number of requests requiring manual intervention.

Automation has become critical. Leveraging rules-based decision-making tools, health plans can automatically approve routine, evidence-based requests, significantly reducing turnaround times. This digital integration also supports real-time processing, reducing the administrative burden and allowing clinical teams to concentrate on complex or ambiguous cases.

Technology Infrastructure Improvements

Meeting these new CMS requirements is as much a technology challenge as it is operational. Transitioning from legacy systems to fully digital, API-driven solutions is essential. Health plans are rapidly adopting HL7 FHIR standards, enabling electronic submissions and automated responses directly integrated within providers' electronic health records (EHRs).

Implementing these advanced technologies requires significant investments in IT infrastructure and data management capabilities. Health plans must ensure accurate data mapping, consistent clinical documentation, and robust privacy and security controls. Successful technological transitions not only meet compliance but also offer considerable long-term operational efficiencies.

Workforce Implications

These tighter turnaround requirements directly affect staffing strategies within utilization management departments. Health plans may need to increase staffing levels, cross-train employees, or introduce additional shifts, including weekend or holiday coverage, to manage expedited cases effectively. Moreover, clinical staff will need to clearly document and communicate reasons for denials, enhancing transparency and reducing confusion for providers.

Enhanced Reporting and Accountability

Increased transparency is a central aspect of the new regulations. Beginning in 2026, health plans must publicly report comprehensive prior authorization metrics. This unprecedented level of public accountability is expected to drive continuous performance improvement and foster competitive differentiation among health plans based on their efficiency and responsiveness.

Internally, enhanced data reporting capabilities will be crucial. Health plans are developing automated systems to track, report, and analyze prior authorization metrics. Regular analysis of these metrics will help identify performance bottlenecks, inform process adjustments, and improve provider interactions.

Impact on Member and Provider Experience

The anticipated improvements from these regulatory changes promise substantial benefits for patients and providers alike. Faster decisions will reduce delays in essential treatments, and clear explanations for authorization denials will enable more effective clinical decision-making. Providers, integrating authorization processes into their EHR workflows, will find the prior authorization process less burdensome, enhancing overall provider satisfaction and clinical efficiency.

Members will experience improved transparency and predictability, positively influencing their overall healthcare experience. As health plans continue to refine these processes, consumer trust and satisfaction are expected to increase significantly.

Preparing for Successful Implementation

Health plan leaders should:

• Conduct comprehensive assessments of current authorization workflows.

• Accelerate adoption of advanced interoperability and API technologies.

• Invest in adequate staffing and robust training programs.

• Establish strong internal reporting and analytics infrastructure.

• Proactively engage and educate providers about new processes and expectations.

By embracing these strategies, health plans will not only comply with CMS mandates but also position themselves as industry leaders in utilization management.

Conclusion

The CMS 2026 prior authorization regulations mark a substantial shift towards quicker, more transparent, and patient-centered healthcare processes. While the transition poses challenges, the long-term benefits—enhanced efficiency, improved patient care, and stronger provider relationships—make the effort worthwhile. Health plan leaders who proactively adapt and innovate will set new standards in utilization management, ultimately benefiting providers, members, and the broader healthcare community.

Sources

1. CMS Interoperability & Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS0057F) – details on turnaround timelines, denial rationale requirement, API deadlines CMADocs+15Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services+15K&L Gates+15MCG Health+6Epstein Becker Green+6CMADocs+6Leavitt Partners An HMA Company+1Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services+1The Guardian

2. AMA insights and industry pledges – scope reduction, transparency goals, continuity of care commitments American Medical Association+4American Medical Association+4The Guardian+4