The California Medical Association (CMA)-sponsored Prioritizing Patients, Empowering Physicians legislative package to streamline prior authorization advanced out of Senate and Assembly health committees last week.

The package includes AB 510 by Assemblymember Dawn Addis, AB 539 by Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, AB 512 by Assemblymember John Harabedian, and SB 306 by Senator Josh Becker. The bills collectively address delays to care caused by prior authorization, a bureaucratic and time-consuming process in which health plans must grant approval before a patient can receive the treatment a physician has prescribed.

During the April 22 Assembly Health Committee hearing, physicians offered witness testimony about the harm their patients have experienced due to prior authorization red tape.

Speaking in support of Assemblymember AB 510, Sacramento family physician J. Bianca Roberts, M.D., detailed having to dispute prior authorization denials with reviewers who lacked relevant expertise to understand her patients’ conditions, stating “oftentimes I have to take additional time to explain the new standards of care for managing these common conditions for a family physician.”

Angelica Martin, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgery resident in Sacramento, spoke about how California’s prior authorization response timelines – which are some of the slowest in the nation – and patients having to go through the prior authorization process multiple times has delayed care for her patients while their cancers progress, sometimes to the point where surgery is no longer an option. Dr. Martin urged the Assembly Health Committee to pass AB 512 and AB 539 respectively, to address these barriers to care.

The Prioritizing Patients, Empowering Physicians bills will next be heard in the Appropriations committees in their house of origin. A complete list of CMA’s sponsored bills for the 2025 legislative session can be found here.