Effective June 4, 2021, we will no longer print and mail paper medical prior authorization and clinical letters to in-network health care professionals and facilities in Utah. This applies to most* UnitedHealthcare plans in the state and for health care professionals who receive paper letters.
What this means to you
- If you currently have access to the Prior Authorization and Notification (PAAN) tool on the UnitedHealthcare Provider Portal, you also have access to Document Vault — our secure online repository of UnitedHealthcare reports and claim-related and clinical decision communications — you’ll be able to view and search prior authorization and other letter types within the tool
- When new letters are available to review in Document Vault, the UnitedHealthcare Provider Portal password owner of your organization will receive email notifications. If you would like the notice to go to another email address, the password owner has the ability to change the settings and access permissions in the Paperless Delivery Options tool.
- Though the email notice goes to 1 email address, if you have access to PAAN, you can check for new letters in the “Prior Auth Letters” folder in Document Vault at any time.
- If you don’t have access to review letters in Document Vault, contact your organization’s Administrator who can adjust your role in Link Security.
- The new TrackIt feature will allow you to easily track the status of your prior authorization. It will provide greater visibility of your prior authorization requests at a glance.
Action needed
Here’s what you can do to get ready for this change:
- Share this information with others in your organization who need to know that prior authorization and clinical letters will not be mailed after June 4, 2021
- Use this checklist to make sure you and your organization are ready to receive UnitedHealthcare emails and view prior authorization and clinical letters — and many other types of communications — through Document Vault
- Review the Going Paperless Made Simple Guide to learn more about Document Vault and how to use it — including how to use the search feature to find a specific letter
- Check out the Prior Auth Letters folder in Document Vault. When you sign in to the UnitedHealthcare Provider Portal and go to Document Vault, you’ll see there are several folders, each with different types of information
- Under Browse Documents, look for the folder labeled Prior Auth Letters
- Letters in this folder cover pre-service/prior authorization reviews as well as inpatient concurrent and retrospective reviews, including length of stay and level of care determinations
- Letters are categorized by type of plan (Medicare, commercial or Medicaid) and then grouped into 3 subfolders — Approved, Denied or Lack of Information
- A Miscellaneous folder may display if a letter can’t be categorized into one of these folders
- You can search the Prior Auth Letters folder by Notification ID, Member ID, Member Name and other parameters without having to dig through the various subfolders
- Explore the Prior Authorization and Notification tool. You can manage all your prior authorization needs through this online tool. No need to call UnitedHealthcare to submit a request or check status. And, you can move directly from the Prior Authorization tool to Document Vault to view your letters.
Why we’re making this change
This change is part of our efforts to transition paper transactions to electronic whenever possible. Digital transactions get information to you faster and reduce the amount of paper health care professionals must manage. Learn more
Real-time data sharing and automation available
Our Application Programming Interface (API) solutions allow your organization to automatically retrieve detailed electronic data for member eligibility, benefits, claims and letters.
- Our technical teams work with yours to set up an API and determine the appropriate format for receiving the data, including directly in to your practice management systems
- Learn more about how APIs can streamline your workflow and reduce the need for calls and paper
*Exclusions may apply to the following health plans and/or clinical reviews: Medicare supplements, All Savers, UHOne/Golden Rule, UMR and eviCore.
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