The Role of AI in Streamlining Cancer Treatment: How Innovative Technologies Can Reduce Prior Authorization Delays

Cancer care in the United States is a complex and time-sensitive process. One of the major challenges faced by many healthcare providers and patients alike involves prior authorization (PA) requirements. These are administrative steps mandated by insurers before certain treatments, tests, or medications can be approved for coverage. While intended to control costs and ensure appropriate care, prior authorizations often result in significant delays, increasing the risks to patient health.

In particular, cancer patients face critical time constraints during treatment, and every delay in starting or continuing therapy can affect outcomes. According to recent reports, about 70% of cancer patients experience treatment delays due to prior authorization requirements. Furthermore, one-third of these delays last as long as one month, which research has shown can increase the risk of death by approximately 13% for some cancer types.

To address these concerns, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a key tool to reduce delays and simplify workflows in oncology care. This article examines the role of AI and automation solutions in minimizing prior authorization wait times and improving administrative efficiency within cancer care settings, with a focus on practical applications and recent advancements in the United States healthcare system.

The Challenge of Prior Authorization in Cancer Care

Prior authorization is necessary for many cancer treatments, including diagnostic tests like imaging and advanced therapies such as infusions, oral medications, and injectable drugs. However, the process is often manual, involving extensive paperwork, phone calls, and electronic submissions. This complexity leads to excessive administrative workload for clinicians and staff.

Physicians and their teams reportedly spend an average of 14 hours per week managing prior authorization tasks. This time investment distracts from direct patient care and contributes to professional burnout. In radiology alone, prior authorization delays can postpone crucial imaging studies, leading to delayed diagnoses and worsening patient outcomes.

The American Heart Association found that 33% of physicians reported serious adverse patient events caused by prior authorization issues. An American Medical Association survey also revealed that 27% of physicians indicated their prior authorization requests were frequently or always denied, leading to further delays and frustration. These statistics highlight the need for improved processes that ensure timely care while maintaining administrative accuracy.

AI Solutions Targeting Prior Authorization Delays

Several companies and healthcare organizations have introduced AI-driven systems designed to automate and speed up the prior authorization process. These systems reduce the burden on clinical teams and help patients move through treatment faster.

RISA Labs’ BOSS Platform

RISA Labs, based in Palo Alto, California, focuses on oncology AI strategies to cut prior authorization times dramatically. Their platform, Business Operating System as a Service (BOSS), uses artificial intelligence to split complex workflows into manageable micro-tasks. This digital workforce approach allows many steps to proceed at the same time rather than one after another, effectively reducing the time needed for approvals.

BOSS uses technologies like large language models (LLMs) and digital twins—virtual copies of healthcare workflows that can analyze and predict outcomes. These tools replace error-prone manual processes and improve operation efficiency in cancer centers.

At a leading U.S. cancer center, use of the BOSS platform cut prior authorization times from 30 minutes down to under five minutes. This faster processing led to more than $1 million in medication approvals within months and freed up 80% of the staff’s time previously spent on administration. According to Kshitij Jaggi, co-founder and CEO of RISA Labs, “Software that was supposed to get work done has become work itself,” meaning BOSS helps reduce unnecessary labor and lets providers focus more on patient care.

With $3.5 million in recent funding led by Binny Bansal and others, RISA Labs plans to deploy BOSS to 100 cancer centers over the next two years. This expansion aims to improve workflow automation and treatment speed across oncology departments in the United States.

Atlas Health’s Atlas Auth

Another solution focused on prior authorization in cancer infusion therapy is Atlas Health’s Atlas Auth. It is the first AI-powered prior authorization system designed specifically for infusion treatments. These therapies often have complicated reimbursement and insurance approval steps that can delay cancer care.

Atlas Auth works together with Atlas Navigator, their AI-powered reimbursement platform, to standardize workflows and reduce care delays. The system includes prior authorization management, benefits investigation, and accurate estimates of patient out-of-pocket costs. Ethan Davidoff, founder and CEO of Atlas Health, says that prior authorizations for cancer infusion often require “manual tasks, are overly complex, and unique,” causing delays.

By combining AI models with different data sources, Atlas Auth reduces these delays and lessens patient financial uncertainty. It supports not only cancer treatments but also 17 other disease states involving infusion therapies. The platform also helps providers get reimbursements faster and helps payers control costs.

ImagingAssure by Premier Stanson Health

Imaging studies often need prior authorization in cancer care for proper cancer staging and treatment planning. Premier’s Stanson Health created ImagingAssure, an AI-powered radiology benefit management solution made to make prior authorization for imaging easier.

ImagingAssure adds real-time clinical decision support (CDS) directly into electronic health records (EHRs). This helps automate medical necessity documentation and speeds up approvals by finding objective data in patients’ charts. This reduces paperwork for clinicians and improves communication between providers and insurers.

Dr. Hamed Abbaszadegan, a physician executive at Stanson Health, says that “[AI] finds objective data in patients’ charts to complete PA in an automated manner,” allowing clinicians to spend more time with patients instead of paperwork.

This solution has helped lower denials and delays in radiology prior authorizations. Besides cutting administrative work, it helps provide more timely imaging and diagnosis, which benefits patient outcomes.

AI and Workflow Automation: Enhancing Operational Efficiency in Cancer Care

To understand how AI speeds up prior authorizations, it is important to see how workflow automation helps healthcare operations.

Breaking Down Complex Workflows

Cancer treatment workflows include many connected tasks that often need manual input from different departments and systems. Prior authorization requests require collecting data, filling out forms, submitting to payers, following up, and tracking status.

AI platforms like RISA’s BOSS and Atlas Auth break these workflows into smaller, clear micro-tasks managed by smart digital agents. These agents can analyze documents, gather needed information, fill forms, and handle routine communications without humans. This allows many tasks to happen at once, reducing bottlenecks and waiting times that slow approvals.

Real-Time Integration with EMRs and Systems of Record

Effective AI automation needs to connect smoothly with existing electronic medical records (EMRs) and payer systems. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules require data exchange using standard APIs for prior authorization status and documents.

RISA Labs, for example, connects with major EMRs like Flatiron Health’s system. This lets the AI access clinical data in real time, reducing repeated data entry and speeding up decision-making.

Reducing Administrative Burden and Staff Burnout

Manual prior authorization tasks add a lot of administrative work in cancer centers. Automating routine parts of requests and approvals frees up valuable staff time. This lets clinical staff, including practice administrators and medical assistants, focus more on patient care and quality improvements.

In a cancer center trying the BOSS platform, 80% of the staff time once used for prior authorization was freed. This cutback in administrative tasks can lower burnout and help keep workers in healthcare settings with staff shortages.

Financial and Clinical Advantages

Besides making workflows faster, AI automation reduces unpaid care by stopping denials and ensuring timely payments. Platforms like Atlas Auth also give patients accurate estimates of their costs, lowering financial worries that can stop patients from following treatment.

Clinically, reducing prior authorization delays means fewer postponed treatments and tests. This is very important in cancer care where treatment timing affects results.

Regulatory Developments Impacting Prior Authorization Automation

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently introduced rules to standardize and speed up prior authorization by requiring electronic data exchanges. These rules say that Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and CHIP plans must answer prior authorization requests within seven calendar days for regular cases, and within 72 hours for urgent cases.

These rules also improve transparency by letting providers and patients see prior authorization status, decisions, and reasons through APIs. Public reporting will require payers to share approval and denial rates, appeal results, and timeframes.

Despite these changes, problems remain. Use of API tools by providers and patients has been slow, partly because of privacy worries and lack of awareness. Also, big employer-sponsored health plans, covering most Americans, are not under these rules. This means older and less automated authorization methods are still common in many places.

Healthcare groups getting ready for these changes should think about how AI and automated workflows can work with API-driven rules to make prior authorization faster and more responsive.

The Future of AI in Cancer Treatment Administration

As cancer care grows with new advances in targeted treatments, healthcare administration must keep up to give timely and effective treatment.

AI platforms that can automate prior authorizations and related workflows have shown real improvements in treatment access and administrative work. Companies like RISA Labs, Atlas Health, and Premier’s Stanson Health are examples that use AI to solve specific problems in cancer care.

By using these technologies, medical practice administrators, owners, and IT managers in the United States can reduce treatment delays, improve provider satisfaction, manage costs, and help patients get better care.

This article has explained the current challenges and AI-driven solutions for prior authorization delays in cancer treatment. Advances in AI-powered workflow automation offer new paths for oncology practices aiming to improve administrative operations and patient care delivery.