Health Care

Prior Authorization

A decision by a health insurer or plan that a health care service, treatment plan, prescription drug or durable medical equipment is medically necessary.

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

A decision by a health insurer or plan that a health care service, treatment plan, prescription drug or durable medical equipment is medically necessary.

MeSH Record

Classification

Broader headings

Related Concepts

Knowledge Graph

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MeSH Record

Synonyms

10 entry terms
  • Pre-Approval
  • Pre-Authorization
  • Prior Approval
  • Authorization, Prior
  • Pre Approval
  • Pre Authorization
  • Pre-Approvals
  • Pre-Authorizations
  • Prior Approvals
  • Prior Authorizations

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

9 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings classification, economics, ethics, history, legislation & jurisprudence, organization & administration, standards, statistics & numerical data, trends.

MeSH Record

History Note

2019

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

  • Insurance, Health (1971-2018)
  • Reimbursement Mechanisms (1981-2018)

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Number

  1. N03w.219w.521.576w.343w.944w

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Prior Authorization. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D000078482. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D000078482
  2. Prior Authorization. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_authorization
  3. Prior Authorization. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17514788