Waystar Sags on Auth Accelerate

Waystar (NASDAQ: WAY), a provider of leading healthcare payment software, today announced the launch of its Auth Accelerate solution, a major expansion of its advanced automation capabilities designed to streamline the prior authorization process from start to finish.Prior authorizations pose significant challenges across the healthcare spectrum. In response, providers have made automation for patient access, including prior authorizations, their top investment revenue cycle priority for 2025, according to a recent third-party survey. Securing payer approval requires navigating complex rules and continuous status checks, consuming up to 24 minutes per authorization. With tens of millions of prior authorizations occurring each year, this labor-intensive process contributes to one of healthcare's top administrative burdens. A recent American Medical Association survey found that more than one in four physicians say prior authorization has led to a serious adverse event for a patient in their care, while 78% report that delays cause patients to abandon care.Waystar Auth Accelerate overhauls this traditionally time-consuming workflow by automating every step of the authorization submission process. Based on data from implemented clients, this innovation reduces submission times by 70% and boosts auto-approval rates to an impressive 85%. In doing so, Waystar Auth Accelerate directly tackles a key administrative burden for providers, boosting productivity, dramatically reducing patient care delays, and preventing labor-intensive denials. It also decreases the average wait time for payer approval by 75%, cutting the timeframe from more than four days to one day or less.WAY shares lost 24 cents in the first hour of Friday trade to $42.22.