A payer policy that exempts high-performing providers from prior authorization requirements for certain services, based on their historical approval rates.
What it means
Gold-carding is a growing trend as payers look for ways to reduce administrative burden for providers who consistently submit clean, approvable requests. It rewards a track record of accuracy rather than applying blanket review to every provider equally. For providers, this makes accurate, well-documented submissions doubly valuable — not just for faster individual approvals, but for building toward exemption status over time.
