Prior Authorization

Prior Authorization

Contact Information

Utilization Management staff is readily available for Members and Providers.

For STAR/CHIP/CHIP PERINATE members, please contact 915-532-3778
or toll free at 1-877-532-3778.
For STAR+PLUS members please contact 1-833-742-3127.

During normal business hours between 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST) and 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST), Monday through Friday, except legal holidays.

In the event that you need to call outside these hours, weekends, or legal holidays an answering system is in place to accept inquiries. Calls will be transferred to El Paso Health’s Medical Director or designee. The Medical Director will acknowledge calls as soon as possible, but no later than 24 hours after receipt of the call.

Submitting a Prior Authorization Request

El Paso Health may require authorization for certain services. Click on tool to help you determine if a specific service requires a prior authorization.

Prior authorization is based on information provided to El Paso Health at the time of request, it does not guarantee payment of benefits nor verify eligibility and is subject to all terms, conditions, limitations, and exclusions related to the member’s eligibility and subsequent medical review.

Regardless of prior authorization status, medical decisions concerning a course of treatment are solely between the physician and the patient.

Authorization requests are accepted via electronic through the El Paso Health Web Portal, fax, or telephonically.

Faxed Requests- use the Texas Standard Prior Authorization Request Form for Health Care Service, for behavioral services use the Behavioral Health Prior Authorization Form.

Electronic Requests (Web Portal):

Outpatient and/or Elective or Scheduled Procedures
Fax No: 915-298-7866
Toll Free: 844-298-7866

Inpatient Notifications
Fax No: 915-298-5278
Toll Free: 844-200-5278

*The Fax Server is in operation twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week.

Telephonic Request

STAR
915-532-3778
877-532-3778 Toll Free

STAR+PLUS
833-742-3127 Toll Free

Prior Authorization Catalog

Prior Authorization Annual Review Report

Prior Authorization Change Log

Clinical Guidelines

El Paso Health will use one or more of following proprietary or internally developed guidelines to determine whether to approve a prospective, concurrent, or retrospective review for medical necessity and appropriateness of the health care services:

Prior Authorization Guidelines

El Paso Health will provide a determination of a review within the following timelines:

Standard/Routine Within three (3) business days after receipt of the request
Expedited/Urgent Within one (1) business day after receipt of the request
Inpatient Within one (1) business day after receipt of the request
Post-Stabilization Within one (1) hour of receipt of request, if the request is related to post-hospitalization or life-threatening conditions, except that for Emergency Medical Conditions and Emergency Behavioral Health Conditions, EPH will not require prior authorization.

If you have questions or need help with the prior authorization process please don’t hesitate to call El Paso Health Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MST (excluding holidays) at the following number:

Members:
915-532-3778 or toll-free 1-877-532-3778 at extension:

  • CHIP: 1516 (English), 1519 (Spanish)
  • STAR: 1513 (English), 1518 (Spanish)

Providers:
915-532-3778 or toll-free 1-877-532-3778 at extension:

  • CHIP: 1517
  • STAR: 1514

STAR+PLUS Members/Providers:
toll-free 1-833-742-3127

Pharmacy Prior Authorization Process

Providers can submit Pharmacy Prior Authorizations (PA) for Outpatient Drugs to El Paso Health’s Pharmacy Provider Hotline at 1-877-908-6023.  Clinical staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Providers may also fax prior authorization forms to El Paso Health’s Pharmacy Prior Authorization at 1-855-668-8553.

PHARMACY PRIOR AUTHORIZATION TIMELINES: 

  • El Paso Health will provide an immediate decision at the time of the call, when the caller is requesting a Medicaid prior authorization and has all the necessary information required to complete the prior authorization review. For all other requests, El Paso Health will notify the prescriber’s office of a prior authorization denial or approval no later than 24 hours after receipt.
  • If El Paso Health cannot provide a response to the prior authorization request within 24 hours after receipt or the prescriber is not available to make a PA request because it is after the prescriber’s office hours and the dispensing pharmacist determines it is an emergency situation, El Paso Health will allow the pharmacy to dispense a 72-hour emergency supply of the drug. This requirement applies to drugs which can be filled as a 72-hour emergency supply.
  • For CHIP prior authorization request, El Paso Health will provide a favorable determination when all information provided meets criteria for approval, no later than the second working day after the date of the request for utilization review and the receipt of all information necessary to complete the review.
  • For CHIP prior authorization requests, when the information provided does not meet criteria, El Paso Health will issue a denial within three days. If El Paso Health questions the medical necessity or appropriateness, or the experimental or investigational nature of health care services prior to the issuance of a denial, the provider of record will be given a reasonable opportunity to discuss the plan of treatment for the member with a physician.
  • If the information provided meets criteria for approval, El Paso Health will issue the favorable determination no later than the second working day after the date of the request for utilization review and the receipt of all information necessary to complete the review.

Required Information

To ensure El Paso Health has all it needs to initiate a prior authorization request you will need to submit the Texas Standard Prior Authorization Request Form for Health Care Services or for behavioral health the Behavioral Health Prior Authorization Form

The form must include the following essential information:

  • Member name
  • Member number
  • Member date of birth
  • Requesting Provider name
  • Requesting Provider’s National Provider Identifier (NPI)
  • Rendering Provider’s Name
  • Rendering Provider’s NPI
  • Rendering Provider’s Tax Identification Number
  • Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
  • Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)
  • Service requested start and end dates
  • Quantity of service units requested based on the CPT, or HCPCS requested

If El Paso Health receives a request for prior authorization with information that is incomplete, missing, incorrect, or illegible El Paso Health will not enter the request in our system and will not approve or deny the request. El Paso Health will return the request and provide an explanation by fax of why it is unable to be processed. You will need to resubmit the rejected prior authorization request with completed information.

The following supporting clinical documentation will be needed for El Paso Health to initiate and complete a review. Including, but not limited to:

  • Completed Title XIX Form (For Medicaid only) for DME and Supplies
  • Diagnostic/Lab tests relevant to the diagnoses;
  • Member’s medical history relevant to the diagnoses;
  • Member’s prognosis;
  • Plan of treatment
  • Physician order for requested service
  • For Therapy (Occupational, Physical, or Speech therapy)
  • Assessment
  • Goals (long-term and short-term)
  • ThSTeps or Physician clinical note
  • Tests or other supporting information

If El Paso Health receives a request for a Medicaid member that does not have complete or is missing supporting clinical documentation, El Paso Health will send a fax to the requesting provider no later than 3 Business Days after the prior authorization is received describing the specific list of what needs to be submitted and the date when it’s due.

If the information requested is not received by the end of the 3rd Business Day from the date El Paso Health sent the notice to the provider and the PA request will result in an Adverse Determination El Paso Health will send the request to the Medical Director for review with all information received with the PA request no later than the 7th Business Day after the PA receive date. The Medical Director may take up to 3 Business Days to complete the review and make a final determination. No later than the 10th Business Day from when the PA was received El Paso Health will make a final decision on the PA request.

A peer to peer consultation is available at any time during the PA process after an El Paso Health Medical Director review. El Paso Health will offer an opportunity for a peer to peer consultation to the requesting physician no less than one Business Day before an Adverse Determination is issued.