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If you've watched a medical assistant spend 45 minutes on hold to secure prior authorization for a procedure, two APG Spring 2026 case studies will resonate.
Hoag Clinic: Centralize Prior Authorization
Hoag's prior authorization process was fragmented across clinics and handled manually by clinical staff, producing 65% approval rates and 10-day turnarounds. They stood up a centralized PA team with standardized EHR templates, AI-assisted documentation with human review, and a custom tracking database. Within months, approval rates rose to 80%, turnaround dropped from 10 days to 2, submission time fell from 45-60 minutes to 15, and daily productivity jumped from 85 to 250 submissions. That netted $350,000 in recaptured staff time.
Optum Orange County: Realign the Incentives
Optum OC's Mohs surgery rates were 2.7x the California average, a classic utilization management problem. They moved dermatology to a contact capitation model, paying a fixed amount at first contact to cover the full episode. By 2024, Mohs utilization dropped 53%, patient grievances fell 84%, and long waits of 61-plus days fell from 21.3% to 1.1%.
The Imaging Gap These Programs Still Miss
Every one of these programs is fighting a version of the same problem: getting the right patient to the right care without administrative friction eating the outcome. Diagnostic imaging is a consistent blind spot in both prior authorization and utilization management strategy. Care-transition patients need follow-up scans. Population-health programs need low-cost, high-access imaging sites instead of the default hospital outpatient referral that costs three times as much. For a capitated ACO or IPA, unmanaged imaging referrals are steady excess spend, and patients lost in scheduling become HEDIS and Stars gaps that compound year over year.
What Medmo Does
Medmo manages the diagnostic imaging referral end to end. Site-of-care optimization steers patients to appropriate lower-cost facilities, prior authorization gets handled, scheduling and patient outreach happen, and results get retrieved back to the ordering provider. The APG Spring programs proved that physician-led groups can close almost any care gap when they identify patients proactively, remove barriers to action, and align incentives. That's exactly what Medmo is built to do for imaging.
*Medmo partners with ACOs, IPAs, PCPs, and FQHCs to manage diagnostic imaging referrals end to end: scheduling, prior authorization, patient outreach, and results retrieval. To learn more, visit medmo.com.*
