Disrupting Prior Authorization: Paola Ballester's EasyPA Accelerates Care Approvals by 10x

Dr. Paola Ballester, a visionary physician-innovator and CEO of an AI-powered healthcare platform, joins the Disruption/Interruption podcast to discuss how EasyPA's AI-driven platform is fixing the broken prior authorization process. She explains how the technology makes approvals 10 times faster, reducing clinician burnout and putting patients first.

TAMPA BAY, Fla., Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With physicians and their staff spending an average of 13 hours each week on prior authorizations and 89% reporting significant burnout as a result, the administrative burden in healthcare is at a breaking point. ⁽¹⁾ In a new episode of the Disruption/Interruption podcast, host Karla Jo Helms (KJ) speaks with Dr. Paola Ballester, CEO and Co-founder of EasyPA, about how her AI-powered platform is dismantling these inefficiencies. Dr. Ballester, a double board-certified pediatrician, shares how her firsthand frustrations with a system that often prioritizes paperwork over patients led her to create a solution that gives clinicians valuable time back. "The assumption that physicians need to prove on a per-case basis that their intent is anything other than to provide direct patient care based on evidence-based standards is wild," says Dr. Ballester.

The Real Cost of a Broken System

For too long, the healthcare system has forced clinicians to navigate a maze of administrative hurdles, leading to denied claims, lost revenue, and dangerous delays in patient care. This bureaucratic friction not only increases costs, but also directly impacts patient outcomes and contributes to widespread physician burnout. The current process, still reliant on faxes and phone calls, creates a system where everyone loses.

"We're in 2025, but we're still operating in systems that were developed decades ago, stuck in that fax 1980s, 1990s mode of operation," Dr. Ballester explains. Her experience as a medical director revealed the deep-seated flaws and inspired her to find a better way. "I felt the frustration. I saw the frustration and didn't see any solutions in the space that were really tailored towards helping the physicians and the patients." This empathy for both sides of the care equation became the driving force behind EasyPA.

AI as a Force for Good in Healthcare

EasyPA is an AI-driven platform designed to modernize the prior authorization process, making it 10 times faster and integrating seamlessly into clinical workflows. By leveraging sophisticated AI models, the platform predicts the likelihood of approval, identifies necessary documentation, and even helps generate appeal letters—turning hours of work into minutes. This allows clinicians to focus on what truly matters: their patients.

"We're approaching the use of AI in a very responsible, ethical way because we are really focusing on improving patient care," Dr. Ballester states. "We're not focused on making rich people more money. We're using it to do what doctors went into medicine to do in the first place, which is help people." For practices feeling the pain of prior authorizations, Dr. Ballester extends an invitation: "Join us. Reach out to me. Let's figure out a way that we can let you try the product. We can reduce that friction. We can give your clinic, your staff, your physicians time back with their patients."

Links

Disrupting Prior Authorization: Empowering Physicians to Focus on Patients, Not Paperwork with Paola Ballester

https://omny.fm/shows/disruption-interruption/disrupting-prior-authorization-empowering-physicians-to-focus-on-patients-not-paperwork-with-paola-ballester

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paola-ballester-md-7738a9a8/

Company websites: easypa.ai

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Disruption is happening on an unprecedented scale, impacting all manner of industries— MedTech, Finance, IT, eCommerce, shipping, logistics, and more—and COVID has moved their timelines up a full decade or more. But WHO are these disruptors and when did they say, "THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!"? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo "KJ" Helms, veteran communications disruptor. KJ interviews badasses who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have become antiquated with an establishment resistant to progress. She delves into uncovering secrets from industry rebels and quiet revolutionaries that uncover common traits—and not-so-common—that are changing our economic markets… and lives. Visit the world's key pioneers that persist to success, despite arrows in their backs at www.disruption-interruption.com.

About Paola Ballester

Paola Ballester is a visionary physician-innovator dedicated to eliminating one of healthcare's most persistent barriers: administrative burden. As the CEO and Co-founder of Easypa, she is pioneering an AI-powered platform that modernizes the prior authorization process—making it 10x faster, enabling clinicians to complete forms in minutes instead of hours, while providing instant approval predictions and real-time status tracking. Built to be CMS 2026 compliant, Easypa is future-proofing medical practices and giving providers the ability to refocus on what matters most: their patients.

A double board-certified pediatrician and medical director, Paola experienced firsthand how outdated administrative systems lead to denied claims, lost revenue, and wasted time. Refusing to accept that status quo, she leveraged her clinical expertise and entrepreneurial drive to co-found Easypa. Her leadership and bold vision were recognized when she won Founder's Live Tampa Bay, further cementing her reputation as a disruptor in healthtech.

Paola's mission goes beyond streamlining paperwork. By combining frontline medical insight with cutting-edge technology, she is redefining how healthcare organizations manage approvals and reimbursements. In doing so, she is not only driving operational efficiency but also championing a future where technology restores time, trust, and attention back to patients and their care teams.

About Karla Jo Helms

Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR® Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors™. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line — and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumnus of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators, and the media to help restore companies of goodwill into the good graces of public opinion — Karla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances and doing what it takes to excel. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way, and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of Anti-PR to drive markets and impact market perception.

References

1. American Medical Association. "Fixing Prior Auth: Nearly 40 Prior Authorizations a Week Is Way Too Many." American Medical Association, 24 Apr. 2025, ama-assn.org/practice-management/prior-authorization/fixing-prior-auth-nearly-40-prior-authorizations-week-way.

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727-777-4629

SOURCE Disruption Interruption