Diverse methods of facilitating a request for prior authorization with a common user experience

A computer system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• a network component for communicating with remotely-located computers over a communication network;
• and
• a non-transitory, computer-readable medium programmed with computer-executable logic that, when executed, performs a method of facilitating a request for prior authorization of insurance coverage for a prescribed drug, the method comprising:
• receiving, over the communication network using the network component, a request to initiate preparation of the request for prior authorization;
• based on data received over the communication network, identifying an appropriate submission protocol, from among a plurality of different submission protocols available to the computer, as having been approved by a party authorized to render a decision on the request for prior authorization for the prescribed drug;
• transmitting content over the communication network to be utilized by a user computer for generating a user interface comprising a plurality of fields in which a user is to enter the patient-related information that is to be formatted into a desired format specific to the appropriate submission protocol as part of the request for prior authorization;
• receiving the patient-related information entered into the plurality of fields in the user interface over the communication network;
• and
• transmitting the patient-related information in a format compliant with the appropriate submission protocol to the deciding party authorized to render the decision on the request for prior authorization, wherein
• the content transmitted to be utilized for defining the fields of the user interface presented to the user is to be used for generating the user interface to include common fields regardless of which of the plurality of different submission protocols is to be utilized, the different submission protocols including a standard submission and an ePA submission, providing a common user interface for use with each different submission protocols.