Featured guide
Denial Desk
- Know Your Plan Federal External Review Process or Your State's: Which One Your external review goes to a state agency, to your own insurer, or to a contractor in Pittsford, New York. Three questions decide which, and few letters say.
- Denial Decoded Group Codes PR or CO: Which One You Can Be Billed For The group code PR or CO in front of a dollar amount on your EOB decides whether that money is your bill or the provider's write-off. Here is how to read it.
- The Appeal Track Expedited Appeal Health Insurance: Who Gets the 72 Hours The 72-hour appeal clock is not a favor the insurer grants. One statement from your doctor can trigger it. Who qualifies, how to ask, and what stalls it.
- Surprise Bills Balance Billing vs Coinsurance: Which One Is on Your Bill The hospital statement says $2,450. The EOB for the same claim says $710. Which number is the legal ceiling, and the codes that prove which rule applied.
- Know Your Plan Form 5500 Search: Look Up Your Employer's Health Plan Your employer's health plan files a public annual report with the Labor Department. Here is how to find it on EFAST2 and read the two boxes that matter.
- Medicare & Medicaid Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Denials: What to File Since January 2026 an MA plan has 7 days to answer a prior authorization request. Here is what the denial must say, the 65-day appeal, and what happens next.
- Paying & Deducting Medical Debt on Credit Report 2026: What Still Applies A federal court threw out the CFPB medical debt rule in 2025, but the vacated text is still printed in the CFR. What actually keeps a bill off your report.
- Bill Anatomy Hospital Price Transparency Files: How to Open One Every hospital leaves a public price file on its own web server. Where it hides, why your code looks missing, and how to read the rate for your plan.
- The Appeal Track How to Write an Insurance Appeal Letter Without a Template The parts an appeal letter actually needs, the federal rule standing behind each one, and why a filled-in template tells a reviewer nothing about your claim.
- Surprise Bills Good Faith Estimate: What the $400 Rule Lets You Dispute Your bill beat the estimate by $400. That opens a federal dispute with a 120-day postmark and a $25 fee — and one comparison almost everyone does backwards.
- Medicare & Medicaid Medicaid Fair Hearing: Deadlines and Continued Benefits Your state sets the fair hearing deadline, and 90 days is only the ceiling. The clock that keeps Medicaid paying while you appeal runs out in about ten.