How to Fight a Health Insurance Denial With a Little-Known Tool
5/28/202639 min
ProPublica got a tip from a reader named Teressa. Her husband was having a severe mental health crisis, and her health insurance company was denying coverage for his hospital and inpatient treatment. She was fighting back against the denials — and recording every phone call with the company as she did. She brought reporter Duaa Eldeib along for the journey, which ended after Teressa was able to deploy what one source called the industry’s “best-kept secret.”
Reporter: Duaa Eldeib
How to file an external appeal: https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurance-denial-external-review
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First 90 secondsJessica Lussenhop· Host0:00
[upbeat music] ProPublica, investigative journalism in the public interest. As a heads-up, this story contains detailed descriptions of suicide attempts. Please take care while listening. Here's a little secret. Anybody can do investigative journalism. [upbeat music] Say you're facing a problem, something that feels really unfair. Maybe you start researching, diving deep, documenting what's happening. Maybe you find out something that other people didn't know. Congratulations. You might be an investigative reporter. At ProPublica, a lot of our investigations start with tips from people like you. The things people tell us can lead to some pretty wild revelations. If it turns out whatever you're struggling with is hurting a lot of other people too, calling it out can lead to real world change, change that prevents anyone in the future from going through the same painful experience. It's honestly kind of incredible. A couple of years ago, my colleague Dua El Deeb heard from someone just like that.
Duaa Eldeib1:13
I think it was maybe September of 2024 that we got this tip through a call-out.
Jessica Lussenhop· Host1:20
Dua covers healthcare, and along with some other colleagues at ProPublica, she sent out a call-out to the public asking for tips. She was specifically