I know someone who works for a major insurance company in the US, in the appeals department. I don’t know the intimate details of everything about their job, but one thing I always remembered is if you have an expedited appeal (for a medical emergency), and they’re requesting documents that you don’t send within the 72 hour deadline an expedited appeal has, the denial gets an automatic administrative overturn - the appeal is approved. Presumably for liability reasons, combined with that the company gets fined if an expedited appeal takes over 72 hours to process. Potentially a usable strategy if you have an expedited appeal that’s weak enough to have a chance of the denial being upheld in the end, and they’re also requesting documents. Probably a pretty rare combination of factors though.

But I’ve also been told by them that most denials end up being overturned on appeal in the end. And that they see people appealing denials on a daily basis, where they were denied the absolute stupidest reasons - people who obviously should never have been denied in the first place. Hard to say if this means most denials are bullshit, or if it just means people only bother trying to appeal the most obviously bullshit ones.

Excellent 👍

The striking part is that it’s so much higher while we’re 7 weeks into the year. The other years include all 52 weeks. Also 40 is close to the maximum for previous years on the chart, not the average, which I’d estimate around 25.

Pretty striking - I’d add a title to the top and the source in the lower right. Would make it much more shareable.

Edit: And a note about 2025 only being up to February 17th. Because the graph may outlive the next Delta flight week.

Hey thanks. I just made $2.86! And my mom is owed $1.44!

It’s actually the Treaty of Tripoli that lays that out explicitly