---
title: "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC appeal form and deadline"
url: "https://denialfacts.com/insurers/blue-cross-and-blue-shield-of-nc--nc"
publisher: "Axion Labs — Denial Facts"
checked: "2026-11-04"
dataset_fixity: "sha256-cda2f9b89c8dde2a74989a35dbe7c0d08ff35dac5456484dc1c03c1b181a67b6"
---

# Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied your claim in North Carolina. Here is your deadline.

Denied by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina? Your two appeal deadlines dated from your notice, a free letter, and its 21.4% denial rate.

## Figures

| Figure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| In-network denial rate | 21.4% |
| Claims denied | 4,465,115 |
| Plans in North Carolina | 166 |
| Internal appeals filed | 2,618 |
| Internal overturn rate | 32.7% |
| In-network claims received | 20,910,323 |
| External reviews filed | 100 |
| External overturn rate | 54% |
| National denial rate | 15.7% |

## External-review route

**State-run process.** North Carolina runs its own external review process meeting the federal standards, so an independent review there is handled through the state program rather than the federal one. This route is the one for insured plans, Marketplace, individual, and employer plans where an insurance company carries the risk. If your coverage is through a job and the employer pays the claims itself (a self-funded or self-insured plan, which is 63% of covered workers), the state process does not apply to you whatever your state operates, and your external review goes through the federal process instead. Your denial letter names your route; if it does not, ask your plan in writing whether the plan is self-funded.

## Denials by reason

| Reason | Claims | Share of this insurer's categorized denials |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Other reasons | 1,890,580 | 46.2% |
| Service excluded from the plan | 749,173 | 18.3% |
| Administrative reason | 527,049 | 12.9% |
| Member not covered | 397,109 | 9.7% |
| Referral required | 344,850 | 8.4% |
| Benefit limit reached | 118,386 | 2.9% |
| Provider out of network | 49,004 | 1.2% |
| Not medically necessary | 19,569 | 0.5% |
| Experimental or investigational | 365 | 0% |

## Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina, at the top of the page

North Carolina

Your two dates, free

Date on your denial notice

Who pays your claims?

A job, an insurance company pays the claims

A job, my employer pays the claims itself (self-funded)

A job, I do not know which

Marketplace / individual plan I bought myself

Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, VA or IHS

Which state?

The reason your letter gives

I'm not sure, I'll paste the sentence later

Not medically necessary
Provider out of network
Service excluded from the plan
Experimental or investigational
Referral required
Benefit limit reached
Member not covered
Administrative reason
Other reasons

Show my two dates, free

Put in the date on your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC notice and get both federal deadlines as calendar dates.

Free, for a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denial in North Carolina, and it runs entirely in your browser. The date, the plan type and the state you pick are never sent to us and never stored.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied 4,465,115 of 20,910,323 in-network claims in North Carolina; every one of those denials had these same two dates on it. Across North Carolina as a whole the insurers in this file denied 19.7% of in-network claims, 5,857,465 of them, and 6,532 were appealed.

Or let the [$29 Appeal Kit](/appeal-kit) date each step and write the claim-file and external-review requests.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied 21.4% of in-network claims in North Carolina, 4,465,115 claims out of 20,910,323.

By [Axion Labs](/about) · August 19, 2026, updated November 4, 2026

Further down this page, after the free steps: the paid next step .

Insurance got denied, what to do next?

We hear this most. [r/HealthInsurance, thread title](https://www.reddit.com/r/HealthInsurance/comments/1rdxwvi/insurance_got_denied_what_to_do_next/) , read September 3, 2026.

The number nobody else publishes. 100 denials by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina reached the independent review its own staff do not decide, and 54 of those were overturned, 54%. That is this insurer's own filed row in the federal file, not our estimate. We publish no success rate of our own, because we have none.

Those 4,465,115 denials are 76.2% of every in-network denial recorded in North Carolina in this release, which makes Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC the 1st largest source of denials of the 5 insurers reporting there. Spread across its 166 plans in the state that is about 26,898 denials per plan. 2,618 internal appeals were filed against those 4,465,115 denials. Every one of those denials carried the same two dates the tool at the top of this page works out.

The clock your letter has to describe, in actual dates

Two dates matter more than anything else on this page, and they run the same in North Carolina as everywhere else. You have 180 days from the date on your denial notice to file the internal appeal, and then 4 months from the final internal denial to ask for an independent external review. If waiting would seriously jeopardize your health you can ask for both to be expedited, decided in about 72 hours . Both timeframes are federal, not your insurer's choice, [29 CFR 2560.503-1](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-2560.503-1) ( [PDF](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol9/pdf/CFR-2024-title29-vol9-sec2560-503-1.pdf) ) and [45 CFR 147.136](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-147.136) ( [PDF](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title45-vol2/pdf/CFR-2024-title45-vol2-sec147-136.pdf) ), in plain English at [HealthCare.gov](https://www.healthcare.gov/appeal-insurance-company-decision/internal-appeals/) , and your own denial letter states the ones that govern your plan. The PDFs are the same sections on govinfo.gov, which serves them without a challenge page, so an automated reader can check these two dates as easily as you can.

Data verified November 4, 2026 · CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain

You are not alone, and here is the measured version of that sentence: 4,465,115 in-network claims were denied by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina in a single plan year. A denial rate is a fact about an insurer's book of business. It is not a judgment about you, and it is not the last word on your claim.

- Of the 5 insurers reporting a denial rate in North Carolina, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is the third highest at 21.4%. The highest in the state is 26.2% and the lowest is 12.2%.

- That is 5.7 percentage points above the 15.7% national average across this dataset, and 1.7 points above the North Carolina average of 19.7%.

- Behind the percentage: 20,910,323 in-network claims were processed under 166 plans in North Carolina, and 4,465,115 of them came back denied.

- For every 10,000 claims Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied, about 6 came back as an internal appeal. The other 9,994 stopped at the letter.

- Of the internal appeals it did receive, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC overturned 32.7% , 856 claims that started life as a no.

- 100 of those denials went on to independent external review, the stage whose decision the plan is required by law to accept. Nationally 22.2% (1,092 of 4,918; interval 22.2-23.8% for counts CMS withheld; 32.6% without SelectHealth) of external reviews are overturned.

- Its most-recorded denial reason is other reasons at 46.2% of its categorized denials, against 32.4% nationally, a heavier share than the country as a whole. That is the denial mix, not an outcome rate.

- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC accounts for 76.2% of every in-network claim denied in North Carolina in this file.

- By raw volume it is the fourth largest source of denials among the 135 insurer-state records in the file that report one.

- Put another way: one independent external review was filed for every 44,651 claims Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied in North Carolina.

- After that, its second-most-recorded reason is [service excluded from the plan](/denial-reasons/service-excluded) , 749,173 claims, 18.3% of its categorized denials.

- Third on its own list is [administrative reason](/denial-reasons/administrative) , 527,049 claims, 12.9% of what Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC categorized in North Carolina. Between them the top three account for 77.3% of its categorized denials.

- Where Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC differs most from the national mix is [other reasons](/denial-reasons/other) : 46.2% of its categorized denials in North Carolina against 32.4% across the file.

- Read the other way round: 16,445,208 of those 20,910,323 in-network claims were paid, 78.6% of everything Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC processed in North Carolina.

- Spread across the 166 plans it reports in North Carolina, that is about 26,898 denied claims per plan, on about 125,966 claims processed per plan.

- Its reason columns add up to 4,096,085 categorized rows against 4,465,115 denials, 91.7% of them, and every reason share on this page is a share of that first figure rather than of the second.

- Its smallest recorded category in North Carolina is [experimental or investigational](/denial-reasons/experimental-investigational) , 365 claims, 0% of what Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC categorized there.

- Against the file as a whole, this one record is 5.3% of the 83,907,852 in-network claim denials reported by every issuer in it.

What to do tonight

- Find the reason code on your denial letter. The reason Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC records most often in North Carolina is other reasons , but yours may be one of the other 8, copy the exact wording and code off your own letter tonight, because that sentence is what your appeal has to answer.

- Ask Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina for the clinical criteria they judged you against. Under [29 CFR 2560.503-1](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-2560.503-1) they have to hand you the claim file and the policy they applied, free, on request, and you cannot argue with a checklist you have never read.

- Put both deadlines on your calendar before you go to bed. 180 days from the date on the letter for the internal appeal, 4 months from the final internal denial for external review. The free calculator on this page turns your date into the two calendar dates in about ten seconds. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC overturned 32.7% of the internal appeals it did receive, 856 claims, so the stage you are about to start is not decorative.

None of those three steps costs anything. Anyone charging you to do them is selling you something you can do yourself in twenty minutes.

21.4%

In-network denial rate

4,465,115

Claims denied

166

Plans in North Carolina

2,618

Internal appeals filed

32.7%

Internal overturn rate

## How that compares

| Denial rate | Rate | Difference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC | 21.4% | , |
| North Carolina average | 19.7% | +1.7 pts |
| National average (this dataset) | 15.7% | +5.7 pts |

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denies 5.7 percentage points more of its in-network claims than the national average across this dataset. A denial rate is a property of the insurer's book of business, coding practice, plan design, the population it covers, not evidence about the merits of any one claim, including yours.

## What happened to appeals

| Stage | Filed | Overturned |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Internal appeal (to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC) | 2,618 | 32.7% |
| External review (independent) | 100 | 54% |

Read that again: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denied 4,465,115 claims in North Carolina, and only 100 went to independent external review. External review is free to you and the insurer must follow the decision.

## The gap nobody escalated

4,465,115 claims denied. 2,618 internal appeals filed. 100 reached independent external review. Nationally 22.2% (1,092 of 4,918; interval 22.2-23.8% for counts CMS withheld; 32.6% without SelectHealth) of external reviews are overturned and the decision binds the plan.

That is arithmetic from the reported figures, not a prediction: nobody can say what those specific denials would have done at review, because they never got there. What the numbers do establish is that the binding stage was almost entirely unused here.

What that record means for your own Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC letter, and by when. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC overturned 32.7% of the 2,618 internal appeals its North Carolina members filed against 4,465,115 denials, and 100 of those North Carolina denials went on to the independent stage whose decision binds the plan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's own rows in the plan-year 2027 release of the CMS Transparency in Coverage file, read November 4, 2026 ( [data.healthcare.gov](https://data.healthcare.gov/) ). Whichever way that lands, nobody files the appeal for you, and the filing runs on a clock set by which plan you hold: an employer or Marketplace plan gives you at least 180 days from the denial notice to file the internal appeal ( [29 CFR 2560.503-1(h)(3)(i)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol9/pdf/CFR-2024-title29-vol9-sec2560-503-1.pdf) , carried onto individual-market coverage by [45 CFR 147.136(b)(3)(i)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title45-vol2/pdf/CFR-2024-title45-vol2-sec147-136.pdf) ), while Medicare Advantage gives you 65 calendar days from the date of its notice ( [CMS](https://www.cms.gov/medicare/appeals-grievances/managed-care/reconsideration-advantage-health-plan-part-c) , [42 CFR 422.582(b)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-422.582) ) and Medicaid managed care 60 calendar days from the date on the notice ( [42 CFR 438.402(c)(2)(ii)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-438.402) ), both stages free, and the three steps above are the whole of what to do tonight, so take the date printed on your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC notice and file well inside whichever of those windows is yours. The free steps are above; the [$29 kit](/appeal-kit) is the same clock with the letters pre-filled for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in North Carolina. One payment. No subscription. No cut of your claim.

## Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC inside North Carolina

Your denial did not happen in a national average. It happened in a state market, alongside 4 other insurers reporting into the same federal file, and these are that market's own figures.

- Across the whole of North Carolina, the 5 insurers reporting in this file processed 29,684,141 in-network claims and denied 5,857,465 of them, a state denial rate of 19.7%. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is one of those 5.

- That puts North Carolina sixth of 29 states by denial rate, 4 points above the 15.7% national average, before you get to what Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC did inside it.

- North Carolina recorded 6,532 internal appeals against those denials: one appeal for every 897 claims the state's insurers refused. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's own ratio is one for every 1,706.

- Independent external review was reached 121 times in the whole of North Carolina, once for every 48,409 denials, against one in 17,061 nationally. 100 of those North Carolina filings came from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's denials.

- Of the North Carolina external reviews that were filed, 54 were overturned, 44.6%. That percentage is measured on 121 reviews, which is why the count beside it matters more than the rate does when you are deciding whether to file against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC.

- The reason North Carolina's insurers record most often is [other reasons](/denial-reasons/other) , 2,323,043 claims, 36.1% of the state's categorized denials. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC records the same one most often, so your letter is likely to say it too.

- The other insurers a North Carolina reader could have bought from run from 26.2% ( [AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina, Inc.](/insurers/amerihealth-caritas-north-carolina-inc--nc) ) to 12.2% ( [Ambetter of North Carolina Inc.](/insurers/ambetter-of-north-carolina-inc--nc) ). Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC at 21.4% sits between the two.

- Put the two together and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is responsible for 76.2% of every in-network claim denied in North Carolina in this release, from 70.4% of the claims the state's insurers processed.

- Every North Carolina figure in this section is that state's own row in the same federal file Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's numbers above come from, [CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain](https://data.healthcare.gov/) , and the full North Carolina page is free at [/states/north-carolina](/states/north-carolina) .

## What Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denies most

The most common denial reason recorded for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC plans in North Carolina is other reasons . [How that denial is beaten →](/denial-reasons/other)

| Denial reason | Claims | Share | National share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Other reasons | 1,890,580 | 46.2% | 32.4% |
| Service excluded from the plan | 749,173 | 18.3% | 13.4% |
| Administrative reason | 527,049 | 12.9% | 17.2% |
| Member not covered | 397,109 | 9.7% | 7.9% |
| Referral required | 344,850 | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Benefit limit reached | 118,386 | 2.9% | 4.9% |
| Provider out of network | 49,004 | 1.2% | 9% |
| Not medically necessary | 19,569 | 0.5% | 5.5% |
| Experimental or investigational | 365 | 0% | 0.1% |

The last column is each reason's share of all categorized denials nationally, so you can see where Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's mix in North Carolina differs from everyone else's. This is denial mix , not overturn rate by reason , the federal file does not report appeal outcomes broken down by denial reason, and we do not imply otherwise.

Work out your two deadlines

Put the date from your notice in and get the two calendar dates, with the days remaining.

Date on your denial notice

Which denial is this?

First denial (I have not appealed yet)

Final internal denial (my appeal was refused)

Show my deadlines

Runs entirely in your browser, the date you type is never sent to us and never stored. [Open the full calculator →](/appeal-deadline-calculator)

Or let the [$29 Appeal Kit](/appeal-kit) date each step and write the claim-file and external-review requests.

The three steps at the top of this page are the whole of what you have to do tonight. The longer
version, what the internal appeal has to contain, how the independent stage works, and how to ask
for expedited handling when waiting would seriously jeopardize your health, is
[published free here](/how-to-appeal) . For what it is worth on this page specifically: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC overturned 32.7% of the internal appeals it received.

## Questions

##### Is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC's denial rate in North Carolina high?

21.4% against a national average of 15.7% across the plans in this dataset. It is above average. A denial rate describes the insurer, not the merits of your claim.

##### How many people appealed a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denial in North Carolina, and how many won?

2,618 internal appeals were filed against 4,465,115 denials, and 32.7% of them were overturned (856 claims). 100 went on to independent external review.

##### How does Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC compare with other insurers in North Carolina?

Of the 5 insurers in North Carolina with a reported denial rate, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC ranks 3 highest at 21.4%. The highest in North Carolina is AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina, Inc. at 26.2%; the lowest is Ambetter of North Carolina Inc. at 12.2%.

##### What does Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC deny most often in North Carolina?

Other reasons, 1,890,580 claims, 46.2% of this issuer's categorized denials, against 32.4% nationally. This is the denial-reason mix; the federal file does not report overturn rates by reason.

##### How long do I have to appeal a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denial in North Carolina?

Generally 180 days from the date on the denial notice to file the internal appeal, then generally four months from the final internal denial to request independent external review. Expedited review, decided in about 72 hours, is available where delay would seriously jeopardize your health. Those timeframes are federal, so they are identical for every insurer reporting in North Carolina, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC included, what varies by state is who runs the independent review at the end. Your own denial letter states the deadlines that govern your plan; that letter is the authority.

##### Does appealing a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denial in North Carolina cost anything?

The internal appeal to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is free. External review is free under the HHS-administered federal process; where an issuer uses a contracted independent review organization or a state process, any fee is capped at $25 per review. Nobody in North Carolina can be charged more than that to file one.

##### Can Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC ignore an external review decision in North Carolina?

No, and that is the whole point of the stage. External review decisions are binding on the plan by law, which is what makes the 100 external reviews recorded against 4,465,115 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC denials in North Carolina the striking number on this page.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC sits at 21.4% in North Carolina against 15.7% nationally, and that is the whole of what this page can honestly tell you about your own claim. We are not going to tell you that you will win. This page prints the insurer's own reported numbers whichever way they fall. If what it says does not match the letter in your hand, write to us and we will correct the page.

Axion Labs · hello@getaxionlabs.com

[Get my Appeal Kit, $29](/appeal-kit)
Everything you need for your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC appeal in North Carolina: your two deadlines, the argument that fits your denial reason, the letters, a brief for your doctor on what the reviewer checks, and the external review request. One payment. No subscription. No cut of your claim. Opens on screen the moment you pay. 14-day refund, no questions, one email to hello@getaxionlabs.com.

Where these numbers come from The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC figures on this page, the 21.4% denial rate, the 4,465,115 denials and the 100 external reviews, are this issuer’s own reported rows in that file.

Counts: [CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain](https://data.healthcare.gov/) . Rights and timeframes: [29 CFR 2560.503-1](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-2560.503-1) (180 days, and your free right to the claim file) and [45 CFR 147.136](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-147.136) (4 months, and what qualifies), explained at [HealthCare.gov](https://www.healthcare.gov/appeal-insurance-company-decision/external-review/) . Expedited review is decided in about 72 hours under both sections.

Reading either regulation from a script rather than a browser: eCFR answers automated fetches with a challenge page, so the same two sections are mirrored as government PDFs at [govinfo.gov (29 CFR 2560.503-1)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol9/pdf/CFR-2024-title29-vol9-sec2560-503-1.pdf) and [govinfo.gov (45 CFR 147.136)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title45-vol2/pdf/CFR-2024-title45-vol2-sec147-136.pdf) .

This page presents federal statistics and a general description of appeal rights created by federal law. It is not legal, medical, or insurance advice, and no outcome is guaranteed. Your denial letter and plan documents govern your specific case. Free help is available from your state's Consumer Assistance Program and from the federal Marketplace at HealthCare.gov.

Problem solved: You have both dates for your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC notice, you know that North Carolina runs the external review itself, and you have the letter, free, on this screen, tonight.

## The pages that answer the next question

- [Every insurer reporting in North Carolina](/states/north-carolina) , the state's own row, the 5 companies filing there, and the North Carolina insurance department's consumer number, read at source.

- [Blue Cross Blue Shield denial rate](/company/blue-cross-blue-shield) , Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is the North Carolina one; the brand's national rate is 18.1% across 191,709,742 claims in 25 states, and it is not the same in any two of them.

- [Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska in Nebraska](/insurers/blue-cross-and-blue-shield-of-nebraska--ne) , 13.3% of in-network claims denied, 106,584 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina in South Carolina](/insurers/blue-cross-and-blue-shield-of-south-carolina--sc) , 18.2% of in-network claims denied, 2,323,759 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Insurance Company in Michigan](/insurers/blue-cross-blue-shield-of-michigan-mutual-insurance-company--mi) , 12.2% of in-network claims denied, 248,492 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [If your employer pays the claims itself](/self-funded-denial) , then Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC is only administering the plan, your state's external review has no power over the denial, and the route is federal. It is the first question our own calculator asks. 5 insurers report in North Carolina; whether your plan is one of theirs at all is what that page settles.

- [If it was refused before the treatment](/prior-authorization-denied) , a prior-authorization refusal from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC runs on the same two federal clocks as a denied claim, and it can be appealed while the treatment is still ahead of you. 5,857,465 in-network claims were denied in North Carolina in this release; a refusal before the treatment is not counted among them and is appealed the same way.

- [Before you pay a lawyer](/before-you-call-a-lawyer) , two free appeals run before anyone bills you by the hour, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC has to hand you the claim file for nothing under 29 CFR 2560.503-1. Free help in North Carolina starts with the state consumer line printed on that state's page.

- [All 152 insurer-state records](/insurers) , the whole table, ranked, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC in it and the 5 that file in North Carolina beside it.

Your dates are ready. [Write the letter, free](/appeal-letter)

## The two federal clocks

The clock your letter has to describe, in actual dates Whatever else is on the page, these two dates are the page. You have 180 days from the date on your denial notice to file the internal appeal, and then 4 months from the final internal denial to ask for an independent external review. If waiting would seriously jeopardize your health you can ask for both to be expedited, decided in about 72 hours . Both timeframes are federal, not your insurer's choice, 29 CFR 2560.503-1 ( PDF ) and 45 CFR 147.136 ( PDF ), in plain English at HealthCare.gov , and your own denial letter states the ones that govern your plan. The PDFs are the same sections on govinfo.gov, which serves them without a challenge page, so an automated reader can check these two dates as easily as you can.

## How rare the second appeal is

You are not alone, measured rather than said: 83,907,852 in-network claims were denied in a single plan year, and only 4,918 of them, one in 17,061, ever reached the independent review stage. Of the ones that did, 22.2% (1,092 of 4,918; interval 22.2-23.8% for counts CMS withheld; 32.6% without SelectHealth) were overturned.

## What is free here, and what the one paid thing costs

Denied a claim? Insurers upheld 165,863 of the 262,982 internal appeals counted in 2024, 63.1% ( KFF ). The win is at independent external review, and the only way to arrive there is to run the internal stage on time, in the right order, with the record intact. That sequence is what the Appeal Kit is. Get my Appeal Kit, $29 One payment. No subscription. No cut of your claim. Opens on screen the moment you pay. 14-day refund, no questions, one email to hello@getaxionlabs.com. Get my Appeal Kit, $29 Everything you need for your appeal: your two deadlines, the argument that fits your denial reason, the letters, a brief for your doctor on what the reviewer checks, and the external review request. One payment. No subscription. No cut of your claim. Opens on screen the moment you pay. 14-day refund, no questions, one email to hello@getaxionlabs.com.

## What we will not pretend

What we will not pretend. We cannot overturn your denial. Only your plan, or an independent reviewer, can do that. We cannot make your plan cover a service it genuinely excludes. We cannot guarantee external review applies to your denial. It covers medical judgment, experimental or investigational determinations, and rescission, a purely administrative denial may not qualify, and we say so on those pages rather than selling you past it. We have no customer testimonials and publish none. Our evidence is the federal dataset and the regulation cites, both of which you can check.

## Every page on this site

Home Start here Insurers By company States Denial reasons Use cases How to appeal Ranked by denial rate The external-review gap Write the letter, free Deadline calculator Self-funded plan? Prior authorization denied Medicare WISeR denial Denial code CO-50 Before you call a lawyer Attorney for a denied claim Your denial letter United Healthcare denying claims Time limits on a claim Appeal a Medicare denial About Editorial policy How we compare Privacy Terms For machines: llms.txt openapi.json changes.json the composed answer this page as markdown

## Which release these figures are

Which release these figures are Every number on this page is the plan-year 2027 Transparency in Coverage file, issued October 22, 2026, covering plan-year 2025 claims. This is the newest plan year CMS has published: there is no Transparency in Coverage file for a plan year after 2027. The dataset list is at data.healthcare.gov . A test in this site’s build fetches that list on every run and fails if CMS publishes a plan year we have not acknowledged here. Every earlier release, plan-year 2024, plan-year 2025, plan-year 2026, is kept alongside it so the record is visible rather than a single year’s snapshot; /about says what changed between them. From the plan-year 2024 release to the plan-year 2026 release, external reviews filed went from 2,336 to 5,881. Overturned reviews went from 32.8% in the plan-year 2026 release to 22.2% in plan-year 2027, or from 32.6% to 32.6% without SelectHealth. We do not compare filed or overturned counts across plan-years 2026 and 2027. Some issuers may have counted pre-service appeals in their 2026 cells.

## Where these numbers come from

Where these numbers come from Counts: CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain . Rights and timeframes: 29 CFR 2560.503-1 (180 days, and your free right to the claim file) and 45 CFR 147.136 (4 months, and what qualifies), explained at HealthCare.gov . Expedited review is decided in about 72 hours under both sections. Reading either regulation from a script rather than a browser: eCFR answers automated fetches with a challenge page, so the same two sections are mirrored as government PDFs at govinfo.gov (29 CFR 2560.503-1) and govinfo.gov (45 CFR 147.136) .

## Who publishes this

Denial Facts publishes federal data about health insurance claim denials. We are independent: not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for any insurer, government agency, or review organization. We are not a law firm, a medical provider, or an insurance producer, and nothing here is legal, medical, or insurance advice. Data: CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain. Figures cover individual-market Qualified Health Plans on the federal Exchange and come from the plan-year 2027 release, issued October 22, 2026, covering plan-year 2025 claims. This is the newest plan year CMS has published: there is no Transparency in Coverage file for a plan year after 2027. See where the data comes from .

## Sources

- CMS Transparency in Coverage Public Use File (PY2027 release, PY2025 claims), data.healthcare.gov — US Government public domain: https://data.healthcare.gov/
- 29 CFR 2560.503-1 (180 days, and your free right to the claim file): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-2560.503-1
- 45 CFR 147.136 (4 months, and what qualifies): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-147.136
- HealthCare.gov on external review: https://www.healthcare.gov/appeal-insurance-company-decision/external-review/

Cite: Axion Labs — Denial Facts, "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC appeal form and deadline", https://denialfacts.com/insurers/blue-cross-and-blue-shield-of-nc--nc (checked 2026-11-04). free to quote with the URL.