---
title: "Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska appeal deadline"
url: "https://denialfacts.com/insurers/premera-blue-cross-blue-shield-of-alaska--ak"
publisher: "Axion Labs — Denial Facts"
checked: "2026-11-04"
dataset_fixity: "sha256-cda2f9b89c8dde2a74989a35dbe7c0d08ff35dac5456484dc1c03c1b181a67b6"
---

# Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denied your claim. Here is your deadline.

Denied by Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska? Your two appeal deadlines dated from your notice, a free letter, and its 26.3% denial rate.

## Figures

| Figure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| In-network denial rate | 26.3% |
| Claims denied | 225,470 |
| Plans in Alaska | 8 |
| Internal appeals filed | 178 |
| Internal overturn rate | 39.33% |
| In-network claims received | 858,526 |
| External reviews filed | not reported |
| External overturn rate | not reported |
| National denial rate | 15.7% |

## External-review route

**State-run process.** Alaska 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 | 295,260 | 78.1% |
| Service excluded from the plan | 26,682 | 7.1% |
| Referral required | 25,105 | 6.6% |
| Not medically necessary | 13,562 | 3.6% |
| Member not covered | 12,085 | 3.2% |
| Administrative reason | 2,292 | 0.6% |
| Experimental or investigational | 1,688 | 0.4% |
| Provider out of network | 1,412 | 0.4% |
| Benefit limit reached | 70 | 0% |

## Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska, at the top of the page

Alaska

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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska notice and get both federal deadlines as calendar dates.

Free, for a Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denial in Alaska, 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.

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denied 225,470 of 858,526 in-network claims in Alaska; every one of those denials had these same two dates on it. Across Alaska as a whole the insurers in this file denied 24.8% of in-network claims, 245,546 of them, and 206 were appealed.

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

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denied 26.3% of in-network claims in Alaska, 225,470 claims out of 858,526.

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, and here it is missing. CMS publishes no external-review figure for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska, so nobody, including the regulator, can say whether anyone ever got that far. We print no number rather than reading an absence as a zero. Nationally, 4,918 of 83,907,852 denials reached that stage, one in every 17,061, and 22.2% (1,092 of 4,918; interval 22.2-23.8% for counts CMS withheld; 32.6% without SelectHealth) of those were overturned.

Those 225,470 denials are 91.8% of every in-network denial recorded in Alaska in this release, which makes Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska the 1st largest source of denials of the 2 insurers reporting there. Spread across its 8 plans in the state that is about 28,184 denials per plan. 178 internal appeals were filed against those 225,470 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 Alaska 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: 225,470 in-network claims were denied by Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska 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 2 insurers reporting a denial rate in Alaska, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is the first highest at 26.3%. The highest in the state is 26.3% and the lowest is 15.2%.

- That is 10.6 percentage points above the 15.7% national average across this dataset, and 1.5 points above the Alaska average of 24.8%.

- Behind the percentage: 858,526 in-network claims were processed under 8 plans in Alaska, and 225,470 of them came back denied.

- For every 10,000 claims Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denied, about 8 came back as an internal appeal. The other 9,992 stopped at the letter.

- Of the internal appeals it did receive, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska overturned 39.33% , 70 claims that started life as a no.

- Its most-recorded denial reason is other reasons at 78.1% 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.

- Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska accounts for 91.8% of every in-network claim denied in Alaska in this file.

- By raw volume it is the 61th largest source of denials among the 135 insurer-state records in the file that report one.

- After that, its second-most-recorded reason is [service excluded from the plan](/denial-reasons/service-excluded) , 26,682 claims, 7.1% of its categorized denials.

- Third on its own list is [referral required](/denial-reasons/referral-required) , 25,105 claims, 6.6% of what Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska categorized in Alaska. Between them the top three account for 91.8% of its categorized denials.

- Where Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska differs most from the national mix is [other reasons](/denial-reasons/other) : 78.1% of its categorized denials in Alaska against 32.4% across the file.

- Read the other way round: 633,056 of those 858,526 in-network claims were paid, 73.7% of everything Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska processed in Alaska.

- Spread across the 8 plans it reports in Alaska, that is about 28,184 denied claims per plan, on about 107,316 claims processed per plan.

- Its reason columns add up to 378,156 categorized rows against 225,470 denials, 167.7% 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 Alaska is [benefit limit reached](/denial-reasons/benefit-limit-reached) , 70 claims, 0% of what Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska categorized there.

- Against the file as a whole, this one record is 0.3% 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska records most often in Alaska 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska 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. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska overturned 39.33% of the internal appeals it did receive, 70 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.

26.3%

In-network denial rate

225,470

Claims denied

8

Plans in Alaska

178

Internal appeals filed

39.33%

Internal overturn rate

## How that compares

| Denial rate | Rate | Difference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska | 26.3% | , |
| Alaska average | 24.8% | +1.5 pts |
| National average (this dataset) | 15.7% | +10.6 pts |

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denies 10.6 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska) | 178 | 39.33% |
| External review (independent) | not reported | not reported |

Read the table for what it is: the external-review row above shows a dash, which means not reported and not zero, the Alaska absence this page states once at the top for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska and sources once at the foot. External review is free to you and the insurer must follow the decision, whatever this file does or does not record about it.

What that record means for your own Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska letter, and by when. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska overturned 39.33% of the 178 internal appeals its Alaska members filed against 225,470 denials, and the Alaska escalation count for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is the figure this page names as absent at the top, so how many of those denials went on to the independent stage is not something this page can tell you, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska'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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska. One payment. No subscription. No cut of your claim.

## Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska inside Alaska

Your denial did not happen in a national average. It happened in a state market, alongside 1 other insurer reporting into the same federal file, and these are that market's own figures.

- Across the whole of Alaska, the 2 insurers reporting in this file processed 990,821 in-network claims and denied 245,546 of them, a state denial rate of 24.8%. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is one of those 2.

- That puts Alaska second of 29 states by denial rate, 9.1 points above the 15.7% national average, before you get to what Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska did inside it.

- Alaska recorded 206 internal appeals against those denials: one appeal for every 1,192 claims the state's insurers refused. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska's own ratio is one for every 1,267.

- Not one denial in Alaska reached independent external review in the reported year, not Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska's and not any other insurer's in the state. That is the stage whose decision the plan is required by law to accept.

- The reason Alaska's insurers record most often is [other reasons](/denial-reasons/other) , 296,564 claims, 74.9% of the state's categorized denials. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska records the same one most often, so your letter is likely to say it too.

- The other insurers an Alaska reader could have bought from run from 15.2% ( [Moda Health Plan, Inc.](/insurers/moda-health-plan-inc--ak) ) to 15.2% ( [Moda Health Plan, Inc.](/insurers/moda-health-plan-inc--ak) ). Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska at 26.3% sits above all of them.

- Put the two together and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is responsible for 91.8% of every in-network claim denied in Alaska in this release, from 86.6% of the claims the state's insurers processed.

- Every Alaska figure in this section is that state's own row in the same federal file Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska'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 Alaska page is free at [/states/alaska](/states/alaska) .

## What Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denies most

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

| Denial reason | Claims | Share | National share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Other reasons | 295,260 | 78.1% | 32.4% |
| Service excluded from the plan | 26,682 | 7.1% | 13.4% |
| Referral required | 25,105 | 6.6% | 9.6% |
| Not medically necessary | 13,562 | 3.6% | 5.5% |
| Member not covered | 12,085 | 3.2% | 7.9% |
| Administrative reason | 2,292 | 0.6% | 17.2% |
| Experimental or investigational | 1,688 | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| Provider out of network | 1,412 | 0.4% | 9% |
| Benefit limit reached | 70 | 0% | 4.9% |

The last column is each reason's share of all categorized denials nationally, so you can see where Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska's mix in Alaska 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: Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska overturned 39.33% of the internal appeals it received.

## Questions

##### Is Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska's denial rate in Alaska high?

26.3% 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denial in Alaska, and how many won?

178 internal appeals were filed against 225,470 denials, and 39.33% of them were overturned (70 claims). How many went on to independent external review is not on the record for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska, that is the absence stated at the top of this page and sourced at the foot of it.

##### How does Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska compare with other insurers in Alaska?

Of the 2 insurers in Alaska with a reported denial rate, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska ranks 1 highest at 26.3%. The highest in Alaska is Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska at 26.3%; the lowest is Moda Health Plan, Inc. at 15.2%.

##### What does Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska deny most often in Alaska?

Other reasons, 295,260 claims, 78.1% 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denial in Alaska?

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 Alaska, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska denial in Alaska cost anything?

The internal appeal to Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska 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 Alaska can be charged more than that to file one.

##### Can Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska ignore an external review decision in Alaska?

No, and that is the whole point of the stage. External review decisions are binding on the plan by law. The count is the one this page names as absent for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska, so none is printed for it, an absent figure is not a count of none.

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska sits at 26.3% in Alaska 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska appeal in Alaska: 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska figures on this page, the 26.3% denial rate, the 225,470 denials, are this issuer’s own reported rows in that file. CMS did not report an external-review figure for Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in Alaska in the plan-year 2027 release of the Transparency in Coverage file, which is why no external-review count appears above.

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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska notice, you know that Alaska 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 Alaska](/states/alaska) , the state's own row, the 2 companies filing there, and the Alaska insurance department's consumer number, read at source.

- [Blue Cross Blue Shield denial rate](/company/blue-cross-blue-shield) , Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is the Alaska 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.

- [Priority Health in Michigan](/insurers/priority-health--mi) , 7.6% of in-network claims denied, 243,454 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [QCA Health Plan, Inc. in Arkansas](/insurers/qca-health-plan-inc--ar) , 8.8% of in-network claims denied, 286,478 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [Quartz Health Benefit Plans Corporation in Wisconsin](/insurers/quartz-health-benefit-plans-corporation--wi) , 11% of in-network claims denied, 81,636 of them, the neighboring record in this file.

- [If your employer pays the claims itself](/self-funded-denial) , then Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska 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. 2 insurers report in Alaska; 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska runs on the same two federal clocks as a denied claim, and it can be appealed while the treatment is still ahead of you. 245,546 in-network claims were denied in Alaska 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 Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska has to hand you the claim file for nothing under 29 CFR 2560.503-1. Free help in Alaska starts with the state consumer line printed on that state's page.

- [All 152 insurer-state records](/insurers) , the whole table, ranked, with Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska in it and the 2 that file in Alaska 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, "Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska appeal deadline", https://denialfacts.com/insurers/premera-blue-cross-blue-shield-of-alaska--ak (checked 2026-11-04). free to quote with the URL.