The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA) and the Department of Insurance have jointly introduced a user-friendly website aimed at assisting residents in appealing denied health plan services. This initiative, unveiled on Monday, provides Pennsylvanians with a platform to submit information for an independent, external review if they believe their insurer has unfairly rejected a claim for medical services, treatment, or items. The requests are directly channeled to the insurance department through the newly launched website.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department employs a third-party review panel, consisting of doctors and other healthcare professionals, tasked with assessing whether a claim was unjustly denied.
CODE PA’s Executive Director, Bryanna Pardoe, revealed that this form’s versatility extends beyond the Department of Insurance, indicating its potential integration into other Pennsylvania government digital spaces, such as a new PA.gov.
“What we’re really excited about with this project is not only that this is an amazing new tool for the Department of Insurance, but that it is our first reveal of this new digital race for the commonwealth,” Pardoe stated. “We were lucky that [the Department of Insurance] was willing to take us on as a partner and almost as the beta of this form experience and what it could look like.”
Pardoe highlighted the website’s commitment to accessibility, confirming that CODE PA incorporated accessibility features throughout its creation. She emphasized that the site underwent regular accessibility evaluations, with one assessment rating it as 98% accessible.
“This is awesome because we’re going to use the same design and template and syndicate that in the future,” Pardoe added. “We also know that we need to continue to optimize to meet the needs of every consumer in Pennsylvania. We have a backlog of hopes and dreams of where we want to go with this application too, so to go live is just the start.”
Moving forward, Pardoe expressed CODE PA’s intention to collaborate with the state’s chief accessibility officer to incorporate accessibility testing across all applications they deploy.
“It was this really beautiful opportunity for us to do all of these puzzle pieces that we wanted to put together to bring [the insurance claim program] together and bring it to life in this application,” Pardoe explained. “Language accessibility is certainly a priority for the commonwealth, and as we continue to scale our new website, we’ll be taking that as a big priority for the work that we’re doing.”
