Apr 3, 2026
When a major insurance company denied coverage for a medical flight that could save her 16-month-old daughter's life, Alexandria McMahon did what many desperate parents do: she recorded the call, posted it online and hoped someone would listen.
Within 12 hours, someone did — and it happened to be Mark Cuban.
An advocate in their corner
McMahon's daughter Stella, diagnosed with T-cell leukemia at four months old, needed a medical flight from Minneapolis to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a federally funded treatment. While the procedure was covered, the flight was not.
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After submitting a pre-authorization request on a Sunday, McMahon heard nothing for five days and learned on a Friday afternoon, when the insurer would be closed for the weekend, that the request had been denied.
Cuban's company, Claimable, is a platform that uses AI to help patients fight insurance denials, and his team immediately intervened. Within 48 hours, Stella was on a chartered medical aircraft, the cost covered by Cuban and Claimable.
"He basically laid down a credit card right then and there, and said, 'Book the flight, book a medical flight,'" McMahon told Fortune (1). "And we are going to help you fight insurance after she gets taken care of. Stella is the most important."
The story has a tentatively hopeful ending. At the time of Fortune's interview in late March, Stella was showing initial signs of improvement.
But for the millions of Americans who face insurance denials without a billionaire in their corner, the story raises a more urgent question: what can you actually do when your insurer says no?
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How common insurance denials really are
Insurance denials are more common than most people realize. In 2024, insurers of qualified health plans sold on HealthCare.gov denied 19% of in-network claims — roughly 85 million denied claims out of 451 million filed, according to KFF (2).
The more troubling finding: most people don't fight back, and those who do often win.
Fewer than half of insured adults who experienced a coverage denial challenged it, mostly because they weren't aware they had the right to do so, a Commonwealth Fund survey found (3). KFF found this proportion was even more startling, at less than 1% (2).
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Yet half of those who did challenge a denial succeeded in getting some or all of the denied services approved (3).
"If you do challenge, you often do have success," Sara Collins, head of Health Care Coverage and Access at the Commonwealth Fund, told Tampa Bay 28 (4).
Your rights when a claim is denied and what to do next
Under the Affordable Care Act, you have a structured, legally protected path to challenge a denial. Knowing it exists is the first step (5). Here's what to do:
1. Request the denial in writing. Insurers are required to provide a written explanation of why a claim was denied. McMahon asked the representative to walk through the policy line by line, and when she couldn't get a straight answer, she recorded the call. That recording became the foundation for everything that followed (1).
2. File an internal appeal immediately. Every insurer must offer an internal appeals process. Under ACA rules, insurers are required to notify consumers of their right to appeal and provide clear instructions — including an expedited pathway for urgent or time-sensitive situations (6).
If your situation is medically urgent, request the expedited review explicitly and in writing.
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3. Get your doctor involved. A letter from your physician documenting medical necessity, written to directly address the insurer's policy language, carries significantly more weight than a patient appeal alone. McMahon's oncologist, Dr. Lane Miller, was central to making the case for Stella's treatment (1).
4. Escalate to an external appeal. If your internal appeal is denied, you have the right to request an independent external review. Pennsylvania's Insurance Commissioner noted that "over half of denied claims" are overturned through independent external review, WHYY noted (7).
Under federal rules, if the external reviewer sides with you, the plan must cover the care.
5. Contact your state insurance commissioner. Every state has an insurance regulatory office that handles consumer complaints. Filing a formal complaint, especially for denials on time-sensitive medical care, creates a crucial paper trail if the case escalates further.
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What Claimable actually did and what it signals
Cuban's company, Claimable, uses AI to analyze denial letters against policy language and identify grounds for appeal, automating much of the documentation work that overwhelms most patients.
But you don't need Cuban's credit card to access similar help. Many hospitals have patient advocates who can help navigate billing and insurance denials. You can also search online for an advocacy group that assists with medical bills, or state Consumer Assistance Programs can provide similar support at little or no cost.
While the system may not make appeals easy, the right to appeal is real, the success rate is meaningful, and, as Stella McMahon's case makes painfully clear, the stakes are sometimes everything.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Fortune (1); KFF (2); The Commonwealth Fund (3); Tampa Bay 28 (4); Healthcare.gov (5); CMS.gov (6); WHYY (7)
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 13 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech. Her versatility comes through contributions to high-profile clients like Moneywise, Healthline, Narcity and Bob Vila, producing content that informs and engages, along with helping book authors tell their stories.
