The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of the Digital Experience, or CODE PA, and the Department of Insurance announced Monday that they have launched a new website for residents to appeal denied health plan services.
According to a press release, Pennsylvania residents can submit their information to request an independent third-party review if they believe their insurance company has wrongly denied a claim for “medical service, treatment and medical instruments.” Requests are sent directly to the Insurance Department through the new website. The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance uses an external reviewer, made up of doctors and other health care professionals, to determine whether a claim was wrongly denied.
This model could be reused in other Pennsylvania government digital spaces, such as the new PA.gov, Brianna Pardo, executive director of CODE PA, told StateScoop.
“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 it’s our first exposure of this new digital race for the commonwealth,” Pardue said. “We were fortunate that (the insurance department) was willing to accept us as a partner and almost as a pilot for this model and what it could look like.”
Pardo added that the insurance claims website has accessibility features and that throughout its creation, CODE PA verified accessibility every step of the way, “from design to development.” One review rated the site as 98% accessible, she said.
“This is great because we will be using the same design and template and publishing it in the future,” Pardo said. “We also know that we need to continue improving to meet the needs of every consumer in Pennsylvania. We have a backlog of hopes and dreams about where we want to go with this app as well, so going live is just the beginning.”
CODE PA will look at how to integrate accessibility testing with the state’s chief accessibility officer across all apps it deploys, Pardo said.
“This was a really nice opportunity for us to do all these puzzle pieces that we wanted to put together to bring (insurance claims software) together and bring it to life in this application,” Pardo said. “Language accessibility is certainly a priority for the Commonwealth, and as we continue to scale our new site, we will take that as a huge priority for the work we do.”