After her husband L was hospitalized for a severe mental health crisis, Teressa barely had a moment to breathe before the health insurance denials started coming in, burying their family in medical debt.

But Teressa’s a fighter, and an organized one at that — ready to endure months of back and forth until she stumbled on a "secret door" to reversing her husband’s insurance denials: the external review.

In this episode of Paper Trail, a podcast from the investigative journalists at ProPublica, health care reporter Duaa Eldeib and host Jessica Lussenhop follow Teressa's journey to discovering this powerful and little-known tool — and putting it to work.

Could an external review help you? Check out ProPublica’s write-up, which includes the types of denials eligible for this kind of appeal.

And for more stories about appealing health insurance denials, you can check out our Starter Pack, which features episodes like this one about writing a killer appeal letter.

Here's a transcript of this episode.

Want weekly updates from the team, including some of our most practical advice for dealing with the outrageous cost of health care? Sign up for our newsletter, First Aid Kit.

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.