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ABILITY FORGE

Thesis #1: The Denial on Trial

A Proposal to Dismantle the "Denial Echo Chamber"

The foundational principle of the modern healthcare insurance system is corrupt. It operates on the assumption that the patient is guilty until proven innocent. When a doctor requests care and an insurer denies it, the entire burden of proof falls upon the sick, exhausted patient. They are forced to become a plaintiff, fighting their way through the defendant's own biased, internal court system—a "Denial Echo Chamber" designed to produce one outcome: surrender.

The Ability Forge Doctrine: A New Standard of Justice

We propose a complete inversion of this system, rooted in a simple, powerful idea: **The Denial is Guilty Until Proven Innocent.**

  1. A doctor submits a request for medically necessary care.
  2. If the insurer issues a denial, that denial does NOT go back to the patient. It automatically triggers an immediate, mandatory review by a truly Independent Review Entity (IRE).
  3. The insurance company, the multi-billion dollar corporation, now becomes the defendant. They must bear the burden of proof, proving to a neutral third party that their denial is medically and legally sound.

This single change dismantles the war of attrition. It places the burden where it belongs: on the powerful, not the patient.

The Second Layer: The Physician's Override & The Buffer

To prevent this new system from being bogged down by the same delay tactics, we propose a second, critical layer of reform:

  • The Emergency Fund: A federally or state-managed "buffer" fund is established, an appropriation set aside for one purpose: to ensure care is not delayed.
  • The Physician's Override: When a denial is issued and sent to the IRE, the prescribing physician is given the immediate right to an override. By attesting to the medical necessity, they can authorize the procedure to move forward without delay.
  • The Payout: The procedure is paid for immediately from the emergency buffer fund. The patient receives their care.
  • The Reckoning: The IRE review continues. If the denial is overturned (as over 85% of UHC's are), the insurance company is mandated to reimburse the buffer fund in full, potentially with penalties.
  • The High Bar for Recourse: Only if the IRE upholds the denial, and can prove with a high burden of evidence that the physician's request constituted clear fraud, could the cost be offloaded back to the provider. The default is that the insurer pays.

This system removes the single greatest authority Health Insurance companies are abusing: prior authorizations, denials, and delays. It ensures that care comes first, and the arguments about money happen later, between the powerful institutions, leaving the patient to do the one thing they are supposed to be doing: recovering.

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