Cancer treatment denied by insurance? Decode the letter.
What did your denial letter say? Tap one.
Prior authorization “Not medically necessary” “Experimental” Out-of-network bill Coding or billing error Not sureThese tools run in your browser and keep nothing. OncoQue is not an appeals service: no oncologist is under contract, we file nothing, and we take no records.
What to gather Your pathology or biomarker report (e.g. PD-L1, stage)
Most commercial and ACA plans give you 180 days for an internal appeal (HealthCare.gov); Medicare Advantage gives 65 days from the date of the notice (CMS). Whatever your letter states always wins.
Decode your denial.
Denial letters are written to be confusing, and insurers count on you giving up. Tell us the kind of denial and when it arrived — we'll tell you how winnable it is, the strongest argument for your case, and your deadline clock. No upload, nothing stored.
Money and coverage while in treatment.
The next questions are usually about keeping coverage, a bill, the pharmacy, and getting to treatment. Pick the one in front of you. Each link opens a page that works on your phone and asks for nothing about you.
- Keep Medicaid while you are too sick to work. The new Medicaid work rule exempts people who are medically frail. Check whether the rule applies to you and what to do when a letter comes (medfrail.com).
- A hospital bill you may not owe. Whether your income is under the line for the hospital’s financial help, the deadlines, and a letter asking to be screened (medfrail.com).
- Help paying for medicines. Extra Help, the 2026 Part D out-of-pocket cap, state drug help and drug-company programs, each with the official page (medfrail.com).
- Rides to treatment. The American Cancer Society’s Road To Recovery gives rides to cancer appointments by volunteer drivers; call 1-800-227-2345.
- A place to stay near treatment. The American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge communities house patients and a caregiver at no charge when treatment is far from home.
OncoQue in 15 seconds
- Cancer's second diagnosis: the bill. Denials, copays and drug prices, not the disease itself.
- A denial is a first offer. Medicare Advantage: <12% appeal; 80.7% get overturned.
- Decode what the letter said. The type, the deadline, the call. What you enter never leaves your browser.
- Signed appeals are planned. Not open yet. Today the tools run in your browser.
- OncoQue. Tools for a cancer denial. oncoque.com
A denial isn't the final word. It's a bet that you're too sick to fight back.
A denial is a first offer, not a verdict.
Insurers count on you not fighting — that's the whole model. Almost no one appeals, and most who do, win. A physician's signature puts a named clinician's argument in front of the payer.
The denial decoder.
Denial letters are written to be given up on. Pick the kind of denial and the date on the letter, and this tells you how winnable that kind usually is, the strongest argument for your case, and your deadline. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is transmitted or stored.
The visit checklist.
A ten-minute checklist you fill in at home so the oncology visit isn't spent reconstructing context. What to bring, what to ask, what to request afterward — including a copy of your visit notes, which HIPAA gives you the right to ask for (45 CFR 164.524) and most people never do.
Practise the call.
Rehearse the phone call about a denial with an invented plan representative: say which denial, get a reference number, the criteria in writing, the deadline, a peer-to-peer, the independent review. A phrase-checker in your browser shows what you left out. Then tick off an appeal packet and print it with a call log.
Know what the letter actually said.
Most denials aren't clinical judgments — they're codes. A missing prior authorization, a site-of-care rule, an unmet step-therapy requirement. Each type has a different route back, and the letter rarely says which one you're in. Naming the type is the whole first move.
Know your deadline.
The single most expensive thing about a denial is the calendar. Internal appeal windows are short, and in Medicare Advantage the clock starts at the date of the notice, not the day you opened it (CMS). After the internal appeal, you generally have the right to an independent external review — a different set of eyes, not the insurer's.
Get help that exists right now.
You do not have to wait for us, and you should not. Hospital oncology social workers and financial navigators file appeals and find assistance as part of their job, at no cost to you. National case managers do the same by phone. This is the most underused resource in cancer care.
If they say no again.
Most people stop when the insurer denies the appeal. That is the wrong place to stop. Once your plan's own appeal is finished, a body that is not your insurer can be made to decide — and for most private plans that decision binds the insurer. Which process you get depends entirely on who pays for your coverage. Pick yours.
Tools for the cancer journey
questions to ask · symptom red-flags · appointment prep — no signup
Open
Walk in with the right questions.
The hardest part of an oncology appointment is knowing what to ask while your head is spinning. Tell us where you are, and we'll build a focused, printable list — the questions a good oncologist wants you to ask. Turn the overwhelm into a page you can hold.
Your questions
Is this an emergency?
Cancer treatment throws symptoms at you, and it's hard to know which can wait until morning and which can't. Tap anything you're noticing right now. We'll show you what oncology teams tell their own patients to do — sorted by how fast it matters.
Prepare once. Walk in ready.
The oncology appointment is 20 minutes. Most of that time disappears explaining context your doctor already has in the chart — or that you forgot to bring. This checklist takes 10 minutes at home and recovers that time in the room.
The tools work today. The appeal service is not open yet.
The denial decoder, the call practice, the red-flag check, and the appointment checklist work today. They run in your browser. No account, no email required, and nothing you enter is sent to us.
No account · runs on your deviceA physician-signed appeal is not something OncoQue offers today. No physician is under contract to sign one, and nothing is filed.
Not accepting cases · not accepting recordsYour appeal rights don't depend on us. Your hospital's oncology social worker and financial navigator help file appeals at no cost to you, and national case managers do this work too — the links are in the tools below.
Help that exists today · not oursYour cancer records and your money deserve real answers. Here are ours.
None yet — and we won't pretend otherwise. No oncologist is under contract to sign appeals.
We don't take them. OncoQue does not receive or keep medical records or denial letters. The tools below run in your browser and send us nothing.
Nothing is for sale here. No card, no account, no subscription, no fee — because there is no service yet to charge for.
OncoQue is about the bills, never the medicine. Your treating oncologist stays exactly where they are.
Start with the tools. Keep your denial letter.
Don't send us your records — we're not able to receive them. Decode the denial yourself in the tool above, then act on the deadline printed on your letter. If you want to know when the attested-appeal service actually opens, leave an email and nothing else.
Email me when appeals openWhat OncoQue is not. Not currently an appeals service — we do not file appeals, no physician is under contract to sign one, and we are not accepting medical records or denial letters. Not a replacement for the oncologist treating you. Not a law firm, and not legal advice. The tools here are educational aids, not medical or coverage advice, and no one can promise a payer says yes. If a site tells you otherwise about what it can do for a cancer patient, ask it to name the physicians.
One email if that changes.
One email if signed appeals ever open, and one if a new tool works here. Nothing else. We won't ask for your diagnosis, and we can't take your records.
No marketing. Updates only.