
Designed to Fail: How Insurance Denials Really Work
From Code WACK! by HEAL California
April 20, 2026 · 10 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the challenges of navigating insurance denials in healthcare with insights from a retired healthcare professional.
This time on CodeWACK! Today, we're talking about insurance denials, hidden incentives… and why getting care can feel like navigating a system designed to stop you. Our guest is Bob Coleman, a retired healthcare professional who spent more than 40 years serving veterans through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs— as a clinical pharmacist, medical informaticist, and researcher. His latest ebook is called " Hostile Takeover: How Wall Street and Congress Hijacked American Healthcare and How We Can Take it Back ." This is the first of a two-part series. Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more! And please keep Code WACK! on the air with a tax-deductible donation at heal-ca.org/donate .
People in this episode
Guest: Bob Coleman
Topics covered
- insurance denials
- healthcare
- veterans
- system navigation
Keywords
- hidden incentives
- healthcare system
- veterans affairs
- clinical pharmacist
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Hostile Takeover: How Wall Street and Congress Hijacked American Healthcare and How We Can Take it Back
Books & works: Designed to Fail, Hostile Takeover: How Wall Street and Congress Hijacked American Healthcare and How We Can Take, the Transcript and Show Notes
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- The Health Insurance Black Box: Why Employer Healthcare Costs Keep Rising · April 6, 2026 · 16 min
- States Push Back Against Medicaid Managed Care · March 30, 2026 · 19 min
- The Middlemen Making Money Off Medicaid · March 23, 2026 · 17 min
- The Hidden Cost of Private Equity Hospital Buyouts · March 16, 2026 · 15 min
- Is private equity in health care killing us? · March 9, 2026 · 18 min
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