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Everything here is free to read, and nothing here is a claim about your case. Built from California’s published records and modified by us — not official government data. How these numbers were made.

Treatment class · subcategory · California

Anti-inflammatories denials at external review

When a California health plan denied care in the anti-inflammatories class and the enrollee took it to Independent Medical Review, this is what independent physician reviewers decided.

66.2%

Overturned
43 of 65
Era
2021-2025
Jurisdiction
California DMHC IMR
Published class
Anti-inflammatories
Median days to decision
30
All years
52.6% of 266
43 overturned22 upheld

What reviewers relied on

3 validated codes

California requires each published decision to carry “a detailed case summary that includes the specific standards, criteria, and medical and scientific evidence, if any, that led to the case decision” (Health & Safety Code § 1374.33(h)(1)(K)). These are the elements our extraction found in this class, split by how the decision came out.

What the reviewer relied onIn overturnsIn upholds
the FDA label or approval status26%n=43
a standardised level-of-care instrument0%n=43
a California statutory definition0%n=43

Read as description, not instruction. These are patterns in what reviewers wrote, not steps to follow, and no combination of them predicts an outcome. Only codes that cleared the validation gate appear — thirteen did not.

Authorities named in this class

computed
  • FDA18
  • American College of Rheumatology8
  • American Academy of Dermatology1
  • American Academy of Neurology1
  • American Gastroenterological Association1

A rate here is the outcome of decisions that named the authority, not the effect of naming it. Reviewers cite the standard they applied; the citation and the outcome share a cause.

By condition

computed
  • Overturned — the reviewer did not sustain the denial
  • Upheld — the reviewer sustained the denial
  • Immune disorders21
  • Vision11
  • Genitourinary & kidney6
  • Skin6
  • Digestive & GI5
  • Genetic disease4
  • Orthopedic & musculoskeletal4
  • CNS & neuromuscular3

Browse all condition classes · Pick your own pair

The specific conditions inside this class

below n=30, no rate is claimed
  • Other17
  • Arthritis6
  • Autoimmune Disease6
  • Lupus4
  • Alopecia3
  • Cornea Problem3
  • Dermatitis3
  • Colitis/Inflammatory Bowel Disease2

By review type

computed
  • Medical Necessity68.4%57
  • Experimental/Investigational8

Medical-necessity review asks whether the care is needed. Experimental/investigational review asks whether it is likely to be more beneficial than standard therapy — a harder statutory test, and the rates show it.

Every figure on this page is conditional on a denial having reached external review. Fewer than 1% of denials are appealed internally at all, so this describes denials that were fought to the end — not denials in general — and it describes California only. Who this does not cover.

Free help, first: the California DMHC Help Center files your Independent Medical Review at no cost — 1-888-466-2219, dmhc.ca.gov.