Method
How these numbers are made.
Health billing tools are easy to build and easy to get dangerously wrong. Here is how calculation inputs are sourced, tested, dated, and limited.
The revision most sites missed
The 2026 out-of-pocket maximums were announced and then revised. The originally published figures of $10,150 and $20,300 were replaced, following a change in methodology, with $10,600 self-only and $21,200 family. A lot of published content still carries the superseded numbers. Our test suite fails on purpose if anyone reintroduces them.
Two ceilings, not one
HSA-qualified high-deductible plans have their own, lower ceilings — $8,500 self-only and $17,000 family. A plan subject to both must satisfy the lower one. Confusing the two sets is the most common error in this subject.
How the arithmetic is checked
Every calculator has test cases with expected values worked out by hand, independently of the code. When the two disagree, one is wrong and it gets investigated before anything ships. The functions that run in your browser are the same ones the tests exercise — they are serialized directly from the tested module, not reimplemented.
Review schedule
Rule-dependent pages show a verification date and are assigned a review interval. A public date changes only after the underlying source and affected tests have been reviewed; rebuilding the static files alone does not make a rule current.
- Federal appeal rules — reviewed every 180 days
- State specifics — reviewed every 120 days
- Dollar limits — reviewed annually, and whenever a revision is announced
Last verified 2026-07-26 · rebuilt 2026-07-26
Source standard
Federal dollar limits are checked against CMS or IRS publications. Federal appeal-process statements are checked against HealthCare.gov, CMS, or the U.S. Department of Labor. State and territory pages do not invent local deadlines: the routing aid points to the denial notice and the applicable regulator when a claim-specific rule is not modeled.
- HealthCare.gov — external review, receipt date, and current FERP notice
- U.S. Department of Labor — filing and appealing group health benefit claims
- CMS — federal surprise-billing protections and boundaries
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-19 — 2026 HSA and HDHP limits
What these tools do not do
- They do not read your plan. Deductibles, exclusions, and networks vary and your documents always govern.
- They do not give a deadline we have not verified. Where a state figure is unconfirmed, we say so and point you to the regulator.
- They do not decide jurisdiction. The location selector covers the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories as a routing aid. It does not determine which law, regulator, or appeal route controls a claim, and it does not cover jurisdictions outside that list.
- They are not advice. Not medical, not legal, not insurance advice. They are arithmetic and plain-language explanation.
Editorial responsibility
Alonso Verdeja publishes and tests the site. No medical, legal, insurance, actuarial, tax, or financial credential is claimed. The Editorial Policy documents the source hierarchy, review intervals, calculation standards, advertising independence, correction process, and sensitive-data boundary. DenialDesk does not currently provide a contact form or reporting mailbox, so it does not claim to accept visitor-submitted corrections.