New Rulings on the Massive CMS Appeals Backlog

The Medicare appeals backlog crisis has been going on for years now.  I wrote a blog in early 2014 that HHS couldn't possibly meet its stated backlog clearance goals (the math was crystal clear, and the HHS public statements were nonsensical.)  I updated after an HHS press release in June 2016.

The HHS backlog is back in the news in early December, 2017.  A court has ordered HHS to clear the backlog "by January 2021," according to Modern Healthcare.   2021 - remember, HHS was claiming it could clear the back log in a couple years, in 2014.

A detailed article with numerous links to legal documents was published by Kristin Walter at McKnight's on December 9.

• McKnight article on the backlog, here.  Citations therein include:
• HHS brief in appeal, 29pp, here.
• The court's opinion, 7p, here.
• For a link to 2015 proposed legislative fix, AFIRM, here.
• For HHS's own 11 page public-facing explanation of the issues, June 2016, here.
• For a response article entitled, "Feds Peddling Fiction on Medicare Appeals," here.
• Coverage at Reuters here, at Becker's Hospital Review, here.
• Medicare awarded new RAC contracts in November, here.