HHS still ahead of schedule to reduce appeals backlog due to AHA lawsuit

The Department of Health and Human Services has reduced its backlog of Medicare appeals at the Administrative Law Judge level by 31.4%, to 292,517, since AHA and three member hospitals and health systems won a legal challenge to the backlog in November 2018, according to the agency’s latest status report to the court. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered HHS to reduce the backlog of 426,594 appeals by at least 19% in FY 2019, 49% in FY 2020 and 75% in FY 2021, and eliminate it in FY 2022.