Home Health & Hospice Week

HHAs may be faring better and DME suppliers worse under the new ALJ structure. Your days of waiting on pins and needles for months to find out the result of an administrative law judge appeal appear to be over. The ALJs are deciding most cases faster than ever, says the HHS Office of Inspector General in a new report, "Medicare Administrative Law Judge Hearings: Update, 2007��"2008" (OEI-02-06-00111). For cases subject to the 90-day deadline, the ALJs decided 94 percent on time in 2008, compared to 85 percent three years earlier when the ALJs transitioned from the Social Security Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services. That improvement is despite the ALJs' 37 percent increase in caseload during that time. Background: Most Part A and Part B appeals are subject to the 90-day deadline set out in the BIPA law of 2000. Exceptions include when providers waive the deadline [...]