ALJ appeals backlog shrinking, but won’t be eliminated as quickly as ordered

There’s good news for agencies caught up in the daunting backlog of appeals at the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level. The backlog has been reduced by more than 30% since 2017, Modern Healthcare reports.

 

Even with this improvement, HHS says it won’t be able to eliminate the backlog completely by 2020 as ordered by a U.S. district court judge, according to Modern Healthcare.

 

By statute, ALJs are supposed to issue decisions on disputed claims within 90 days after a hearing request is filed. But the average processing time for appeals decided or dismissed in the first quarter of the 2018 fiscal year at the ALJ level was 1,214 days.

 

To combat the backlog, HHS created the Low Volume Appeals (LVA) initiative and a Settlement Conference Facilitation option.

 

Modern Healthcare also reports that funding from Congress and the hiring of new judges, should help resolve about 188,000 appeals per year — more than twice the number of appeals handled last year.