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Medicare Appeals: Time Is of the Essence!
Timing is everything. Missing a deadline germane to any type of Medicare or Medicaid audit is deadly. Miss an appeal deadline by one, single day, and you lose your right to appeal an overpayment.
If anyone has watched Schitt’s Creek, then you know that when Johnny and Moira Rose missed their deadline to file for and pay taxes, they lost their mansion, their money, and way of life. The same catastrophic loss can occur if a provider misses an appeal deadline. Then that provider will be up Schitt’s Creek.
Importantly, when it comes to Medicare appeals, your appeal is due 60 days after the reconsideration review decision. 42 CFR § 405.1014 – Request for an ALJ hearing or a review of a QIC dismissal. A third-level, Medicare provider appeal is considered “filed” upon receipt of the complete appeal at the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, instead of the normal standard acceptance that an appeal is filed upon the mailing stamped date. As in, once you mail your appeal, it will be retroactively filed per the date of mailing. Not true for the third-level, Medicare provider appeal. It is considered filed the date of receipt.
Also, the regulatory clock starts ticking 5 days after the date the of the reconsideration review decision, because, the thought is that the U.S. Post Office will not take more than 5 days to deliver correspondence. Well, that assumption nowadays is inaccurate. The Post Office is a mess, and that’s an understatement. My friend, Dr. Ronald Hirsh told me that his overnighted packages have been received weeks later. More times than not, mail is received weeks after it was mailed, which makes the date of delivery imperative. Yet this regulation forces you to rely on the U.S. Post Office; it makes no logical sense.
We actually had a case in which the ALJ dismissed our appeal because the Post Office delivered the appeal on the 61st day after the reconsideration review decision, including the 5 days window. Literally, the 61st day. The reason that the appeal was received on the 61st day is because the 60th day fell on a holiday, a weekend, or a closure due to COVID – I cannot recall – but OMHA was closed. The mail delivery person had to return the next day to deliver the appeal. Yet, our appeal was dismissed based on the US Post Office! We filed a Motion to Reconsider, but the ALJ denied it. Our only chance at presenting to the ALJ was squashed – due to the Post Office.
We appealed the ALJ’s denial to the Medicare Appeals Council with hope of reasonableness. We have no decision yet. It certainly makes me want to say: Eww, David!
Congressman McDermott Calls on Sec. Sebelius to Fix the Medicare Appeal Purgatory
Throughout my career I have seen more people confuse Medicare and Medicaid than any other two items in my line of work. If I am about to give a presentation on Medicaid, without question, someone will comment, “Oh, that’s important! We will all be on Medicaid someday.” Hmmmm? Really? (I hope not).
It’s confusing. I get it. They sound the same and both are heavily regulated with esoteric rules and regulations.
For the record, MediCARE covers those who qualify for Medicare and are 65 years of age or older. MediCAID serves low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
By providers, I am asked frequently, “What is the difference between a Medicaid audit appeal and a Medicare audit appeal?”
The easy “Audit 101” answer is that Medicaid audit appeals are quicker (although in the legal world, nothing is truly fast) than Medicare audits and that the Medicaid administrative appeal process is easier (or has fewer steps) than the Medicare appeal process.
In Medicaid you have an informal appeal, an appeal to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), and, if you are so inclined, judicial review to the Superior Courts. Obviously you can appeal the judicial review, but most appeals stop at the OAH level.
So, with Medicaid audit appeals, you have 2 levels…maybe 3.
In Medicare audits appeals, there are 5 levels. You have more of a Dante-ish order of events.
In the “Divine Comedy,” Dante writes of three levels of afterlife: (1) Inferno (2) Purgatorio; and (3) Paradiso.
If Dante stopped at those 3 levels, the “Divine Comedy” would be more similar to Medicaid audit appeals, not Medicare audit appeals. But Dante does not stop at 3 levels.
Purgatory, which is the place that the human soul must purge its sins and climb up to be worthy of Heaven, is divided into three sections: (1) Antepurgatory; (2) Purgatory proper; and (3) the Earthly Paradise. (I am giving the Cliff’s Notes version for the purpose of this blog. Obviously, there were other mountains symbolizing the 7 deadly sins and other layers, but I will leave that for English class).
In recent times, Purgatory has come to mean a state of suffering or torment that is meant to be temporary.
Regardless, the “Divine Comedy” and its multi-layers to achieve Paradiso is more akin to the Medicare appeal audit process.
Here are the levels in a Medicare audit appeal process:
1. Redetermination
2. Reconsideration
(Purgatory)
3. Hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ)
4. Review by the Appeals Council
5. Judicial Review
Nowadays many providers undergoing Medicare audits are getting stuck waiting for #3 to occur. Purgatory.
So long is the hold up before step #3 that Congressman Jim McDermott, 7th District, Washington, wrote a letter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressing concerns.
In a letter dated March 18, 2014, Congressman McDermott writes that he is concerned with the backlog of appeals pending in the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA).
According to Congressman McDermott, 357,000 Medicare appeals are pending at OMHA. If OMHA decided to set a one-year deadline to hear the pending actions and not counting new actions that would be filed, OMHA would have to preside over 1,027.4 hearings a day, including weekends and holidays.
For as long as I know, OMHA has expedited Medicare recipients appeals. However, while Congressman McDermott commends OMHA for the expeditions, he states that the expeditions are not fast enough, even for Medicare recipients.
Congressman McDermott makes several suggestions as to how to decrease the current workload on OMHA.
First, he asks that the “two midnights policy” not be implemented. Instead, he suggests to revamp the recovery audit contractor (RAC) program. Congressman McDermott states that too many issues are still not resolved for the Policy to be implemented and that the implementation will only add to OMHA’s workload.
Second, Congressman McDermott suggests more accountability for the RACs. He states that there is no associated penalty if a RAC collects money from a provider and the decision is overturned on appeal.
To this suggestion, I say, “Bravo, Congressman McDermott!” My suggestion is that the RACs to pay the provider’s attorneys’ fees if overturned on appeal. It seems only fair that the provider not have to pay legal fees if the provider shows that the RAC was incorrect in its assessment.
Thirdly, Congressman McDermott suggests to ensure the newly instated pause on document requests corrects the problems. CMS has recognized inherent problems with the RAC program and has issued a pause of document requests. Well, Congressman McDermott says make sure you fix the problem before lifting the pause. Logical.
Without question, the backlog at OMHA needs to be addressed. Some Medicare providers have complained of not having their cases heard for years. Imagine waiting to be heard in front of a judge for years….not knowing…
It is hard enough for providers to go through a Medicare audit. Much less appeal and then…………………………………………….wait in Purgatory.
