The Medicare Part B appeal process is lengthy and cumbersome, typically requiring full exhaustion of administrative remedies, including an administrative request for reconsideration, an ALJ hearing and Departmental Appeals Board review. The process is especially frustrating when the appeal involves a challenge to a Local Coverage Determination (“LCD”), likely to have spawned several individual appeals of the same decision.
The Medicare Act does provide a shortcut to a legal review by way of 42 U.S.C. § 1395ff(f)(3) which provides that a Medicare recipient “may seek review [of an LCD] by a court of competent jurisdiction without … otherwise exhausting other administrative remedies.” This direct access to court review applies only if “there are no material issues of fact in dispute, and the only issue of law is the constitutionality of a provision of this subchapter or that a regulation, determination or ruling by the Secretary is invalid.” Continue reading “California Medicare Appeal Applies Strict Standing Rules”