Federal judge dismisses RAC lawsuit against HHS

The Hill reported that the American Hospital Association “plans to appeal a federal court ruling Thursday that said the government’s lengthy backlog of Medicare reimbursements is ‘not so egregious’ to require legal intervention.” US District Judge James Boasberg wrote in his decision Thursday that he “sympathizes with the plaintiff’s plight.” However, he said the processing time did not justify action from the court against HHS. “No one denies that this is a problem in need of a fix. This Court, however, is not in a position to provide that fix,” he wrote. Modern Healthcare reported that the AHA sued HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in May, “alleging that the appeals process, which allows hospitals and doctors to challenge claims by recovery auditors for allegedly incorrect payments made by the CMS, is excruciatingly sluggish—so slow that they say it’s against the law.”