The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported to the US District Court it is on track to reduce the backlog of cases pending with its administrative law judges (ALJ). A November 2018 court order forced the agency to reduce its aging case inventory 75% by September 30, 2021, and completely eradicate it no later than September 30, 2022. As of December 31, 2020, there were 131,961 cases remaining.
To reign in the 426,000 docket-stuffing cases addressed in the 2018 order, HHS introduced expedited settlement initiatives and used recent budget allotments to increase its roster of judges from 30 to 100.
The agency has not resolved the cases in the order in which they were received. In fact, the average number of days between appeal filing and decision dates actually increased 4% to 1,430 days during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, suggesting some of the oldest and most complex cases remain.
The ALJ has more than enough capacity to keep up with new cases and contribute significant resources to the remaining backlog. The last mile may be the most difficult, however, especially if the remaining cases are far more resource intensive than the last several years combined.
SOURCE LINKS
https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2021/03/alj-delay-case-dashboard-3-26-21.pdf
https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2021-03-29-result-aha-lawsuit-hhs-continues-reduce-appeals-backlog
https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/omha/about/current-workload/average-processing-time-by-fiscal-year/index.html
https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/omha/about/current-workload/decision-statistics/index.html
To reign in the 426,000 docket-stuffing cases addressed in the 2018 order, HHS introduced expedited settlement initiatives and used recent budget allotments to increase its roster of judges from 30 to 100.
The agency has not resolved the cases in the order in which they were received. In fact, the average number of days between appeal filing and decision dates actually increased 4% to 1,430 days during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, suggesting some of the oldest and most complex cases remain.
The ALJ has more than enough capacity to keep up with new cases and contribute significant resources to the remaining backlog. The last mile may be the most difficult, however, especially if the remaining cases are far more resource intensive than the last several years combined.
SOURCE LINKS
https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2021/03/alj-delay-case-dashboard-3-26-21.pdf
https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2021-03-29-result-aha-lawsuit-hhs-continues-reduce-appeals-backlog
https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/omha/about/current-workload/average-processing-time-by-fiscal-year/index.html
https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/omha/about/current-workload/decision-statistics/index.html
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