Hello List,
I recently wrote a letter and mailed it to the ALJ Centralized Docketing address requesting status update on all of our appeals previously submitted. We had sent our first one in November and had not heard a word on any of them.
About a week and a half later I received a status letter from the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals on the first case which just gave us the name of the Judge and apologized for the delay due to the large volume of appeals currently in process (duh!).
That same day I received a call from a lady in the Centralized Docketing Office. She had a few questions about some of the appeals I had submitted and also informed me that two of my claims had not been received in their office. Fortunately I sent one via Certified Mail and the other via UPS so I had proof that they were in fact mailed AND received in their office. She asked me to resend them to her directly and they would process them from the original date of receipt per my proof of delivery.
Moral of the story: SEND A STATUS REQUEST LETTER TO THE ALJ FOR EVERY APPEAL PACKET YOU HAVE SENT IN EVEN IF YOU HAVE PROOF THAT IT ARRIVED IN THEIR OFFICE. One of the claims was in the same packet as another appeal that they did have on file so that is a little frustrating. If I had not done this it could have been many moons before I realized/found out that they didn’t have these appeals and who knows how long it would set us back in the process at this point.
Thanks,
Amanda
