Health your username December 29, 2020 On Monday in the District of Columbia District Court, 46 Medicare-participating hospitals filed a complaint against Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar, arguing that he should reverse a final decision that bad debts incurred by the hospitals between fiscal years 2006 and 2009, totaling approximately $1,359,216, cannot be reimbursed because the amount was pending at an outside collection agency. According to the complaint, when Medicare beneficiaries fail to pay their deductible or coinsurance, “(t)o assure that such covered service costs are not borne by others, the costs attributable to the deductible and coinsurance amounts that remain unpaid are reimbursed by Medicare as ‘bad debts.’” To qualify for reimbursement, a provider has to show that the bad debt is from “covered services and derived from deductible and coinsurance amounts” and that it was “actually uncollectible when claimed as worthless.” A provider also must show that it made “reasonable collection efforts” and had “sound business judgment” proving collection was unlikely, the complaint said.