Mealey's (December 9, 2016, 11:25 AM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Dec. 5 gave the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a four-year timeline for meeting statutorily mandated deadlines governing a backlog of hundreds of thousands of pending Medicare appeals, finding its efforts at reducing the “morass” insufficient (American Hospital Association, et al. v. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, et al., No. 14-851, D. D.C.)....