Justice for Medicare Beneficiaries Act of 2005 - Amends the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to require administrative law judges in the Department of Health and Human Services involved with the Medicare appeals process to be bound only by applicable statutes, regulations, and rulings issued in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act. Declares that such judges shall not be required to give substantial deference to local coverage determinations, local medical review policies, or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program guidance.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure, in providing for the geographic distribution of administrative law judges, that: (1) there is at least one site in each state, the District of Columbia, and each territory for in-person hearings before a judge; and (2) there are at least two such sites in the five states with the largest populations, geographically distributed within each state.
Directs the Secretary to ensure that: (1) if an individual entitled to or enrolled for Medicare benefits requests a hearing before an administrative law judge, it shall be in-person unless he or she requests that it be conducted using tele- or video-conferencing technologies; and (2) the time frame to decide an appeal is not different for either kind of hearing.
Delays from October 1, 2005, until October 1, 2006, the transfer of the adjudication authority of administrative law judges responsible for hearing Medicare cases from the Commissioner of Social Security and the Social Security Administration to the Secretary and the Department of Health and Human Services.
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