An overwhelming number of Medicare providers and beneficiaries questioning their Medicare claims are waiting -- and waiting -- for a decision. The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report in June that details a massive increase in the number of Medicare appeals as well as wait times to get those appeals resolved.

The Medicare appeals process has four stages, and GAO investigators found increases in appeals filed at each one, including a 62 percent rise at the first level from 2010 through 2014 and a ten-fold increase in third-level appeals during the same time period.