BEAM, Circuit Judge.
Charles Degnan, Kenneth McCardle, Virginia Belford, and Dale Erlandson appeal the district court's
Degnan, along with the other named plaintiffs, filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota against the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("the Secretary" and "DHHS") and the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration ("the Commissioner" and "SSA"), on behalf of themselves and a class, alleging a miscalculation of their Medicare Part B premium calculations. "The Medicare Part B medical insurance program for the aged covers a part of the cost of certain physicians' services, home health care, outpatient physical therapy, and other medical and health care.... [I]t is financed in equal parts by the United States and by monthly premiums paid by individuals aged 65 or older who choose to enroll." Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 70 n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 1883, 48 L.Ed.2d 478 (1976); see 42 U.S.C. § 1395j. Medicare Part B premiums are calculated pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1395r. Plaintiffs' complaint alleged that the calculation of Part B premiums conflicted with the plain language of §§ 1395r(b)
In 2008, Degnan pursued a similar claim, see Degnan v. Sebelius, 658 F.Supp.2d 969 (D.Minn.2009) ("Degnan
The Secretary and Commissioner filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The district court concluded that because the plaintiffs failed to exhaust their administrative remedies and waiver of the exhaustion requirement was not warranted, it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case. The court granted the motion to dismiss. Degnan and the named plaintiffs appeal.
We review a district court's grant of a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction de novo. Doe v. Nixon, 716 F.3d 1041, 1051 (8th Cir.2013). The Medicare Act itself provides for district court review of the Secretary's benefit determinations. 42 U.S.C. § 1395ff(b)(1)(A). Section 1395ff(b)(1)(A) incorporates 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), which governs the district court's review of SSA decisions, and accordingly informs us here. See Midland Psychiatric Assocs., Inc. v. United States, 145 F.3d 1000, 1003 (8th Cir.1998) (Section 405(g) as adapted by § 1395ff(b)(1) "creates federal jurisdiction over final agency decisions in administrative Medicare appeals."). "In order for the district court to have subject matter jurisdiction under section 405(g), a claimant must have presented a claim for benefits to the Secretary and exhausted the administrative remedies prescribed by the Secretary." Schoolcraft v. Sullivan, 971 F.2d 81, 84-85 (8th Cir.1992). Courts cannot waive the jurisdictional presentment requirement, but may, in exceptional circumstances, waive the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement. Sipp v. Astrue, 641 F.3d 975, 980 (8th Cir.2011).
"Exhaustion is generally required as a matter of preventing premature interference with agency processes, so that the agency may function efficiently and so that it may have an opportunity to correct its own errors, to afford the parties and the courts the benefit of its experience and expertise, and to compile a record which is adequate for judicial review." Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 765, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522 (1975). Courts may waive the exhaustion requirement if the claimants establish: "(1) their claims to the district court are collateral to their claim of benefits; (2) that irreparable injury will follow; and (3) that exhaustion will otherwise be futile." Titus v. Sullivan, 4 F.3d 590, 592 (8th Cir.1993); see also Bowen v. City of New York, 476 U.S. 467, 483-84, 106 S.Ct. 2022, 90 L.Ed.2d 462 (1986) (setting forth the Eldridge
Here, the appellants concede that they failed to exhaust administrative remedies, but assert that the district court misapplied
The district court's opinion is consistent with our circuit's precedent. In a previous case applying the Eldridge factors, we concluded that where the parties failed to establish the first of the factors, the court need not consider the remaining two, as the district court did here. Clarinda Home Health v. Shalala, 100 F.3d 526, 531 (8th Cir.1996). Moreover, as the appellees assert, when our circuit utilizes the Eldridge factors, the court, in all but one case, has connected the factors with the word "and," rather than the word "or," indicating the conjunctive nature of the factors. See id.; Titus, 4 F.3d at 592; Schoolcraft, 971 F.2d at 85; Anderson v. Sullivan, 959 F.2d 690, 693 (8th Cir.1992); Thorbus v. Bowen, 848 F.2d 901, 903 (8th Cir.1988).
The district court's opinion likewise follows the Supreme Court's reasoning in Bowen, in that it not only considered all of the Eldridge factors, but also considered the practical purposes of the exhaustion requirement. 476 U.S. at 484, 106 S.Ct. 2022. In Bowen, the Court noted that "[t]he ultimate decision of whether to waive exhaustion should not be made solely by mechanical application of the Eldridge factors, but should also be guided by the policies underlying the exhaustion requirement." Id. The appellants advance this statement in support of their argument, but, as we read the Court's Bowen opinion, the Eldridge factors should be considered along with the policies underlying the "intensely practical" exhaustion doctrine. Id. In addition to its Eldridge-factor analysis, the district court's opinion considered the policies underlying exhaustion, which, as the court stated, would allow the agency to "`apply, interpret, or revise policies, regulations, or statutes without possibly premature interference by different individual courts.'" Degnan v. Sebelius, 959 F.Supp.2d 1190, 1194 (D.Minn.2013) (quoting Shalala v. Ill. Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U.S. 1, 13, 120 S.Ct. 1084, 146 L.Ed.2d 1 (2000)).
Furthermore, the thrust of appellants' argument — that exhaustion would be futile — is unpersuasive and does not warrant waiver of the exhaustion requirement on its own.
Finally, the appellants challenge the district court's denial of mandamus jurisdiction, as codified in 28 U.S.C. § 1361. We affirm the district court's denial, given that the appellants may pursue another avenue of relief — that is, the administrative process. See Heckler v. Ringer, 466 U.S. 602, 616, 104 S.Ct. 2013, 80 L.Ed.2d 622 (1984) (denying mandamus jurisdiction where the claimants could seek relief by exhausting their administrative remedies).
For these reasons we affirm the district court.