What is the test for determining whether the procedures used by the Health and Social Services Secretary to process a claim for medical malpractice are inconsistent with the requirement of procedural due process?

Were it necessary for me to reach the constitutional question, I might well find that the Secretary's procedures are inconsistent with the requirement of procedural due process. The Secretary's interest in administrative convenience cannot justify a failure to take the minimal steps necessary to ensure that the plaintiffs actually receive their benefits. See Mathews, 424 U.S. at 332, 96 S.Ct. at 901 (setting forth a balancing test for evaluating procedural due process claims). However, even if the Secretary's procedures could be said to meet the constitutional minimum (a doubtful proposition at best), the fact that serious constitutional questions are raised should require that--in the interest of avoiding those questions--we construe the statute as requiring more than the Secretary currently does. See United States v. Watt, 910 F.2d 587, 592 (9th Cir.1990) (applying the "cardinal principle" that statutes are to be construed so as to avoid constitutional questions) (citations omitted).