§ 412.77 Determination of the hospital-specific rate for inpatient operating costs for sole community hospitals based on a Federal fiscal year 1996 base period. ( a ) *Applicability.* ( 1 ) This section applies to a hospital that has been designated as a sole community hospital, as described in § 412.92. If the 1996 hospital-specific rate exceeds the rate that would otherwise apply, that is, either the Federal rate under § 412.64 (or under § 412.63 for periods prior to FY 2005) or the hospital-specific rates for either FY 1982 under § 412.73 or FY 1987 under § 412.75, this 1996 rate will be used in the payment formula set forth in § 412.92(d)(1).
( 2 ) This section applies only to cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 2000.
( 3 ) The formula for determining the hospital-specific costs for hospitals described under paragraph (a)(1) of this section is set forth in paragraph (f) of this section.
( b ) *Based costs for hospitals subject to fiscal year 1996 rebasing* — ( 1 ) *General rule.* Except as provided in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, for each hospital eligible under paragraph (a) of this section, the intermediary determines the hospital's Medicare Part A allowable inpatient operating costs, as described in § 412.2(c), for the 12-month or longer cost reporting period ending on or after September 30, 1996 and before September 30, 1997, and computes the hospital-specific rate for purposes of determining prospective payment rates for inpatient operating costs as determined under § 412.92(d).
( 2 ) *Exceptions.* ( i ) If the hospital's last cost reporting period ending before September 30, 1997 is for less than 12 months, the base period is the hospital's most recent 12-month or longer cost reporting period ending before the short period report.
( ii ) If the hospital does not have a cost reporting period ending on or after September 30, 1996 and before September 30, 1997, and does have a cost reporting period beginning on or after October 1, 1995 and before October 1, 1996, that cost reporting period is the base period unless the cost reporting period is for less than 12 months. If that cost reporting period is for less than 12 months, the base period is the hospital's most recent 12-month or longer cost reporting period ending before the short cost reporting period. If a hospital has no cost reporting period beginning in fiscal year 1996, the hospital will not have a hospital-specific rate based on fiscal year 1996.
( c ) *Costs on a per discharge basis.* The intermediary determines the hospital's average base-period operating cost per discharge by dividing the total operating costs by the number of discharges in the base period. For purposes of this section, a transfer as defined in § 412.4(b) is considered to be a discharge.
( d ) *Case-mix adjustment.* The intermediary divides the average base-period cost per discharge by the hospital's case-mix index for the base period.
( e ) *Updating base-period costs.* For purposes of determining the updated base-period costs for cost reporting periods beginning in Federal fiscal year 1996, the update factor is determined using the methodology set forth in § 412.73(c)(12) through (c)(16).
( f ) *DRG adjustment.* The applicable hospital-specific cost per discharge is multiplied by the appropriate DRG weighting factor to determine the hospital-specific base payment amount (target amount) for a particular covered discharge.
( g ) *Notice of hospital-specific rates.* The intermediary furnishes a hospital eligible for rebasing a notice of the hospital-specific rate as computed in accordance with this section. The notice will contain a statement of the hospital's Medicare Part A allowable inpatient operating costs, the number of Medicare discharges, and the case-mix index adjustment factor used to determine the hospital's cost per discharge for the Federal fiscal year 1996 base period.
( h ) *Right to administrative and judicial review.* An intermediary's determination of the hospital-specific rate for a hospital is subject to administrative and judicial review. Review is available to a hospital upon receipt of the notice of the hospital-specific rate. This notice is treated as a final intermediary determination of the amount of program reimbursement for purposes of subpart R of part 405 of this chapter.
( i ) *Modification of hospital-specific rate.* ( 1 ) The intermediary recalculates the hospital-specific rate to reflect the following: ( i ) Any modifications that are determined as a result of administrative or judicial review of the hospital-specific rate determinations; or
( ii ) Any additional costs that are recognized as allowable costs for the hospital's base period as a result of administrative or judicial review of the base-period notice of amount of program reimbursement.
( 2 ) With respect to either the hospital-specific rate determination or the amount of program reimbursement determination, the actions taken on administrative or judicial review that provide a basis for the recalculations of the hospital-specific rate include the following: ( i ) A reopening and revision of the hospital's base-period notice of amount of program reimbursement under §§ 405.1885 through 405.1889 of this chapter.
( ii ) A prehearing order or finding issued during the provider payment appeals process by the appropriate reviewing authority under § 405.1821 or § 405.1853 of this chapter that resolved a matter at issue in the hospital's base-period notice of amount of program reimbursement.
( iii ) An affirmation, modification, or reversal of a Provider Reimbursement Review Board decision by the Administrator of CMS under § 405.1875 of this chapter that resolved a matter at issue in the hospital's base-period notice of amount of program reimbursement.
( iv ) An administrative or judicial review decision under § 405.1831, § 405.1871, or § 405.1877 of this chapter that is final and no longer subject to review under applicable law or regulations by a higher reviewing authority, and that resolved a matter at issue in the hospital's base-period notice of amount of program reimbursement.
( v ) A final, nonappealable court judgment relating to the base-period costs.
( 3 ) The adjustments to the hospital-specific rate made under paragraphs (i)(1) and (i)(2) of this section are effective retroactively to the time of the intermediary's initial determination of the rate.
( j ) *Maintaining budget neutrality.* CMS makes an adjustment to the hospital-specific rate to ensure that changes to the DRG classifications and recalibrations of the DRG relative weights are made in a manner so that aggregate payments to section 1886(d) hospitals are not affected.
[65 FR 47106, Aug. 1, 2000, as amended at 66 FR 32192, June 13, 2001; 70 FR 47485, Aug. 12, 2005; 75 FR 50414, Aug. 16, 2010]