Opinion ID: 487477
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Alleged Conflict With Reopening Regulations

Text: 36 This argument is best understood by reference to the factual background of Athens I and Athens II. See Athens I, 686 F.2d at 991-92. In that case, a provider filed a timely cost report but completely omitted certain costs, apparently by inadvertence. The intermediary issued a final determination concerning the listed costs and the provider appealed to the Board. While this appeal was pending, the provider petitioned the intermediary to amend its cost report, pursuant to the reopening regulations, 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.1885 et seq. When this petition was denied, the provider attempted to litigate its entitlement to the unlisted costs before the Board, by adding those issues to its pending appeal. In that circumstance, the D.C. Circuit concluded that allowing the Board to hear the new claims would eviscerate the finality provision of 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.1885(c), which it interpreted as making an intermediary's decision not to reopen immune from appeal. See Athens II, 743 F.2d at 7. 37 We note that this argument has force only if the Board is allowed to review matters completely omitted from a cost report. We have expressly left this issue open (see note 3, supra ). Even if the Board's review were extended to matters omitted from a cost report, however, the finality provision of 42 C.F.R. Sec. 405.1885(c) would not be eviscerated. 6 Appeal to the Board does not force an intermediary to reopen its deliberations against its will. There is finality at the intermediary level. The D.C. Circuit's idea that this finality should extend to the Board stems from the notion, which we have rejected above, that the Board exercises purely a power of review with no element of initial jurisdiction.