Cite as: 522 U. S. 448 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
the reporting period, 42 CFR § 405.1803 (1996), and is subject to review by the Provider Reimbursement Review Board (PRRB), the Secretary, and ultimately the courts. See 42 U. S. C. §§ 1395oo(a), (b), (f)(1); 42 CFR §§ 405.1835, 405.1837 (1996).
By regulation, the Secretary may reopen, within three years, any determination by a fiscal intermediary, the PRRB, or the Secretary herself "to revise any matter in issue at any such proceedings." § 405.1885(a). In other words, the Secretary can recoup excessive (or correct insufficient) reimbursement for a given year so long as the Secretary acts within the three-year reopening window.
In April 1986, Congress changed the method for calculating reimbursable GME costs. See 42 U. S. C. § 1395ww(h). In lieu of discrete annual determinations of "reasonable cost . . . actually incurred," § 1395x(v)(1)(A), Congress designated a baseline year, 1984, for cost determinations, i. e., costs "recognized as reasonable" for that year would serve as the base figure used to calculate GME reimbursements for all subsequent years. The GME Amendment directed the Secretary to determine a per-resident amount by dividing each provider's 1984 GME costs "recognized as reasonable" by the number of full-time-equivalent residents working for the provider in 1984. § 1395ww(h)(2)(A). The 1984 per-resident amount, adjusted for inflation, would then be used to determine the provider's GME reimbursements for all fiscal years "beginning on or after July 1, 1985." Note following 42 U. S. C. § 1395ww, p. 1131. The provider's reimbursable costs for a particular year would be computed by multiplying the inflation-adjusted 1984 per-resident amount by the provider's weighted number of full-time-equivalent residents, as determined by § 1395ww(h)(4), and the hospital's Medicare patient load, § 1395ww(h)(3)(C).
In September 1988, the Secretary published a proposed regulation to implement the GME Amendment. At that
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