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O'Connor, J., dissenting
description of the intermediary's role in the regulations contemplates reliance on the GAAP-based cost report as determining reimbursable costs in considering the ordinary claim. See, e. g., § 413.60(b) (providing that, "[a]t the end of the [reporting] period, the actual apportionment, based on the cost finding and apportionment methods selected by the provider, determines the Medicare reimbursement for the actual services provided to beneficiaries during the period" (emphasis added)); § 413.64(f)(2) ("In order to reimburse the provider as quickly as possible, an initial retroactive adjustment will be made as soon as the cost report is received. For this purpose, the costs will be accepted as reported, unless there are obvious errors or inconsistencies, subject to later audit. When an audit is made and the final liability of the program is determined, a final adjustment will be made" (emphasis added)). The fiscal intermediary, then, is essentially instructed to check the hospital's cost report for accuracy, reasonableness, and presumably compliance with the regulations. But that task seems to operate within the framework of the hospital's normal accounting procedure—i. e., GAAP— and not some alternative, uncodified set of accounting principles employed by the Secretary. See generally 42 CFR §§ 421.1-421.128 (1994).
I take seriously our obligation to defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of its own regulations, particularly "when, as here, the regulation concerns 'a complex and highly technical regulatory program,' in which the identification and classification of relevant 'criteria necessarily require significant expertise and entail the exercise of judgment grounded in policy concerns.' " Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U. S. 504, 512 (1994) (quoting Pauley v. BethEnergy Mines, Inc., 501 U. S. 680, 697 (1991)). In this case, however, the Secretary advances a view of the regulations that would force us to conclude that she has not fulfilled her statutory duty to promulgate regulations determining the methods by which reasonable Medicare costs are to be
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