454
Opinion of the Court
time, the Secretary reported reason to believe some "questionable" GME costs had been "erroneously reimbursed" to providers for their 1984 fiscal year, the period Congress designated in 1986 to serve continually as the base year. 53 Fed. Reg. 36591 (1988). To prevent perpetuation of past mistakes under the new GME cost-reimbursement methodology, the Secretary proposed to give fiscal intermediaries re-auditing authority to ensure that future payments would be based on an "accurate" determination of providers' 1984 GME costs. Id., at 36591-36592. The final regulation, published in September 1989, instructs intermediaries to verify each hospital's base-year GME costs and its average number of full-time-equivalent residents; exclude from those base-year GME costs "any nonallowable or misclassified costs, including those previously allowed under . . . this chapter"; and, upon the hospital's request, include GME costs misclassified as operating costs during the base period. 42 CFR §§ 413.86(e)(1)(ii)(A)-(C) (1996).
The Secretary made clear that the reaudit rule permitted no recoupment of excess reimbursement for years in which the reimbursement determination had become final. 54 Fed. Reg. 40302 (1989). Rather, the rule sought to prevent future overpayments and to permit recoupment of prior excess reimbursement only for years in which the reimbursement determination had not yet become final. Id., at 40301, 40302; 42 CFR § 413.86(e)(1)(iii) (1996).
B
Regions Hospital (Hospital), the petitioner, is a teaching hospital eligible for GME cost reimbursement.1 On February 28, 1986, the Hospital received from its intermediary an NAPR for the 1984 reporting period which reflected total 1984 GME costs of $9,892,644. A reaudit commenced in late
1 When the petitioner filed its petition and briefs with the Court, it was known as "St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center." It changed its name to "Regions Hospital" on September 15, 1997.
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