Cite as: 522 U. S. 448 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
No. 99-453, p. 482 (1985) (emphasis added). The Secretary's reaudit rule brings the base-year calculation in line with Congress' pervasive instruction for reasonable cost reimbursement. The rule does not permit recoupment of any time-barred 1984 overpayment, but it enables the Secretary, for open and future years, to carry out that official's responsibility to reimburse only reasonable costs, and to prevent payment of uncovered, improperly classified, or excessive costs. See supra, at 454.
Until the GME Amendment in 1986, GME costs were determined annually; one year's determination did not control a later year's reimbursement. The GME Amendment, which called for a base-year GME cost determination that would control payments in later years, became law at a time when other Medicare changes were underway, including installation of a new prospective payment system (PPS).6 See 54 Fed. Reg. 40301 (1989) (acknowledging that GME costs were not given prompt scrutiny "because of the many changes that were taking place in Medicare generally"). The GME Amendment introduced the new statutory concept of per-resident GME costs; it was this innovation that caused the Secretary "to examine GME costs that ha[d] been reimbursed in the past and to question the significant variation in costs that ha[d] been allowed." 53 Fed. Reg. 36593 (1988).
Concerned that providers may have been reimbursed erroneously, the Secretary attempted to assure reimbursement in future and still open years of reasonable costs, but no more. To accomplish this, the Secretary endeavored to strip from the base-period amount improper costs, e. g., physician costs for activities unrelated to the GME program, malprac-6 The PPS scheme established fixed payment rates, based on patient diagnosis, for a provider's operating costs of furnishing in-patient care to program beneficiaries. See 42 U. S. C. § 1395ww(d); Good Samaritan Hospital v. Shalala, 508 U. S. 402, 406, n. 3 (1993). Costs incurred in connection with GME programs were excluded from the PPS scheme. 42 U. S. C. §§ 1395ww(a)(4) and (d)(1)(A).
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