A federal judge recently ruled that a long-term care hospital in Texas can once again challenge a nearly $300,000 penalty imposed by CMS, according to Bloomberg Law.
The issues in the case stemmed from a data submission Post Acute Medical Squared at Texarkana made to CMS in 2015. CMS didn't receive the data submission because of a typo in at least one of the data sets. As a result, CMS imposed a 2 percent Medicare payment reduction the next year, resulting in nearly $300,000 in losses.
The hospital appealed the penalty to CMS and the Provider Reimbursement Review Board, but it was unsuccessful in overturning payment reduction. The hospital then took the case to federal court in Washington, D.C., according to McKnight's Long-Term Care News.
On Jan. 22, a federal judge ruled that CMS relied on an outdated rule when it didn't reconsider Post Acute Medical Squared's challenge to the penalty. The court remanded the case to HHS for a final decision.