If your Medicare-certified facility stopped doing business during the course of the cost reporting year, are you still required to file a cost report?

The answer is that you are.  Any facility that was Medicare-certified during the course of the cost report year must file a cost report.  This holds true even if the facility closed or lost its Medicare certification during the course of the year.  You will likely even need to file a cost report if the facility had no Medicare reimbursement at all, as long as it was Medicare-certified for any part of the year.

Failure to file a cost report may result in your intermediary requesting back all monies paid to you by Medicare over the course of the year, among other penalties.

The type of cost report you need to file will be determined by the amount of reimbursement there was.

If there was no Medicare reimbursement at all during the course of the year, the facility may be eligible to file a No Utilization cost report.  Intermediary requirements for filing a no utilization cost report vary greatly, so you must check with your intermediary before filing one.

If there was some Medicare reimbursement but not a large amount, you may be eligible to file a Low Utilization cost report.  For more information, see our blog on low utilization cost reports.

We will be happy to help you determine what type of cost report you need to file and for what time period, as well as to otherwise assist you with cost report preparation or software.  Please contact us for help!

Disclaimer:  This blog does not contain legal advice. What it does contain are our best
explanations, advice, and suggestions to help facilities and cost report preparers to understand the cost report forms and reporting process and offer suggestions for their preparation. Progressive Provider Services assumes no legal responsibility for the content of this blog, nor for cost reports or other reports prepared based on the content herein.