Review of Nursing and Allied Health Education Payments to St. John's Riverside Hospital for Calendar Year 2004

摘要

Pursuant to Federal regulations, Medicare shares in the costs of approved nursing education activities (42 CFR SCSC 413.85(d) and 413.50(a)(2)). Federal regulations (42 U.S.C. 1395(x)) state that a hospital may be reimbursed for reasonable costs incurred in training students of a hospitalbased nursing school as if they were allowable direct costs of a hospital-operated educational program. Nursing education costs are excluded from the calculation of payment rates under the hospital inpatient prospective payment system. The costs of these programs are separately identified on the cost report and are paid on a reasonable cost basis, provided the programs meet Medicare reimbursement requirements. St. John's Riverside Hospital (the hospital) operates a 2-year hospital-based nursing education program through the Cochran School of Nursing, in Yonkers, New York. For the period January 1 through December 31,2004 (calendar year 2004), the hospital claimed Medicare costs of $1,428,678 for its nursing education program. Our objective was to determine whether the hospital's nursing education program met Medicare program eligibility and cost reimbursement requirements.