(1) The legislature finds that providers of service that participate in medicare and Montana medicaid are required to submit information to achieve the settlement of costs relating to health care social services rendered to beneficiaries. The submitted cost reports cover the providers' fiscal year of operations based on the providers' accounting year.
(2) The legislature finds that to balance prompt reimbursement to providers and maintain Montana medicaid's program integrity, the Montana medicaid program shall align cost-based reimbursement procedures with the procedures utilized by the medicare program. This includes prompt initial settlement upon submission of a provider's cost report and subsequent adjustment after a desk review or audit of the cost report is performed by the applicable medicare administrative contractor.
(3) This part applies to annual cost reports when submitted by a critical access hospital, as defined 50-5-101.