Opinion
Submitted September 20, 2001.
October 9, 2001.
In an action for a judgment declaring that the plaintiff is entitled to a recalculation of its Medicaid reimbursement rates for the years 1993 through 1996, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Schulman, J.), dated June 6, 2000, which granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Skolnick, Hochberg Bernfeld, P.C., New York, N.Y. (David B. Bernfeld and Mark W. Geisler of counsel), for appellant.
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney-General, New York, N.Y. (Marion R. Buchbinder and Mary Fisher Bernet of counsel), for respondents.
Before: CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, J.P., WILLIAM D. FRIEDMANN, NANCY E. SMITH and BARRY A. COZIER, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Queens County, for the entry of a judgment declaring that the plaintiff is not entitled to a recalculation of its Medicaid reimbursement rates for the years 1993 through 1996.
The plaintiff, a nursing home receiving Medicaid reimbursement, brought this action for a judgment declaring that it is entitled to a recalculation of its Medicaid reimbursement rates for the years 1993 through 1996. The plaintiff challenged the defendants' rejection of several issues raised on an administrative appeal following an audit (see, 10 NYCRR 86-2.13). In granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment, the Supreme Court correctly found that the plaintiff raised noncomputational challenges to the agency methodology in determining rates (see, Matter of Evergreen Val. Nursing Home v. DeBuono, 277 A.D.2d 569, 570; Matter of Sylcox v. Chassin, 227 A.D.2d 834, 836), which had to have been raised within four months of initial receipt of the rates (see, CPLR 217; Sitrin Nursing Home Co. v. McBarnette, 198 A.D.2d 579; Matter of Sylcox Nursing Home Health Related Facility v. Axelrod, 184 A.D.2d 986).
We note that since this is a declaratory judgment action, the Supreme Court should have directed the entry of a judgment declaring that the plaintiff is not entitled to a recalculation of its Medicaid reimbursement rates for the years 1993 through 1996, rather than dismiss the complaint (see, Lanza v. Wagner, 11 N.Y.2d 317, 334, appeal dismissed 371 U.S. 74, cert denied 371 U.S. 901).