(a) General.

(1) A person that has received an overpayment must report and return the overpayment in the form and manner set forth in this section.

(2) A person has identified an overpayment when the person has, or should have through the exercise of reasonable diligence, determined that the person has received an overpayment and quantified the amount of the overpayment. A person should have determined that the person received an overpayment and quantified the amount of the overpayment if the person fails to exercise reasonable diligence and the person in fact received an overpayment.

(b) Deadline for reporting and returning overpayments.

(1) A person who has received an overpayment must report and return the overpayment by the later of either of the following:

(i) The date which is 60 days after the date on which the overpayment was identified.

(ii) The date any corresponding cost report is due, if applicable.

(2) The deadline for returning overpayments will be suspended when the following occurs:

(i) OIG acknowledges receipt of a submission to the OIG Self-Disclosure Protocol and will remain suspended until such time as a settlement agreement is entered, the person withdraws from the OIG Self-Disclosure Protocol, or the person is removed from the OIG Self-Disclosure Protocol.

(ii) CMS acknowledges receipt of a submission to the CMS Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol and will remain suspended until such time as a settlement agreement is entered, the person withdraws from the CMS Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol, or the person is removed from the CMS Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol.

(iii) A person requests an extended repayment schedule as defined in §401.603 and will remain suspended until such time as CMS or one of its contractors rejects the extended repayment schedule request or the provider or supplier fails to comply with the terms of the extended repayment schedule.

(c) Applicable reconciliation.

(1) The applicable reconciliation occurs when a cost report is filed; and

(2) In instances when the provider—

(i) Receives more recent CMS information on the SSI ratio, the provider is not required to return any overpayment resulting from the updated information until the final reconciliation of the provider's cost report occurs; or

(ii) Knows that an outlier reconciliation will be performed, the provider is not required to estimate the change in reimbursement and return the estimated overpayment until the final reconciliation of that cost report.

(d) Reporting.

(1) A person must use an applicable claims adjustment, credit balance, self-reported refund, or other reporting process set forth by the applicable Medicare contractor to report an overpayment, except as provided in paragraph (d)(2) of this section. If the person calculates the overpayment amount using a statistical sampling methodology, the person must describe the statistically valid sampling and extrapolation methodology in the report.

(2) A person satisfies the reporting obligations of this section by making a disclosure under the OIG's Self-Disclosure Protocol or the CMS Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol resulting in a settlement agreement using the process described in the respective protocol.

(e) Enforcement. Any overpayment retained by a person after the deadline for reporting and returning the overpayment specified in paragraph (b) of this section is an obligation for purposes of 31 U.S.C. 3729.

(f) Lookback period. An overpayment must be reported and returned in accordance with this section if a person identifies the overpayment, as defined in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, within 6 years of the date the overpayment was received.