When a hospital's ownership changes, as described in §489.18 of this chapter, the following rules apply:

(a) Payment for the operating and capital-related costs of inpatient hospital services for each patient, including outlier payments, as provided in §412.112, and payments for hemophilia clotting factor costs under §412.115(b), are made to the entity that is the legal owner on the date of discharge. Payments are not prorated between the buyer and seller.

(1) The owner on the date of discharge is entitled to submit a bill for all inpatient hospital services furnished to a beneficiary regardless of when the beneficiary's coverage began or ended during a stay, or of how long the stay lasted.

(2) Each bill submitted must include all information necessary for the intermediary to compute the payment amount, whether or not some of that information is attributable to a period during which a different party legally owned the hospital.

(b) Other payments under §412.113 and payments for bad debts as described in §412.115(a), are made to each owner or operator of the hospital (buyer and seller) in accordance with the principles of reasonable cost reimbursement.

[50 FR 12741, Mar. 29, 1985, as amended at 56 FR 43449, Aug. 30, 1991]