Review of St. Peter's University Hospital's Reported Fiscal Year 2005 Wage Data

St. Peter's University Hospital (the Hospital) did not fully comply with Medicare requirements for reporting wage data in its fiscal year (FY) 2005 Medicare cost report.  Specifically, the Hospital understated its wage data by $572,108 and 110,107 hours.  Our correction of the Hospital's errors decreased the average hourly wage rate approximately 2 percent from $36.5 to $35.76.  These errors occurred because the Hospital did not sufficiently review and reconcile its reported wage data to supporting documentation to ensure that the data were accurate, supportable, and in compliance with Medicare requirements.  If the Hospital does not revise the wage data in its cost report, the FY 2009 wage index for the Hospital's core-based statistical area will be overstated, which will result in overpayments to all of the hospitals that use this wage index.

We recommended that the Hospital (1) submit a revised FY 2005 Medicare cost report to the fiscal intermediary to correct the wage data understatements totaling 572,108 and 110,107 hours an (2) implement review and reconciliation procedures to ensure that the wage data reported in future Medicare cost reports are accurate, supportable, and in compliance with Medicare requirements.  The Hospital concurred with our findings.