Leavitt

MEMORANDUM ****

Puget Sound Behavioral Health (“PSBH”) appeals the district court’s deeision affirming the Secretary of Health and Human Services’s (“Secretary”) decision to grant PSBH an effective Medicare certification date (“ECD”) of April 4, 2002. We have jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 405 (g) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

As a threshold matter, PSBH argues that we should review the Secretary’s decision under the Administrative Procedure Act’s (“APA”) arbitrary and capricious standard, as opposed to § 405(g)’s substantial evidence standard. However, 42 U.S.C. § 405 (h), which is incorporated into the entirety of the Medicare statute by 42 U.S.C. § 1395Ü, provides that § 405(g) is the exclusive means of judicial review of the Secretary’s decisions in Medicare cases. Therefore, unless the requirements of § 405(g) would lead to complete preclusion of review, a party bringing suit under the Medicare statute may only do so pursuant to § 405(g). Shalala v. Ill. Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U.S. 1, 22-23 , 120 S.Ct. 1084 , 146 L.Ed.2d 1 (2000). Because PSBH’s claims against the Secretary have not been completely precluded from review, § 405(g), rather than the APA,…