Leavitt

MEMORANDUM **

St. Joseph Hospital (St. Joseph) appeals from the final judgment of the district court denying its petition for judicial review of the Provider Reimbursement Review Board’s (PRRB) final decision in favor of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (Secretary). We affirm the decision of the district court that the Secretary’s determination to deny St. Joseph’s request for an exception to its prospective reimbursement rate was neither arbitrary nor capricious and was supported by substantial evidence. See 5 U.S.C. § 706 (2).

To qualify for an exception to its prospective payment rate on the ground that it provided atypically intense services, see 42 C.F.R. §§ 413.182 (a), 413.184(a) (2001), St. Joseph was required, inter alia, to “[sjubmit documentation on costs of nursing personnel ... showing [the][a]mount each employee was paid.” Id. § 413.184(b)(2)(i)(A). As St. Joseph conceded at the hearing before the PRRB, and as the PRRB concluded in its final determination, St. Joseph failed to specify in its exception request the amount that each nursing employee was paid in accordance with § 413.184(b)(2)(i)(A). [SER 17; 30] The PRRB’s decision to deny…