Distribution of the Audited Home Office Cost Statement and

120.5 – Distribution of the Audited Home Office Cost Statement and Results of the Audit (Rev. 27, 12-19-03) At the completion of its audit, the responsible/designated contractor distributes the audited home office cost statements and the audit adjustment report to all the contractors that service the providers within the chain. The results of the audit of the home office cost statement are binding upon all the servicing contractors. The servicing contractors rely upon this audit to identify the allowable portion of the home office costs that can be included in their providers’ cost reports. They use the audited home office cost statements to make any necessary adjustments to the home office costs claimed by those provider(s) before they make a final settlement of the related cost reports. If at the request of the servicing contractor, you as the responsible/designated contractor audited the provider’s records that are maintained at the home office for specific issues outside the general audit of the home office cost statement, forward the following information related to those issues to the servicing contractor. • The scope of the audit work performed, • The schedule of audit adjustments with full explanation why they are necessary and their effect on the provider’s cost report, and • The results of discussions with home office personnel pertaining to the audit findings. All audit adjustments proposed by the responsible/designated contractor pertaining to the audit of provider records maintained at the home office are binding upon the servicing contractor. If the servicing contractor has any questions concerning the audit or its results, it should resolve the issues with the responsible/designated contractor before the settlement of the provider’s cost report. However, when a disagreement cannot be resolved, the servicing contractor may request the responsible contractor to obtain an interpretation from CMS. The responsible/designated contractor is reimbursed by the servicing contractor for the costs of auditing provider records maintained at the home office and for any assistance in preparing appeal position papers.