Play or Pay Appeal Process

Play or Pay Appeal Process 1. Following the receipt of an invoice from the Department for a Non- Participation fee, the hospital assessed the fee may request a due process hearing on the assessment. Any such request for hearing must be filed by the assessed facility with the Director of the Bureau of Acute Care Systems, Mississippi State Department of Health, within thirty (30) days of the date of the assessment. 2. The date of the assessment is defined as the date which the assessment is placed in the United States Mail, postage pre-paid, addressed to the facility assessed, at the address furnished by the hospital to the Trauma Registry, or to the address published by the party as its usual and customary business address. The date of the postmark shall be prima facie evidence of the date of the assessment. 3. The Director of the Bureau of Acute Care Systems, upon receipt of a valid, timely request for a hearing, shall set a date no more than thirty (30) calendar days from the receipt of the request for hearing. 4. The hearing officer appointed to conduct the hearing shall be a person chosen or appointed by the Director of the Office of Health Protection. A stenographic record of the hearing shall be made by a certified reporter/stenographer. The record shall consist of all sworn testimony taken, written, documentary or other relevant evidence taken at said hearing. 5. The only issues for adjudication are: • The timeliness of notice of the assessment and delivery of the same; • The trauma classification of the party; and • The calculation of the amount of the assessment. 6. Within thirty (30) days of the receipt by the hearing officer of the certified record, he or she shall render findings of fact and conclusions of law contained in an order. The order so produced by the hearing officer shall be the final order of the Mississippi State Department of Health and shall be appealable to a court of competent jurisdiction. 7. If no appeal from the final order is taken within twenty (20) days of the date of the order, the party assessed shall pay on or before the twentieth (20th) day following the date of the order the entire fee assessed.