Statutory Moratorium On Rate Appeals Applied Retroactively to All Appeals Prior to April, 2015
The Fourth Department reversed Supreme Court and determined that a 201/2011 statutory moratorium on Medicaid reimbursement rate appeals filed by nursing homes applied retroactively to all appeals filed before April, 2015:
We agree with respondents that section 2808 (17) (b) and (c) [Public Health Law] apply retroactively to petitioners’ rate appeals. The seminal case on whether statutes are to be applied retroactively is Majewski v Broadalbin-Perth Cent. Sch. Dist. (91 NY2d 577, 584), which provides, in relevant part, that “[i]t is a fundamental canon of statutory construction that retroactive operation is not favored by courts and statutes will not be given such construction unless the language expressly or by necessary implication requires it” (see generally McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 51 [b]). We conclude that the language of the statute requires that it be applied retroactively. Public Health Law § 2808 (17) (b) states that, for the period from April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2015, “the [C]ommissioner shall not be required to revise certified rates of payment . . . for rate periods prior to April [1, 2015], based on consideration of rate appeals filed by residential health care facilities” in excess of the monetary cap. While there is no explicit statement that the moratorium and cap shall apply to rate appeals filed before April 1, 2010, the statute specifically states that no revisions are required for any period before April 1, 2015 where the revision would emanate from a rate appeal filed by a residential health care facility. In our view, the necessary implication of that language is that the statute applies to any rate appeal seeking a revision for any period before April 1, 2015, including any revisions resulting from rate appeals filed before the statute took effect. * * *
Inasmuch as the moratorium applies retroactively to petitioners’ rate appeals, petitioners do not have a clear legal right to relief, and their [Article 78 mandamus] petition must be denied… . Matter of Woodside Manor Nursing Home… v Shah…, 862, 4th Dept 10-4-13