1. (a) The commission or its designee will assess a financial penalty against a facility that:

   1. (1) Fails to timely file the monthly facility report required under §352.4 of this chapter;
   2. (2) Files a false, erroneous, or fraudulent monthly facility report that the commission or its designee concludes resulted in the assessment of a quality assurance fee that is less than the facility should have been assessed; or
   3. (3) Fails to timely pay a quality assurance fee assessed under §352.5 of this chapter.
   4. (4) A penalty assessed under this section is in an amount equal to one-half the amount of the outstanding quality assurance fee or fees, not to exceed $20,000.
2. (b) The commission or its designee will notify a facility in writing of the assessment of a penalty under this section and the amount of the penalty.

3. (c) The commission or its designee may make a referral to an appropriate authority in cases where the commission or its designee makes a good faith determination that a facility has:

   1. (1) Committed fraud in the submission of information to the commission or its designee;
   2. (2) Willfully submitted erroneous information to the commission or its designee; or
   3. (3) Violated a requirement of its license or Medicaid certification.
4. (d) The commission or its designee may report a facility that fails to pay the quality assurance fee to the Comptroller of Public Accounts or other appropriate authority for purposes of implementing a suspension of payments to the provider.

5. (e) The assessment of a penalty under this section does not relieve a facility from:

   1. (1) Providing services to patients in accordance with its obligations under contract or the law;
   2. (2) Paying additional quality assurance fees that may be assessed to the facility; or
   3. (3) Otherwise complying with licensure and certification requirements.

Source Note:The provisions of this §352.7 adopted to be effective November 18, 2001, 26 TexReg 9085.