SUBJECT:

Sandor L. Olah, D.O.,

Petitioner,

The Inspector General.

DECISION

By electronic mail dated August 8, 2006, the Inspector General (I.G.) forwarded to the Civil Remedies Division an e-mail message from Petitioner and related documents. Petitioner's message had originally been sent to Petitioner's Congressman and then forwarded by the Congressman's office to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which entity then forwarded the message to the I.G. The I.G. construed Petitioner's message in part to ask that he be given a hearing, which is why the I.G. submitted the message and documents to my office. This submission was docketed and the case was assigned to me for hearing and decision.

Among the documents forwarded by the I.G. was a letter dated May 31, 2000, from the I.G. to Petitioner, notifying Petitioner that he had been excluded for 15 years from the Medicare, Medicaid, and all federal health care programs, pursuant to section 1128(a)(2) of the Social Security Act. Petitioner's exclusion became effective on June 20, 2000.

I held a prehearing conference in this case on September 6, 2006. I informed the parties that before I could consider the merits of the case there existed an issue as to whether or not I had jurisdiction to hear the case (see 42 C.F.R. �� 1005.2(e)(1), 1001.2007(b)), in that Petitioner had not requested a hearing within 60 days of his receipt of the I.G.'s notice letter. The I.G.'s counsel stated that the I.G. did not believe that I had jurisdiction to hear the case and stated that it was the I.G.'s intention to file a motion to dismiss. Petitioner agreed to my setting a briefing schedule on such a motion and I did so.

On October 6, 2006, the I.G. filed a motion to dismiss this case as untimely. On November 6, 2006, Petitioner responded to the I.G.'s motion asserting that he "has no objections to the Inspector's General Motion to Dismiss the appeal of Sanford (sic) Olah, D.O."

I must dismiss a hearing request not filed in a timely manner. 42 C.F.R. � 1005.2(e)(1). Accordingly, this case is dismissed.