42 CFR § 413.144 - Depreciation: Allowance for depreciation on fully depreciated or partially depreciated assets.

(a) Principle. Depreciation on assets being used by a provider at the time it enters into the Medicare program is allowed. This principle applies even though such assets may be fully or partially depreciated on the provider's books.

(b) Application. Depreciation is allowable on assets being used at the time the provider enters into the program. This applies even though such assets may be fully depreciated on the provider's books or fully depreciated with respect to other third-party payers. So long as an asset is being used, its useful life is considered not to have ended, and consequently the asset is subject to depreciation based upon a revised estimate of the asset's useful life as determined by the provider and approved by the contractor. Correction of prior years' depreciation to reflect revision of estimated useful life should be made in the first year of participation in the program unless the provider has used the optional method (§ 413.139), in which case the correction should be made at the time of discontinuing the use of that method. If an asset has become fully depreciated under Medicare, further depreciation is not appropriate or allowable, even though the asset may continue in use.

(c) Example of an allowance for a fully-depreciated asset. For example, if a 50-year-old building is in use at the time the provider enters into the program, depreciation is allowable on the building even though it has been fully depreciated on the provider's books. Assuming that a reasonable estimate of the asset's continued life is 20 years (70 years from the date of acquisition), the provider may claim depreciation over the next 20 years—if the asset is in use that long—or a total depreciation of as much as twenty-seventieths of the asset's historical cost.

(d) Corrections to depreciation. If the asset is disposed of before the expiration of its estimated useful life, the depreciation would be adjusted to the actual useful life. Likewise, a provider may not have fully depreciated other assets it is using and finds that it has incorrectly estimated the useful lives of those assets. In such cases, the provider may use the corrected useful lives in determining the amount of depreciation, provided such corrections have been approved by the contractor.