Agency waived deadline for requesting administrative review through course of conduct.

The Department of Community Health (“the Department”) instructed multiple Medicaid providers to contact a representative of Hewlett Packard (“HP”), its agent, after notifying them that it would seek recoupment of alleged overpayments attributable to errors in its claims processing system.  The providers were not notified of a date by which to request an administrative review and were advised by HP that their claims were being handled.  The Department could not thereafter deny the providers administrative review requests as untimely because the providers relied on its misleading communications.