News in brief - Feb. 6, 2012

North Carolina eugenics victims could get $50,000 each - Hospitals received excess Medicare payments for GME

North Carolina eugenics victims could get $50,000 each

The surviving victims of North Carolina's eugenic sterilization program should receive $50,000 each in compensation, a task force appointed by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue recommended in January.

The panel estimates that 3,000 such victims survive, although a state official said only 72 have been located. About 7,600 North Carolinians deemed unfit to reproduce were forcibly sterilized between 1929 and 1974 during a "a shameful period in our history," the task force said in an August 2011 report (www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov/documents/preliminary_report.pdf).

The panel also favors establishing a pool to fund mental health services for state eugenics victims. A final report with the recommendations will go to the governor, who will pass on her proposal to the state's General Assembly for consideration.

Hospitals received excess Medicare payments for GME

Fifty hospitals in the Northeast overbilled Medicare for graduate medical education positions totaling $1.9 million from fiscal 2006 to 2007, says a January review of medical resident data by the Dept. of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

The 50 were among 66 hospitals that overstated full-time equivalent counts for residents on their Medicare cost reports, leading to some residents being claimed by more than one hospital for the same period, the report said (oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/20901019.pdf).

To correct the problem, the OIG recommended that Highmark Medicare Services recover the $1.9 million, adjust the 2006-07 cost reports for hospitals that misreported their full-time equivalent counts and develop procedures to prevent future duplications. The OIG also advised the company to ascertain whether similar errors were made in later cost reports and recover any additional excess payments.

Highmark Medicare Services is the Part A Medicare contractor covering Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the report said.