North Carolina hopes to recoup $8 million.

Administrative law judge Keith W. Sickendick said Tuesday that Broughton Hospital did not deserve to lose federal insurance money.

The state psychiatric hospital lost the money after investigators in August of 2007 determined that conditions endangered patients. 

The judge said that the hospital's policies were consistent with state law, however. 

"It's a good day," said Lanier Cansler, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services. "The judge has vindicated the hospital, we believe, and we will be applying to get back about $8 million. We are hopeful we'll be able to retrieve that money."

The money would help slightly with the state's budget shortfall. (N&O)

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx introduces bill to add automated pre-recorded campaign calls to the national Do Not Call registry for telemarketers. (Watauga Democrat)

* Lieutenant governor candidate Hampton Dellinger supports financial compensation for victims of state's forced-sterilization program. (W-SJ)

* Rep. Bill Daughtridge, who is running for treasurer, says he opposes using cash incentives to lure business, prefers infrastructure improvements. (TBJ)

* Secretary of Health and Human Services Dempsey Benton announces changes in leadership of Broughton mental hospital in Morganton. (N&O)

Hospital investigators have recommended that the state's mental hospital in Butner lose federal money for failure to control patient violence.

A letter from state investigators to the hospital this week said that John Umstead Hospital "failed to prevent repeated incidents of patient to patient and patient to staff abuse," reports Lynn Bonner.

The hospital has not received a written report on the investigation, said Patsy Christian, the hospital's CEO, but has about three weeks to draw up a plan to correct deficiencies before money is cut off. Investigators cited problems with the hospital's governing body, patients' rights and nursing services.

Three of the state's four psychiatric hospitals have been threatened with loss of federal funds this year. In August, the federal government made the rare move of taking away money from Broughton Hospital in Morganton after one patient died after being restrained and another was seriously injured in a fall.

Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro was threatened with the loss of funding, but investigators accepted its correction plan.

Christian said Umstead did not have more violent incidents than other state psychiatric hospitals.

"We have good policies in place," she said.

The federal government has pulled money from the state's psychiatric hospital in Burke County in response to a February patient death and an August patient injury.

Broughton Hospital in Morganton, one of four state mental hospitals, will not receive money for Medicare or Medicaid patients admitted after Aug. 25, reports Lynn Bonner. Federal payments for patients in the hospital before Aug. 25 will continue for one month.

The hospital receives about $1 million a month in Medicaid and Medicare payments. Its annual budget is about $60 million.

The federal government is responding to the Feb. 1 death of 27-year-old Anthony Lowery, who died at the hospital while staff members were holding him down. The News Herald in Morganton reported in July that an autopsy report found that Lowery died of asphyxiation after a hospital staff member sat on his torso for for two to three minutes.

Read more after the jump.

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