* State Health Plan officials are auditing payments to 15 North Carolina hospitals after learning they had not notified the plan of rate changes going as far back as 2003.
The audit is to determine whether the hospitals overcharged for out- patient medical services. The plan had negotiated contracts with the hospitals that set rates for those services, and it required the hospitals to tell the plan if rates changed. If those rates had increased beyond the contract terms, the health plan, which is supported by taxpayers, may have overpaid hospitals for their services
"The really important matter," said Lacey Barnes, the State Health Plan's deputy executive administrator, "is if they didn't tell us and it resulted in an overpayment. And that's what we don't know." (N&O)
* State mental hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled are eliminating 354 jobs including 75 layoffs in the wake of budget cuts enacted by Gov. Beverly Perdue and legislators earlier this month.
Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, cited for chronic understaffing by federal regulators last year following the death of a neglected patient, is cutting 123 full-time positions. All but 31 of the positions being eliminated are vacant. (N&O)
* A paperwork logjam has prevented auto dealers from receiving reimbursements from the federal government under the Cash for Clunkers program, and many have had enough. Local dealers say the delay is causing a cash-flow crunch, and some are no longer participating — despite the fact that it brought people back to showrooms.(N&O)
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