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To: mishedlo who wrote (45149)	1/25/2006 1:19:34 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

DJ US To Reimburse States For Prescription Drug Costs . WASHINGTON (AP)--Federal officials now say they will reimburse states that bought medicine for seniors citizens and the disabled who could not get help through the new Medicare drug benefit. Under the program, beneficiaries enroll in private plans that get a government subsidy for prescription drug coverage. But the program got off to a rocky start. Some low income citizens didn't show up in pharmacists' computers as being enrolled in a plan. Others were charged fees that far exceeded what they were supposed to pay. So, more than 20 states opted to continue emergency coverage for them. Previously, officials said reimbursement to the states would come from private plans. But they now say the federal government will step in because the states may have incurred expenses above and beyond what the plans are required to pay. put out on behalf of the plans," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. HHS was unable to provide a dollar figure for the state reimbursements. Officials said they anticipate private plans will still cover the great majority of the reimbursement paid to states. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would require that states be wholly reimbursed for picking up the tab for Medicare beneficiaries. HHS officials said an administrative waiver was all that is needed. "This can start right away. We don't need legislation," said Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. McClellan also said that the waiver would be in place until Feb. 15. By then, agency officials hope most problems with the system will have been worked out. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the waiver "is simply more red tape from the Bush administration." The Feb. 15 date was arbitrary, Lautenberg said, and "nothing more than a cruel Valentine for senior citizens who need their medicine."

To: mishedlo who wrote (45149)	1/25/2006 1:19:39 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

DJ Audit Describes Misuse Of Funds In Iraq Projects - NYT . NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A new audit of U.S. financial practices in Iraq has uncovered irregularities including millions of reconstruction dollars stuffed casually into footlockers and filing cabinets, an American soldier in the Philippines who gambled away cash belonging to Iraq, and three Iraqis who plunged to their deaths in a rebuilt hospital elevator that had been improperly certified as safe, The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions. The audit, released yesterday by the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, expands on its previous findings of fraud, incompetence and confusion. It uncovers problems in an area that includes half the land mass in Iraq, with new findings in the southern and central provinces of Anbar, Karbala, Najaf, Wasit, Babil, and Qadisiya. The special inspector reports to the secretary of defense and the secretary of state. The Times reports that much of the material in the latest audit is new, and shows abandoned rebuilding projects, nonexistent paperwork and cash routinely taken from the main vault in Hilla without even a log to keep track of the transactions, which is likely to raise major new questions about how the provisional authority did its business and accounted for huge expenditures of Iraqi and U.S. money.