Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Medicare hid cost of drug plan, report says, but wasn't criminal

WASHINGTON - An internal investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services confirms that top Medicare officials intentionally withheld data from Congress showing that Medicare drug benefits would probably cost much more than the White House acknowledged.

A report on the investigation, issued Tuesday, says that the administrator of Medicare, Thomas Scully, threatened to fire the program's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if he provided the data to Congress while lawmakers were considering huge changes in the program last year.

But neither the threat nor the withholding of information violated any criminal law, the report said.

Scully, who resigned in December, had denied threatening Foster, but acknowledged having told him to withhold information from Congress.

Dara Corrigan, acting principal deputy inspector general, found "no criminal violations," but she sent her findings to the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, to determine if Medicare officials had violated a federal law that protects the right of federal employees to communicate with Congress.

Foster estimated that the Medicare legislation would cost $500-billion to $600-billion over 10 years. The White House told Congress the cost would not exceed $400-billion.

NEW ORLEANS - A U.S. fighter pilot who mistakenly bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, killing four, was found guilty Tuesday of dereliction of duty and was reprimanded and docked a month's pay, or nearly $5,700.

Maj. Harry Schmidt, 38, "acted shamefully" during the episode, "exhibiting arrogance and a lack of flight discipline," Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson wrote in the reprimand.

Schmidt, a former instructor at the Navy's "Top Gun" fighter pilot school, had blamed the bombing on the "fog of war," saying he mistook the Canadians' gunfire for an attack by Taliban forces.

He was charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault, but the charges were reduced last year to dereliction of duty.

The case has been closely watched in Canada, where many were outraged by the bombing and the two days it took President Bush to publicly apologize.

The four soldiers who died were the first Canadians killed in combat since the Korean War. Eight others were wounded.

BUSH NOMINEE CONFIRMED: Arkansas lawyer Leon Holmes narrowly won Senate confirmation to be a federal judge Tuesday, overcoming concerns over his views on abortion and women. The vote was 51-46, with six Democrats joining Republicans in supporting Holmes. Five Republicans opposed him.

MEN-ONLY RESTAURANT: The Louisiana Supreme Court Tuesday ordered a country club to open its men-only restaurant to women, rejecting claims that members sometimes dine there in the nude. "It is simply archaic to cite protection of women from the sights and sounds of a locker room environment as an excuse for excluding them from the public dining area," Justice John L. Weimer wrote for the unanimous court.