Regional Briefs

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
Published: July 25, 2008

State Health Plan finances under review

RALEIGH -- The N.C. Auditor's Office is reviewing the finances of the State Health Plan after it logged a $65 million shortfall this fiscal year.

The auditor's General Counsel Tim Hoegemeyer said yesterday that the financial office has started studying the State Health Plan's oversight and budget forecasting methods.

The State Health Plan provides coverage to nearly 650,000 public school teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents.

The plan was predicted to have a $50 million surplus for the fiscal year that ended July 1, but it logged the shortfall instead.

A projection from the plan's officials said that the health-care program could run out of money by March and lose more than $240 million by the middle of 2009.

Witness testifies that little TVA pollution enters N.C.

ASHEVILLE -- An expert witness for the Tennessee Valley Authority says that little of the pollution from the utility's coal-fired power plants makes its way into North Carolina.

Thomas Tesche also testified yesterday that power plants are only a minor contributor to the haze over the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on summer days.

Tesche, an expert in computer modeling of air dispersion, testified during a federal court hearing in North Carolina's lawsuit against the TVA. The lawsuit accuses the TVA of allowing emissions to illegally cross state lines and into the national park. But Tesche said that the benefits of pollution-control improvements sought by the lawsuit would largely be confined to central Tennessee and northern Alabama.

Insurance companies agree to pay state nearly $800,000

RALEIGH -- Two insurance companies that were fined more than $2 million in 2004 after being accused of violating North Carolina law have agreed to pay the state nearly $800,000.

The N.C. Department of Insurance said yesterday that United HealthCare Insurance Co. and UnitedHealthCare of North Carolina Inc. will pay the fine to resolve allegations that they violated state law in how they were settling insurance claims.

The settlement comes about five years after the department found numerous problems with the companies' claims-handling process. The department originally fined the companies $2.2 million in 2004, the highest fine ever levied by the department.

The department said that the settlement money will be used for the state's public schools.

UNC Chapel Hill achieves a fundraising first – $300M

CHAPEL HILL -- UNC Chapel Hill's annual fundraising efforts have topped $300 million for the first time.

The school raised $300.3 million in the 2008 fiscal year and nearly $251 million last year.

Fred Eshelman of Wilmington committed $10 million to the School of Pharmacy as part of a campaign that ended Dec. 31. The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust provided $6 million to increase the number of students in the honors program at the College of Arts and Sciences.

WE WERE WRONG

A story Tuesday about the homicide of Tosha Barr incorrectly characterized the reason that Safe on Seven, a center for victims of domestic violence, offers free cell phones to its clients. The phones are meant to ensure that they always have a phone for emergencies. The phones can only call 911.