Daily check up: Harvard to build 36-acre enterprise research campus

By Chelsea Conaboy

June 16, 2011

1 minute to read

Harvard expansion: Harvard officials provided details to the Globe yesterday about how it will move forward on an Allston expansion that stalled when the university’s endowment took a big hit during the recession. A centerpiece of the plan is a 36-acre, privately-developed campus on land Harvard owns near the Massachusetts Turnpike that the university hopes will become a new Kendall Square, attracting pharmaceutical, biotech and venture capital companies.

Medicaid troubles: Millions of people are facing cuts to Medicaid benefits as the money that the Obama administration pumped into the nation’s low-income health program two years ago runs out this month. Robert Pear of the New York Times reports that many states are cutting payments to doctors and increasing copays for patients.

Pharmacist sentenced on fraud: Former Boston pharmacist Aloysius Nsonwu has been sentenced to four years in jail for defrauding the state Medicaid program of more than $555,000, the Associated Press reports. Prosecutors said he used the insurance cards of MassHealth patients who had not received a prescription from a doctor to submit claims for various HIV drugs. Nsonwu pleaded guilty to all charged in April.

Outpatient mistakes: Twelve years later, the Institute of Medicine’s estimate that 98,000 people are killed each year by medical errors in US hospitals still seems shocking. Julie Rovner of National Public Radio reports on the Shots blog that the problem might be just as big in outpatient care. In a study published this week in JAMA, researchers looked at malpractice awards between 2005 and 2009. In the last year, they found that outpatient care accounted for more than half of all payouts.