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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2000)
Page 10 FRIDAY OCT. 13-SUNDAYOCT. 15 AFTERTHOUGHTS HALLOWEEN BOOTIQUE RITZ CAMERA AGGIELAND OUTFITTERS THE CURIOSITY SHOP DESIGN IMPORTS FRIEDMAN’S JEWELRY GIGI’S GOLD N’ SILVER HAT WORLD INSPIRATIONS LONGBOW ROCKS & GEMS MANCHU WOK OSHMAN’S and much more! RUGGED OUTDOORS SCRIPTURE HAVEN THINGS REMEMBERED TREVOR’S VITAMIN WORLD ZALES WIN! Drawings for Post Oak Midi Gift Certificates every hour until close beginning at 5pm. As the night gets darker the prizes get bigger. When the mall closes (9pm Fri & Sat and 6pm Sun) we will lx? drawing for a SI00 gift certificate. You can register all day - but yon must be present to win. Post Oak Mall — postoaknialI.com Texas 6 Bypass at Highway 30, College Station Customer Service 764-0777 ABB is a $25 billion global technology company with 165,000 employees in over 100 countries servicing customers in Automation; Power Transmission and Distribution; Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals; Building Technologies; and Financial Services. ABB is committed to developing innovative expert solutions to help customers achieve goals for sustainable development. Worid. Explorers, visionaries, thinkers, doers. These are the people who make up ABB today. In the US, over 16,000 men and women are currently at work to change the world, bringing their ideas to life. Whether improving the world of communications through new technologies or engineering systems that operate independently on ocean floors, ABB's “Brain Power” is evident all over the world in every aspect of life. We help change the world each day. You can too. We are currently seeking graduates in: CHEM, CS, CE, HR, ILR and IF ABB Information Session: 401 (Engineering Majors) 404 (Management Development Program) Rudder / October 16, 2000 5:30 — 7:00 p.m. Ji : bi JOW "Jibe Brain Power ABB NATION Wednesday, Ocloberli THE BATTALION ' Indian tribe accused of ifednesday. Pel abusing health p MASHANTUCKET, Conn. (AP) —A wealthy Indian tribe that runs the world’s largest casino abused a gov ernment health program intended for American Indians by dispensing $5.8 million in discounted prescription drugs to its non*fndian casino em ployees, a federal audit says. In response, the federal Indian Health Service said it will review all prescription drug contracts with tribes across the country. The audit found that 82 percent of the drugs dispensed under the pro gram by the Mashantucket Pequot’s pharmacy in 1998 and 1999 went to ineligible patients. The service said it will instruct the Mashantuckets to stop the practice. Tribal spokesman Arthur Henick said Monday that the Mashantuckets disagree with the audit’s conclusions and may appeal to top health officials in Washington. He said there are no immediate plans to scale back the drug program, which he said allows the tribe to provide prescription med icine at no cost to its employees. . The Mashantuckets run Fox- woods Resort Casino, which makes upwards of $1 million a day in gam bling revenue. There is no suggestion the tribe profits directly from the sale of the drugs. However, on its Web site, Boxwoods touts its “no-cost pre scription program with onsite deliv ery” as a job benefit. Health officials expressed concern that including non-Indians who work in tribal businesses could jeopardize the future of the drug discount, which some poorer tribes count on for af fordable prescription medicines. “Evidence of program abuse could prompt Congress to reconsid er the future of discounted drug pro grams, which would ultimately affect the millions of federal beneficiaries who now depend upon them for their health care,” June Gibbs Brown, the U.S. Health and Human Services De partment’s inspector general, wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to the head of the Indian Health Service. Brown’s office conducted the audit, which The Associated Press located on the inspector general’s Website. Under the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992. the Veterans Affairs De partment, the Pentagon, the Coast Guard and the Public Health Service ees at its casino, hotels, restait and museum. Together with tfej pendents, about 22,000 peoplfj most all of them non-Indians,I covered under the tribe’s prescti?| drug plan, auditors said. Auditors said that because:! are at least 40 drug stores wife miles of the reservation, the tribe, not claim a lack of alternative X)p 6<. ; * Evidence of pro gram abuse could prompt Congress to reconsider the future of discount ed drug programs” — June Gibbs Brown U.S. Health and Human Services Department inspector general are entitled to buy drugs from sup pliers at deeply discounted rates — often less than 50 percent the regular price. The Indian Health Service, a unit of the Public Health Service, ex tends this service to tribes that have “self-determination contracts” with the government. Tribes can then provide the dis counted drugs to their own members. But the law says the drugs may be dispensed to non-Indians only if “there are no reasonable alternative health services available.” The Mashantucket tribe has about 600 members, plus 12,000 employ- prah guabl services. P owe The auditors also dismisse:|| entia P ei! tribe’s contention that the i,f a ^ ew P co I Health Service was aware ofibh, pow< tice of selling drugs to non-kf 6 P 11 ^ 10 an saying that even if it weretn;* stwoll ^' n ' health service does not havec;P es0 ^ t * le P thority to approve it. ■ntrey doe: Casino employees said the trM )ut ^'ulre prescription drug benefit wasii:.® n y P l, 61ic ally generous and would be purees to ha missed. iH*' ves : Leo Jackson, a shuttle busii'B^ , ' I1 * re y '■ who said he lost his medicah esI people in age while employed at Electric net wo in Groton years ago, said kBnfrey has < quires three prescriptions fore four yeai treatment. whe world'; “There’s no way I could afforifrah Winfre pay even for part of this stuffl )eicent of hei to take,” Jackson said. "1 don'll ifect her abi what Ell do if the plan disappe; >|people in r Henick said the Mashantude Winfrey does not consider the inspector gent Jlrson for the report the final word on the mar slin average "The tribe has been able topi This kind < vide one of the best health plai lei more univ the region for its employees,"He an television, said. “We’re going to continuet! News in Brief Vitamin makers settle price fixing lawsuit for $442 million MILWAUKEE (AP) — Six foreign vitamin companies agreed to pay $442 million to settle a lawsuit alleg ing they conspired to fix prices, Wisconsin’s attorney general announced Tuesday. The lawsuit alleged the companies, which produce vitamin pills and supplements for fortified foods and agricultural feed, met in secret to fix prices. The companies will pay $335 million to 21 Winfrey’s t anything we can for our empkiracts more th, whom we consider part of the A] is broadcc for purposes of health care.” ftrldwide. SI Although the inspector geion studio, H; al’s report concentrated on There are no p Mashantuckets, it found reasitpulling the str believe the alleged abuse ma) ft final S ay ir volve other tribes. ^ Few entert ntrol over t blic and ev< -Qlluence in s states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Riccj^ lmvevC1- ' se mai he J xi I Businesses that bought vitamins in the 23juri:^ ^ S10W a: dictions will be eligible to participate in a separat^dged to rel $107 million claim fund. meaningful si F. Hoffmann-La Roche of Switzerland; BASF of Lonmin, her. su many; Aventis of France; and Japanese compatyinfrey'Stepp Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., Eisai Co. and (vision market, ichi Pharmaceutical Co. took part in the settleme'4 Four former executives of BASF and Hoffman ®! Roche agreed earlier this year to plead guilty,f fines and serve time in U.S. prisons for schemif to fix vitamin prices. G .ecer, nter Liberal Arts Career Discovery Night A workshop designed to help you explore the different career paths available to Liberal Arts students. Tuesday, Oct. 17 6:30-9 p.m. MSC 224 leven years afte the rest o stern Europe ew off the ackles of au- [oritarian rule d turned to mocracy, the ople of Yu- islavia are fi lly getting to | Over the wee ie Yugoslavian 'ade took to th eir opposition ational electioi ader Slobodan 'enzied scene r last days of the 1 goslavs marchee |aptured the par •ized control o: on facilities. B eekend, Yugos mocratically e Although Pre ostunica has th 'ugoslav people overcome the fragile nation e circle of trub Ions. It is imper; 'ugoslavian gov pport from the le West if it is te Kostunica kn< If his country is joubt. “Difficult Is,” he said in hi ress on Saturda; head also hold r Article oi overlook: [response to St TAMU Career Center 845-5139 209 Koldus http://careercenter.tamu.edu A place to meet your next employer Solelv out of: