HEALTH CARE
Ohio insurer files lawsuits
An Ohio health insurance company is suing state and federal officials over confusion in rules for a program for patients with pre-existing conditions.
At issue is a high-risk insurance pool created by the federal health-care law targeting patients turned away by insurance companies because of such conditions as cancer or heart disease.
Medical Mutual of Ohio sued last month in federal court to force clarification over who has the final say in eligibility for enrollment into the program — state or federal officials.
The complaint was prompted by a dispute over whether 14 people should receive coverage under Ohio’s program.
Federal officials eventually provided direction on their coverage, but an attorney at Medical Mutual said the company remains concerned eligibility questions could come up again for others.
AIRLINE TRAVEL
Revealing body scans to cease
Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.
The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can’t fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.
The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn’t be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan.
The agency’s statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler’s body.
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they’re used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.
MORTGAGE CASE
Payment deadline expires
Ohio’s attorney general said Friday was the last day for Ohioans to submit a claim to receive a payment under the national mortgage settlement.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said only about 58 percent of eligible residents had filed for the relief for people who lost their homes between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011.
Ohio received $335 million as part of the settlement struck last year between 49 states and the U.S. government and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers: GMAC, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.
Ohio was among states hardest hit by the mortgage crisis. Nearly one in three mortgage holders in the state owed more on their home loan than the property was worth at the time of the settlement.
SUPER BOWL AD
Mannings in new pizza ad
Peyton Manning figured one good Papa deserved another.
Manning’s father, Archie, is joining his son as a Papa John’s pitchman, spearheading the pizza chain’s coin-flip promotion at the Super Bowl in the family’s hometown of New Orleans.
While he was sitting out last season with his neck injury, Peyton Manning starred in a Papa John’s Super Bowl commercial with Jerome Bettis.
After signing with the Broncos, Peyton Manning invested in 21 of the company’s pizza stores in the Denver area. More recently, Papa John’s approached Archie about being a spokesman for the Super Bowl promotion. Starting Sunday, fans can go online and choose heads or tails for the opening coin toss. The winners will get free pizza.
AVIATION INDUSTRY
Boeing halts airplane delivery
Boeing Co. said it will stop delivering new 787s to customers until its electrical system is fixed.
Boeing said production is not stopping. The plane is assembled in Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C.
The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the 787s until Boeing can prove the batteries are safe. A statement from Boeing said it will stop deliveries until the FAA approves a solution. It said it will also wait until the fix has been carried out.
Compiled from staff and wire reports.