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Health care fraud may be one of the biggest factors driving up health care costs, to the tune of billions of dollars, new research indicates.

Resolved health care fraud cases alone in the previous decade involved $9.3 billion in damages paid to both federal and state government, according to researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Results of the study are slated to be published in the Sept. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

But the researchers said the data suggest hat there is likely much more unrecognized fraud still going on within the health care system, adding countless inefficiencies that drive up costs.

“We are interested in exploring how … targeting health care fraud may be best utilized to play a role in controlling inefficient health care spending,” said lead study author Dr. Aaron Kesselheim in a statement.

The researchers, along with their counterparts at the University of Melbourne in Australia, looked at all 379 federal health care cases resolved between 1996 and 2005 initiated by whistle-blowers who know about the fraud, such as executives, physicians or internal employees payday loans application. They found that those cases led to $9.3 billion in financial recoveries, with $7.2 billion being returned to the federal government and $861 million going to state governments.

They also tracked who perpetrated the fraud.

According to the study, pharmaceutical manufacturers represented 4 percent of the defendants but nearly 40 percent of the money recovered. Billing organizations were frequent defendants as were laboratory service providers, hospitals, and medical equipment companies.

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Prosecutors will argue to an appeals court that jurors would have convicted ex-Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio on 19 felony counts even if a procedural error that excluded defense testimony had not been made in the executive's 2007 insider-trading trial.

The Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals holds a rare second oral arguments session Sept. 25 on Nacchio's appeal, which succeeded in reversing his conviction earlier this year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office submitted its brief for the hearing Friday, detailing in 72 pages why the Denver-based federal appeals court's March order for a new trial was in error.

A panel of three 10th Circuit judges overturned Nacchio's conviction March 17 in a 2-1 vote and ordered a second lower-court trial on the grounds that one defense witness, Daniel Fischel, an expert on stock market trends, had been improperly excluded from testifying before the jurors.

That jury convicted the former head of Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) of fraudulently making $52 million from selling Qwest stock in 2001 while keeping shareholders in the dark about increasingly dire internal forecasts about the telecom's prospects.

The appeals court panel ruled that U.S fast cash online. District Court Judge Edward Nottingham didn't follow proper procedure when he decided that Fischel's testimony would confuse jurors and was unnecessary.

At the prosecution's request, the 10th Circuit agreed to reconsider the ruling, and next month judges on the court will review the decision instead of the typical three.

The government's filing for that hearing argues jurors would have convicted Nacchio even if Fischel had testified in 2007 and that, even if the appeals court thought Fischel could have swayed the jury, the appellate court should have simply ordered a new lower court hearing on the suitability of Fischel's testimony without demanding a whole new trial.

The hearing brief for Nacchio's defense is expected to be filed before midnight Friday.

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Achievo Corp. of San Ramon has opened a software development center in Wuxi, China, the company said Friday.

“Wuxi’s proximity to Shanghai offers an advantage for Achievo’s Japanese customers, as Shanghai is an important hub for Japanese business interests in China,” said Robert Lee, Achievo’s chairman and CEO.

Lee stated he believes that establishing R&D centers in cities outside China’s large urban centers shields the company from the “rapid inflation seen in larger metropolitan centers,” allowing it to offer better value to customers and better compete with Indian software outsourcing and IT service providers payday loans in 1 hour.

Achievo’s new 32,300-square-foot Wuxi offices are located in iPark, a new 1.6 million-square-foot technology center which houses more than 40 companies engaged in software development, IC design and digital animation.

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The McClatchy Co. is expected to announce a deal for its Real Cities Network early Thursday, ending months of rumors about the newspaper publisher selling the once-popular online network, according to a media report.

Chicago-based Centro, an online media buying company that connects media agencies and newspapers, will likely announce the purchase Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

McClatchy executives confirmed discussions – and being close to a deal – several weeks ago, but said negotiations stalled. Company officials were not available for comment late Wednesday.

The Sacramento-based company – publisher of The Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald and 28 other daily newspapers – acquired Real Cities as part of its Knight Ridder Inc. purchase in June 2006. Knight Ridder, formerly the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain, created the Real Cities Network several years ago and reports 44 million monthly unique visitors per month, according to PaidContent.org, which first issued the report late Wednesday cash til payday loan.

Cash-strapped McClatchy continues to cut costs – recently detailing the elimination of 10 percent of its work force – and looks to increase revenue.

Shares of McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) inched up 1 cent to $3.90 in trading Wednesday, much lower than its one-year peak of $24.05.