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Barnes-Jewish Hospital agreed to pay back $725,185 to a Medicare contractor, according to a government audit released Monday showing that the hospital overbilled for patient care.

According to the audit, the hospital received $660 million in 2009 and 2010 for care provided to patients with Medicare, government health insurance for people who are older than 65 or have a disability.

As part of a regular review of those payments, government auditors checked 240 claims that were deemed at-risk for billing errors, including those with payments above $150,000 and inpatient stays of zero or one day. The auditors found errors in 58 of the claims that resulted in overpayments of $392,829 for outpatient and $332,356 for inpatient charges. Barnes-Jewish “did not have adequate controls to prevent incorrect billing of Medicare claims,” according to the report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General quick payday loans.

The billing errors involved calculation mistakes on dosages of injected drugs, unreported credits from device manufacturers, duplicate or incorrect coding and incomplete doctors’ orders.

The mistakes were attributed to human error and problems coordinating doctor signatures, dates and times on the paperwork.

The hospital refunded the full amount to Wisconsin Physician Services, a Medicare contractor, according to a letter dated March 30 from hospital President Richard Liekweg.

Barnes-Jewish also bought new billing software and trained employees on Medicare coding, Liekweg wrote.

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All three U.S. stock indexes closed down roughly 1% Monday. Investors sold out of stocks on worries over the political and economic stability of the eurozone and the safety of the U.S. banking sector.

Over the weekend, Greece’s political crisis appeared to worsen as parties fought to form a government. The lack of resolution heightened fears that Greece could be forced to leave the eurozone.

"Everyone is trying to figure out how much of the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone is being factored into the market," said Frank Davis, head of trading at LEK Securities.

The Dow Jones industrial average () closed down 125 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 () lost 15 points, or 1.1%. The Nasdaq () fell 31 points or 1.1%.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan’s announcement last week of a $2 billion trading loss continues to drag down bank stocks.

Bears are roaring back

Shares of JPMorgan (, Fortune 500), which were down 9% Friday, lost another 3% Monday, after the bank announced the retirement of chief investment officer Ina Drew, who oversaw the unit responsible for the trading blunder. Fitch Ratings downgraded JPMorgan’s debt after Friday’s closing bell, voicing concern over a "lack of liquidity."

Stocks of rival Wall Street firms Citigroup (, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (, Fortune 500) and Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500) all slid roughly 2% Monday, following 4% losses Friday. Morgan Stanley (, Fortune 500) dropped by more than 4%.

"If [JPMorgan CEO Jamie] Dimon is making these mistakes and known as one of the best managers out there, it really makes people wonder again who is controlling the risk situation at the banks," said Douglas DePietro, head of trading at Evercore.

As Greece’s problems heat up, investors made a dash out of European debt securities Monday, with the yield on 10-year Greek bonds shooting up to 27.3%.

The yield on the Spanish 10-year bond climbed to 6.33%. Any rate above the 6% benchmark heightens bailout risk. Italian bond yields also rose, hitting 5.75%.

Meanwhile, the German bund slipped to a record low of 1.45%, further raising the spread between Germany and the weaker nations’ yields.

Investors will keep tabs on Germany after German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s party lost elections in the nation’s largest state on Sunday. Merkel is due to face national elections next year.

U.S. stocks finished lower Friday and were down for the second straight week.

World markets: Major European stocks closed sharply lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 () lost 2%, while the DAX () in Germany tumbled 1.9%, and France’s CAC 40 () plunged 2.3%.

The Shanghai Composite () lost 0.6% in trading Monday, while Hang Seng () in Hong Kong ended down 1.2%. But the Nikkei () in Tokyo finished up 0 short term personal loan.2% for the day.

The People’s Bank of China took action Saturday to stimulate slowing growth, as it cut the amount of reserves banks are required to hold. The move came a day after economic readings showed inflation, industrial production growth, spending and lending in the world’s second-largest economy all slowing.

Companies: Yahoo (, Fortune 500) CEO Scott Thompson left the company Sunday, after it was found he padded his resume with an embellished college degree, ending his term there after just four months.

The web-portal company also reached a deal with activist shareholder and Third Point CEO Dan Loeb, who had initially disclosed the problems with Thompson’s resume, by agreeing to nominate three of four directors he had put forth for its board.

Beauty company Avon Products (, Fortune 500) said that it would consider the most recent buyout offer from Coty Inc., which upped its offer last week. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (, Fortune 500) is helping to finance the bid and said it would back the purchase.

Shares of online deal site Groupon () rose nearly 11% in after-hours trading, following its release of first-quarter results, which showed narrowing losses and better-than-expected sales. In recent months, Groupon has seen accounting problems, shareholder lawsuits and an examination by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but shares moved up 19% Monday ahead of earnings.

Wall Street betting as big as ever

Shares of Chesapeake Energy (, Fortune 500) rebounded Monday from their Friday sell-off, which was sparked by news that Chesapeake might have to delay some asset sales, which are necessary to pay down its debt.

After Friday’s close, the company announced it had arranged for a $3 billion unsecured loan from Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500) and affiliates of Jefferies Group (). On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Carl Icahn is expected to reveal he has increased his stake in the company to more than 5%.

Shares of Best Buy (, Fortune 500) rose after the retailer said former Chief Executive Brian Dunn’s relationship with an employee was inappropriate but didn’t involve "misuse of company resources" or "misuse of aircraft."

Currencies and commodities: The dollar was stronger against the euro, but fell versus the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil prices for June delivery slid to a five-month low, losing $1.96 to $94.17 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery lost another $26.30 and reached $1,557.70 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 1.78%. 

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Delta Air Lines Inc.’s chief executive, Richard Anderson, received a 10 percent raise in his pay package in 2011, a year when the company’s stock price fell by more than a third.

Anderson’s pay package was valued at $8.9 million, up from $8 million in 2010, according to an Associated Press review of a securities filing made Friday.

His salary was unchanged at $600,000 but he received stock awards valued at $7 million, up from $6 million a year earlier. Other items in his pay package _ including retirement benefits, home security and performance pay _ were mostly unchanged.

Delta and other airlines responded to rising fuel costs in 2011 by cutting flights and raising fares and fees.

Shares of the nation’s second biggest airline fell 36 percent in 2011, compared to a 21 percent decline for United Continental Holdings Inc payday loans for bad credit., the No.1 carrier in the nation. The stocks have recovered, with Delta showing a 34 percent gain in the year to date.

United CEO Jeffery Smisek’s pay package tripled to $13.4 million, according to a separate filing Friday.

The AP’s calculation of executive compensation includes salary, bonuses, perks and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The amount that Anderson or other CEOs eventually get can differ, depending on the performance of the company’s stock after awards are granted. Most companies require an executive to wait a certain amount of time before getting stock grants or exercising options.

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European nations and Russia have proposed rival U.N. resolutions that would expand the number of U.N. cease-fire monitors in Syria from 30 to 300.

The key difference in the texts _ circulated Friday morning to the Security Council and obtained by The Associated Press _ is whether there should be any conditions on the deployment of the larger observer force.

The draft proposed by Russia, Syria’s closest ally, does not include any conditions.

The European draft says the expanded force would be deployed “expeditiously” after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon notifies the council that Syria has implemented its pledge to withdraw all troops and heavy weapons from cities and towns “to his satisfaction.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

GENEVA (AP) _ The United Nations hopes to have 30 cease-fire monitors in Syria next week and plans are already being made for the deployment of up to 300, a spokesman for international envoy Kofi Annan said Friday, as France called on the international community to prepare for the possible failure of the increasingly fragile peace deal.

Seven observers are on the ground and another two will arrive on Monday, said Annan’s spokesman.

“During the course of next week we hope that those that we are seconding from missions in the area who can move quickly will be there and we will make the numbers up to 30,” Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in Geneva.

The preliminary agreement between Syria and the United Nations on the deployment of U.N. observers says they will have freedom to go anywhere in the country by foot or by car, take pictures, and use technical equipment to monitor compliance with the cease-fire engineered by Annan.

But the issue of using helicopters and aircraft will likely dominate discussions in the coming days, Fawzi told The Associated Press.

The larger contingent of up to 300 also still needs to be approved by the U.N. Security Council.

“As soon as the Security Council adopts a resolution authorizing up to 300 monitors on the ground, we will be ready to deploy very, very rapidly,” Fawzi said.

“We are preparing for the deployment because we feel that it is going to happen sooner or later because it must happen,” he added

In France, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on the international community to live up to its responsibilities and warned that if Annan’s peace plan “doesn’t function, we have to envisage other methods.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday of failing to honor the peace plan that went into effect a week ago personal loan for poor credit.

Juppe said on France’s BFM television that his country would support a U.S.-backed proposal for a U.N. arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria.

The peace plan is “the last chance before civil war. … We don’t have the right to wait,” he said.

Juppe hosted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other diplomats in Paris on Thursday to try to work out options for Syria.

Annan’s diplomacy succeeded in getting Russia to back the monitoring mission, but Syria’s ally continues to resist more forceful measures.

“The Russian position is in the process of evolving,” Juppe said without elaborating.

U.N. chief Ban told the Security Council on Thursday that the situation remains “highly precarious,” citing an escalation of violence including “shelling of civilian areas, grave abuses by government forces and attacks by armed groups.”

That view was echoed by Annan’s spokesman.

“The situation on the ground is not good, as we all know,” Fawzi said. “There are casualties every day. There are incidents every day. And we have to do everything we can to stop what’s going on. The killing, the violence in all its forms.”

The observers, who report to Annan daily, will have freedom to install temporary observation posts in cities and towns, to monitor military convoys approaching population centers, to investigate any potential violation, and to access detention centers and medical centers in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian authorities, the agreement says.

Meanwhile, diplomats meeting Friday in Geneva to discuss the humanitarian situation agreed to a draft plan to provide aid to civilians affected by the fighting.

The plan budgets $180 million to provide food, medicine and other supplies to about 1 million people inside Syria. It comes on top of the aid that is delivered to refugees who have fled abroad.

“The whole infrstructure of the country is under strain,” said John Ging, who heads the coordination and response division of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Ging said the plan, particularly the question of how many aid workers will be allowed into the country, still needs Syria’s approval.

______

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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SXC Health Solutions Corp. agreed to buy Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.4 billion to stay competitive as larger pharmacy benefit managers join forces.

Catalyst investors will receive $28 in cash and 0.6606 shares of SXC stock for each Catalyst share under the terms of the agreement, the companies said. That implies a purchase price of $81.02 per Catalyst share, 28 percent above Tuesday’s closing prices.

Pharmacy benefit managers are combining after Express Scripts Inc., the largest in the U.S., agreed to pay $29.1 billion for Medco Health Solutions Inc. SXC, one of the biggest providers of technology for processing prescription claims, was the target of speculation last month.

The company is now in position to be one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit companies, said Brian Tanquilut, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville, Tenn.

“SXC will be the next big player in the PBM space,” Tanquilut said. “The opportunity to win new business from the larger guys, meaning Express-Medco, CVS, is there.”

SXC Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Thierer will continue in those roles in the combined company. “We will be the second-largest independent PBM in the country, in terms of prescription volume,” Thierer said. “The transaction will expand our reach to larger clients.”

The companies have little overlap among clients, with Catalyst having many state employers while SXC has state Medicaid clients, Thierer said.

“This catapults SXC and Catalyst into a much better negotiating stance,” said Anthony Vendetti, a Maxim Group LLC analyst in New York who follows both companies. “It gives them more leverage with drug manufacturers and drug distributors and because of their increased size, it gives them more leverage with clients.”

Founded as Systems Xcellence in 1993, SXC negotiates with drugmakers for lower prescription medicine prices on behalf of health insurers, Medicare and Medicaid plans, workers’ compensation programs and long-term care facilities.

SXC also makes software that processed one out of every five drug claims in the U.S., according to the company’s 2010 annual report.

Tanquilut said the company may take a year to complete the integration, then move on to more deals to keep growing and compete with Express Scripts and CVS. The company needs to add smaller assets in specialty pharmaceuticals, most of which are likely to be closely held regional companies, he said.

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Japan

India’s prime minister said Thursday that international institutions are failing to lift up the developing world and endorsed the creation of a new development bank to be run by five fast-rising nations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke at a summit of the so called BRICS group _ comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa _ aimed at harnessing the nations’ increasing global clout and forging stronger ties between their fast-growing economies.

The five countries represent 45 percent of the world’s population, a quarter of its land mass and a quarter of its economy at $13.5 trillion.

Though the group has accomplished little of note at its three previous meetings, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff insisted in an opinion piece in the Times of India that it had changed “the axis of international politics.”

At the summit, the five nations are expected to agree to do more business with each other in their local currencies, to help insulate from U.S. dollar fluctuations while lifting trade within the bloc from last year’s $230 billion to $500 billion by 2015.

They also hoped to move closer to creating a new development bank, much like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, saying it would streamline efforts to raise capital in poor nations and facilitate more business among themselves.

“Institutions of global political and economic governance created more than six decades ago have not kept pace with the changing world,” Singh told the summit payday loans with no fax.

In response, the five nations are working to set up a bank funded and managed by them that would improve poor nations’ access to development funds and boost emerging economies, Singh said.

“Developing countries need access to capital,” he said.

The summit came as the Indian capital remained under a heavy security umbrella since a Tibetan exile lit himself on fire at an anti-China protest Monday. He died from his burns Wednesday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao’s hotel was under virtual lock down, while Tibetan neighborhoods were sealed, with police allowing people out only for medical or court appointments.

Hundreds of police manned barricades along roads throughout the city, some carrying blankets soaked in water to quickly smother the flames of any protesters who try to set themselves alight.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said authorities had detained many Tibetan protesters in recent days, but would release most of them without charge in a few hours.

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Japan

Teenagers love "The Hunger Games," a hot trilogy of books about to hit theaters. But the biggest fans may be from an older generation — investors.

Shares have soared so far this year for the companies best positioned to benefit from the opening of "The Hunger Games" movie this Friday. And analysts are saying they’re are all poised for further gains from the series.

Lions Gate Entertainment (), whose Lionsgate studio is releasing the film here and in many major overseas markets, has probably gotten the biggest lift from the post-apocalyptic story of teenagers forced into a life-and-death competition for the entertainment of others. Shares are up 75% so far this year after a gaining more than 7% Tuesday to close at a record high of $15.27, and they were up another 4% in early trading Wednesday.

Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak, who Tuesday raised his price target for Lionsgate to $17 from his previous $14 target, estimates this weekend’s domestic box office sales between $70 million and $90 million. Eventually he expects it to bring in at least $300 million in domestic ticket sales.

"That’s not quite Harry Potter, but I think it’s going to be impressive," said Joyce. The final Harry Potter movie last year brought in $381 million in domestic box office for Time Warner (, Fortune 500) on its way to global ticket sales of $1.3 billion.

Joyce said that much of the run-up in stock is due to the company’s recent acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the independent studio that has the Twilight movie series. The fifth and final movie in the Twilight series, which so far have averaged $270 million each in domestic box office, debuts this November.

Box office at 16-year low

"I can’t split how much of the gain is due to Hunger Games and how much is due to the Summit deal," he said. "But having Hunger Games helped Lionsgate get Summit to the table and get the deal done."

The performance of Lionsgate shares so far this year would suggest financier Carl Icahn could be the big loser of the Hunger Games stock rally.

Icahn and his son sold 44 million shares of Lionsgate last fall for $7 each, dropping a long-running battle for control of the studio.

Publisher Scholastic, theater chains gain

The buzz around the movie also helped lift sales of the books, which last week allowed publisher Scholastic () to beat forecasts and its own sales target for the most recent period. Shares of Scholastic are up 22.5% year to date after a 1.7% rise in trading Tuesday, and were up another 1.8% Wednesday.

John Carter: Disney’s epic bomb

Company officials said even if last quarter proves to be a sales peak for the books, they expect good results from the franchise going forward. Analysts agree the first film and additional planned movies should help the book sales for years to come.

"Unlike the Harry Potter series, for which the book release event drove sales, in this case, ‘The Hunger Games’ movie appears to be driving book sales," said Drew Crum, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, in a note last week.

"The Hunger Games" was first published in hardback in September 2008. The second in the trilogy, "Catching Fire" came out the next year, with the final book in the series, hitting bookstores in 2010. Between them there are 24 million copies of the three books in print in the United States alone.

Shares of theater operators have all had strong performances this year, as hopes for "The Hunger Games" and some other widely anticipated titles later this year like "The Avengers" "Dark Knight Rises" and the final "Twilight" movie have lifted hopes of a rebound after a down year in 2011, and some early missteps this year, such as Walt Disney’s (, Fortune 500) now historic bomb "John Carter."

James Gross, analyst with Barrington Research who follows the sector, said that "The Hunger Games" is almost certain to have the best opening so far this year and might end up No. 1 for the year, given the pre-sale demand for tickets.

"It was selling out the midnight shows a month ago," he said.

Carmike Cinemas () has been the best performer in the group, rising nearly 81.7% year to date, after Tuesday’s 3.6% gain. But shares were slightly lower in early trading Wednesday.

Shares of large screen theater operator IMAX () are up 41.8% so far this year, while shares of the two other major publicly-traded theater chains — Cinemark Holdings () and Regal Entertainment Group () — have achieved more modest gains, but both are up nearly 20% so far this year. All three were slightly higher in Wednesday trading. 

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Developing countries seeking to raise their standards of living should focus on educating girls, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said.