Briefs

A little red wine with your oxygen, sir? YARMOUTH, Maine - The same ingredient in red wine that makes it healthy for your heart may also slow down the inflammatory process involved in COPD, according to a new study. Researchers say resveratrol, a compound found in the skins of red fruits such as grapes, has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Researchers say resveratrol was so effective at reducing inflammatory markers in laboratory tests that the compound may eventually be developed into a new treatment for COPD. The results appear in the November issue of the journal Thorax. Feds investigate nursing home giants' HME biz FORT SMITH, Ark. - Federal authorities subpoenaed nursing home giant Beverly Enterprises in September for information regarding billing practices at its former HME subsidiary, MK Medical, based in Fresno, Calif. Beverly disclosed the subpoena in a recent SEC filing. Beverly began an internal investigation last year into whether MK Medical overbilled Medicare and Medicaid. Government officials were unaware of the overbilling until Beverly reported it. Beverly has since sold the company. “We think we have done all the right things,” Jim Griffith, Beverly's senior vice president of investor relations, said in October. “We brought in an independent auditor and an outside counsel to look at it. We notified the state of California and the federal government.” The company also set aside $18 million to repay any potential overpayments for the period from Oct. 1, 1998, to 2002. Odds and ends Uplift Technologies has recognized A & D Healthcare of Cordova, Tenn., Locklear Medical Supplies of Laurinburg, N.C., and Dynamic Living of Windsor, Conn. with its 2003 Up Sellers Awards. These companies were the top-three sales agents in Uplift's 1,300-location dealer network … Jim Bickel and Tom Mainhardt, a certified respiratory therapist, opened River Cities Oxygen Oct. 20 in the former Menekaunee Fish House building in Marinette, Wis. The two men are veterans in the home medical field. In 1987, they founded Great Lakes Home Medical in Menominee, and eventually sold it to a national company.