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Anthem-Trigon deal angers Md. lawmakers (Baltimore Business Journal)
BBJ 'one-sided' in story about MedStar Health System's woes (Baltimore Business Journal Letter to the Editor)
$17M in savings rejected by MHA (Daily Record)
With Nurses in Short Supply, Patient Load Becomes a Big Issue (New York Times)
Hopkins' reinvestment (Baltimore Sun Editorial)
Put nursing home report card online (Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor)
Posting data helps seniors get good care (Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor)
Townsend Starts Bid for Governor (Washington Post)
Long Wait For Disabled To Get Social Security Pay (Washington Post)
Safer Ways of Doing Business (Washington Post Letter to the Editor)

Anthem-Trigon deal angers Md. lawmakers

Scott Graham
Baltimore Business Journal
Monday, May 6, 2002

Expect CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield to return to Annapolis before the 2003 General Assembly session.

Following the April 29 announcement that Blues operator Anthem Inc. has agreed to acquire Trigon Healthcare Inc. for nearly $4 billion, state legislators are again questioning why CareFirst leaders agreed to be bought for $1.3 billion by WellPoint Health Networks Inc. of California.

They expect CareFirst directors and executives to answer those questions before Maryland Insurance Commissioner Steven B. Larsen decides whether to approve the transaction. Larsen has said he plans to make his decision by the end of this year.

"There is a glaring spotlight on this now," said Del. Michael E. Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat who chairs the House Economic Matters Committee. "The [CareFirst board of directors] has to start answering questions about how they came up with $1.3 billion as a good price when a company of a smaller size is getting close to $4 billion. The legislature should be able to start screaming about this."

CareFirst has about 3.1 million members throughout Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Richmond, Va.-based Trigon has about 2.2 million members, or about 35 percent of the Virginia market.

Busch said he expects the legislature to call officials of the Maryland Insurance Administration, state Attorney General's office and CareFirst to testify. He did not rule out the possibility of inviting industry analysts and officials of Anthem to testify, too.

Many state legislators and opponents of the CareFirst-WellPoint transaction have voiced their concerns over the asking price for CareFirst (http://www.carefirst.com). They say it is too low and that WellPoint (http://www.wellpoint.com) is getting a bargain.

"They [WellPoint] undervalued this marketplace," Busch said. "They thought they could get it at a discount."

Some industry analysts say the Anthem-Trigon deal will not affect the asking price for CareFirst. In fact, at least one analyst contends that the valuation of the nonprofit is actually higher than that of Trigon, a publicly held company.

"None of this really matters," said Todd Richter, a managed care analyst who follows WellPoint, Trigon and Anthem for Banc of America Securities in New York. "CareFirst is worth what CareFirst is worth."
Some managed care analysts determine valuations by multiplying the company's earnings by 15.

Using that formula and considering CareFirst's 2001 earning were $92.4 million, the company's valuation would be $1.38 billion. By comparison, Trigon, which posted earnings of $116.1 million last year, would be valued at $1.74 billion.

Johns Hopkins tops NIH funding list for 10th year

The Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health gave more money last year to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine than it did to any other research institution.

If you are counting, that makes 10 straight years Johns Hopkins (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org) has topped NIH's chart.

NIH (http://www.nih.gov) gave Johns Hopkins $334 million in grants during fiscal year 2001, which ended Sept. 30, 2001. That is a $33 million increase over the $301 million Johns Hopkins received from NIH in 2000.

Johns Hopkins also ranked second among the nation's medical schools in training grants, receiving $14 million for such programs. NIH and Johns Hopkins have a close working relationship. Two branches of the federal research institution are housed on the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center campus in East Baltimore, and the university plans to spend about $150 million to build a new facility at Bayview for NIH.

Earlier this year, President Bush appointed Hopkins medical school official Elias Zerhouni to lead NIH.

News & notes

The Stem Cell Research Foundation awarded its first research grant to John D. Gearhart, renowned stem cell researcher with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Under the terms of the $300,000 grant, Gearhart will attempt to identify molecules that bind cells and research how to separate them.

Baltimore's Intralytix Inc. is one of 10 Maryland biotechnology companies expected to participate in the second annual Early Stage Bio Venture Forum, scheduled for May 9 at the World Trade Center in downtown Baltimore.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (http://www.choosemaryland.org) is inviting Mid-Atlantic investors to listen to the companies' respective pitches for capital.

Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.

BBJ 'one-sided' in story about MedStar Health System's woes

Baltimore Business Journal Letter to the Editor
Monday, May 6, 2002

The article on MedStar Health last week, "Troubles Mount for MedStar," [Vol. 19, April 26-May 2] was one-sided and contained a number of inaccuracies. This was a misrepresentation of our organization, a leading provider of quality health care services in the region. Therefore, it is imperative that I respond on behalf of our seven hospitals, 22,000 employees, and 4,000 physicians who make patient care a priority every day.

First, to address significant inaccuracies in the article:

The reporter alleges that MedStar "faces continued cuts to patient care to pay off $750 million in accrued debt since 1998." This debt, which falls well within the acceptable range for a health system our size, was not accrued since 1998. It was primarily the legacy debt of our original hospitals and allows us to continue to invest in clinical care.

The article states that "new IRS guidelines announced April 5 prohibit nonprofit hospitals from refinancing old debt at lower interest rates." Not true. In fact, these guidelines do not prohibit hospitals from refinancing old debt, and will allow these types of transactions.

The article erroneously reports that MedStar "pleaded their case" with Standard & Poor's rating agency. Management met with all three credit rating agencies, as is common practice, to provide an annual update. Fitch, one of the rating agencies, has since issued an improved outlook on MedStar bonds.

A reference was made to the "highly publicized and controversial closing of Church Hospital." Although it was a difficult decision, this closure was supported by the state's health planning agency, which reported Baltimore had an oversupply of hospital beds. We should not be criticized for improving the cost-effectiveness of health care services.

Most importantly, there are serious implications in the article that patient care is suffering at our hospitals. Nothing could be further from the truth. MedStar hospitals are consistently ranked among the best in the U.S. by a number of independent rating organizations.

Health care delivery is a rewarding and difficult business. Sometimes tough decisions must be made to ensure long-term viability. Like other companies, MedStar has adjusted to the impact of an equity market downturn and other normal business cycle challenges. However, we plan to be here for the long term doing what we do best: putting patients first. And I can assure you that we will never, ever allow that to be compromised.

John P. McDaniel, CEO, MedStar Health

Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.

$17M in savings rejected by MHA

By Karen Buckelew
Daily Record Business Writer
Monday, May 6, 2002

The state's Mental Hygiene Administration has presented to the legislature the preliminary draft of a report on Maryland's public mental health system - a report that rejected many of the recommendations of an industry workgroup, said the workgroup's chair.

The public mental health system's deficit has been estimated to be about $60 million this year and $20 million next year. The purpose of both reports is to examine what are the system's problems and their possible solutions in order to avoid such deficits in the future and help failing programs.

The industry workgroup, chaired by Steve Baron, also president of Baltimore Mental Health Systems Inc., has been working for months to identify the problems in the system and attempt to devise cost-savings measures.

The workgroup's report was examined by the Mental Hygiene Administration, which then drafted its own report, presented to the legislature last Wednesday.

While the report is not yet public, Baron said it rejects many of the ideas presented by his workgroup.

"From the committee's perspective, there was a lot of disappointment our recommendations weren't accepted," Baron said.

MHA Director Oscar Morgan could not be reached for comment Friday.

Baron said his group's ideas were "more long-term than short-term" solutions.

The workgroup's suggestions included shifting more people into the Medicaid population, wherein the federal government will pay for half of their medical care while the state pays the other half.

"There is a significant number of people being served with state-only dollars who should be eligible for Medicaid," Baron said. "But the administrative and bureaucratic process makes it difficult. We are interested in streamlining the process of enrollment in Medicaid."

Another point the group raised in its report is changing the type of mental health care provided high-cost child patients, Baron said.

The highest-cost child patients, treated usually in residential centers and hospitals, cost an average of $68,000 a year in mental health dollars, he explained.
But, the group reported, alternative models of care elsewhere in the nation - specifically intensive, outcome-driven community programs - could reduce that cost to about $50,000.

Baron also said that certain programs, such as one at a local Baltimore hospital that serves children with complex developmental needs, have been incorrectly shouldered by the MHA. The burden of those programs should be reassigned to the appropriate agencies, he added.

Altogether, the workgroup's report could have saved MHA $17 million a year, Baron said.

Though he said the MHA did not accept the group's recommendations, both reports could come of use in solving what has been called the state's public mental health crisis.

"We laid out a number of important issues that need to be fixed to help fix the system," Baron said. "I don't think people are going to stop working toward the [solutions]."

Copyright � 2002 The Daily Record

With Nurses in Short Supply, Patient Load Becomes a Big Issue

By Reed Abelson
New York Times
Monday, May 6, 2002

As hospitals struggle to fill nursing jobs, hospital executives and nurses around the country are
squaring off over how many patients nurses can safely care for at once.

Hospital administrators say they are desperately searching for more nurses to staff emergency rooms, intensive care units and medical-surgical wards as 13 percent of hospital nursing jobs remain unfilled. But hospital nurses say they are being made responsible for too many patients and that hospitals are putting patients at risk and creating onerous working conditions.

The battle is making its way through the courts and several state legislatures as nurses push for new language in their contracts and lobby for regulations that would call for specific nurse-to-patient ratios. Some nurses have gone on strike over the issue, while others, like those at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, are holding protests to draw attention to their concerns.

Nurses say working conditions in hospitals are a major reason for the shortage.

"There are adequate nurses out there," said Mary Foley, president of the American Nurses Association. But many are choosing to work elsewhere, she said, noting that 41 percent of nurses work outside a hospital setting.

In California, nurses brought a lawsuit this month against Tenet Healthcare, the nation's second-largest for-profit hospital chain, saying they were working through meals and breaks without pay because the company did not employ enough nurses. Tenet denies the assertions.

The nurses have had some success. Late last month, registered nurses represented by the Service
Employees International Union reached a tentative agreement with Northridge Hospital in Los Angeles, part of Catholic Healthcare West, a nonprofit hospital system in San Francisco, forming committees with nurses to address staffing concerns. The system reached similar agreements last year with the California Nurses Association at 17 other hospitals.

At Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, nurses and managers are working together to establish appropriate staffing levels, and the hospital pays nurses money in addition to overtime if managers consistently ask their staffs to work with too few people.

California has adopted proposed staffing ratios, which were unveiled in January. The proposals, which are expected to take effect next year, call for four patients for every nurse in a pediatrics unit, for example, and eventually five patients per nurse on a general medical-surgical floor. Similar laws are being debated in Massachusetts and Florida, and staffing legislation has been introduced in Iowa and Kentucky.

But elsewhere, nurses are meeting resistance from the hospitals, which are lobbying against legislation that would impose staffing requirements.

Hospital executives say that with so many nursing positions unfilled, there is little more they can do. "Legislating that you have so many nurses doesn't mean that nurses can appear," said Pamela
Thompson, executive director of the American Organization of Nurse Executives and spokeswoman on nurses for the American Hospital Association.

Executives also argue that fixed staffing ratios are not useful because of differences among hospitals and the patients they treat and a need to be flexible in deciding how best to use employees.

The hospitals and the nurses find little agreement over how many nurses are needed. Many hospitals employ more nurses than they did a decade ago. The number of registered nurses working in hospitals increased to 1.3 million in 2000, the latest figures available, from 1.1 million in 1988, according to a federal survey.

But patients tend to be sicker today than they were in the early 1990's because managed care
companies require many procedures to be performed outside the hospital. In addition, as hospitals have cut other staff members, nurses have picked up more of their work.

Hospitals typically do not disclose how many nurses they have in any individual unit, and little research has been done on what staffing levels are best. But many nurses point to the death of a patient in the liver-transplant unit at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York in January as an extreme example of what can happen when nurses handle too many patients.

After reviewing the case, the State Health Department concluded that the unit "was inadequately staffed with nurses and physicians in charge of providing the necessary care for 34 transplant recipients and donors." Mount Sinai is adding more staff members to the unit, including nurses, although it noted that staffing was not the only issue involved.

Kaiser-Permanente, the country's largest nonprofit managed care health plan, is using a plan to increase staffing levels to recruit nurses and patients. Nurses on general medical-surgical floors, for example, will be responsible for only four patients. While Kaiser estimates that it may cost $200 million a year to employ the additional people, hospital executives say they expect to achieve savings through better patient outcomes and less turnover among its nurses.

"Our goal is to become the organization of choice for nurses," said Marilyn Chow, an executive at Kaiser, which is already advertising its planned staffing changes.

Other hospitals say the staffing law in California should not have a significant impact. "We already are or can easily be in compliance," said Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare. The company has no systemwide policies on staffing levels at its 116 hospitals.

But Kaiser and Tenet are exceptions. Other hospitals have argued that meeting the regulations could cost $400 million a year, according to the California Healthcare Association, when many hospitals are under severe financial stress. If the hospitals cannot hire enough nurses to meet the ratios, the association has warned, some hospitals may be forced to close units or cut services.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Hopkins' reinvestment

Baltimore Sun Editorial
Monday, May 6, 2002

FOR YEARS, Baltimore boosters have been dreaming about a "Big Bang" - a local burst of development akin to the birth of the universe. The announcement that Johns Hopkins medical institutions plan to spend $1 billion over the next eight years to upgrade their East Baltimore campus promises to be part of such a momentous chain reaction.

Together with two separate projects, an $800 million biotech park and the city's ambitious plan to redevelop the old Church Home and Hospital site into a residential area, this commitment has the potential to transform the dank Broadway corridor and link it more closely to the downtown business district.

The 52-acre campus will not expand as a result of the plan. Instead, four major medical and research towers will rise near two recently built cancer facilities, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg and the Bunting Blaustein buildings. Considerable infrastructure spending on other structures - from a big new garage to power installations - also is envisioned.

The health system's president, Ronald R. Peterson, describes these improvements as part of "the hospital of the future." They will be the foundation for other modernization plans over the next four decades.

In the early 1970s, Hopkins trustees seriously discussed moving the medical operations out of East Baltimore, where they were created in the 1880s. While the trustees decided against a move, the possibility of relocation remained as new suburban branches were built to meet patient demand there. The new master plan removes all uncertainty about the campus' future.

In fact, planned improvements along Orleans and Fayette streets will tie the campus more firmly not only with the City Hall area but also with the redevelopment unfolding along the harbor.

That can't be anything but good news for that area of Baltimore - and by extension, for the city as a whole.

Copyright � 2002, The Baltimore Sun

Put nursing home report card online

Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor
Monday, May 6, 2002

I doubt very much that the new Medicare nursing home report card will assist consumers in choosing a nursing home ("Nursing homes' ratings unveiled," April 26).

Maryland started to use its own report card system last summer, and it is just as useless as the federal system. Without appropriate background information, quality indicators are meaningless to consumers.

Even worse, the information that Medicare unveiled yesterday is almost 2 years old, and likely has no relevance to a facility's current situation.

If Medicare is interested in providing useful consumer information, it should post the entire survey report for each nursing home online, along with the facility's plan to make corrections. That way, consumers could see the concerns of regulators and how facilities intend to address them.

Gary D. Raffel
Baltimore

The writer is CEO of Raffel Senior Housing LLC.

Copyright � 2002, The Baltimore Sun

Posting data helps seniors get good care

Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor
Monday, May 6, 2002

With so much interest in nursing home ratings and comparisons, we should recognize that assisted living facilities play a major role in taking care of our senior citizens.

A new state law will now require all assisted living sites to post their most recent inspection and survey report findings in the facility. This means that consumers will now be able to easily review the facility's compliance with licensing regulations on site.

Issues such as medication management, staffing, environmental requirements and performance standards for daily activities are addressed in the inspection reports.

Posting those reports will help the industry ensure quality care and, at the same time, allow consumers to make educated decisions about their loved ones' care and living arrangements.

Arnold J. Eppel
Towson

The writer is deputy director of the Baltimore County Department of Aging.

Copyright � 2002, The Baltimore Sun

Townsend Starts Bid for Governor
Democrat Pledges 'Renewal' for Md.

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 6, 2002; Page A01

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend formally launched a campaign yesterday to become the first female governor in Maryland history and the first Kennedy to hold executive office since her uncle captured the White House more than 40 years ago.

Townsend (D) staged her kickoff rally on a plaza beneath the slender dome of the State House in Annapolis, where she has spent seven years as second in command. She touted her record as an experienced insider but cast herself as a visionary leader with fresh ideas to "shape and change the future."

"I pledge to you today that I will dedicate myself to make sure that every Marylander reaches her or his indispensable destiny," Townsend said, ad-libbing from handwritten notes. "I will do this . . . by making sure our citizens have the tools they need to make their dreams come true."

The afternoon rally drew more than 2,000 sign-waving supporters, many with children in tow. Townsend was introduced by her husband, David, a professor at St. John's College, who praised his wife's "rare combination of wisdom and warmth." She has, he said, "the moral maturity" of Harriet Tubman and Thurgood Marshall, as well as a "great and good heart."

Though the crowd was packed with elected officials, none spoke, not even Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who plucked Townsend from relative obscurity to serve as his running mate in 1994 and groomed her as his successor. Glendening -- who has never been personally popular with voters and, at 59, has a pregnant new wife -- is not expected to play a major role in the campaign.

Glendening left the rally before Townsend's speech because of a family emergency.

Townsend aides said she thought a parade of politicians would be boring. But their absence underscored her emergence as an independent figure who, though the darling of the state's insular, old-boy Democratic establishment, has never quite fit in.

Instead of governors and senators, police officers and teachers stood to attest to Townsend's leadership. Police Chief Ronald Forest praised Townsend's community policing initiative for providing the funds to chase drug dealers out of Seat Pleasant. Principal Marilyn Dobyns credited Townsend's character education program for training "good citizens" at Milbrook Elementary School in Baltimore County.

And Randall M. Griffin, chief operating officer of Corporate Office Properties Trust, a billion-dollar corporation in Columbia, thanked Townsend for listening to business leaders. "She is absolutely the right person to lead Maryland for the next four years," Griffin said.
Then Townsend spoke for herself, charting a course that would veer from Glendening's liberal legacy toward more centrist themes of personal responsibility and economic growth.

"I believe government works best not when it does things to people or even for people. . . . It works best when it works with people," she said. "So I ask you to join me in a mission of rededication and renewal."

Townsend said she would bring accountability to public schools and foster a dialogue about "what works" as the state embarks upon a precedent-setting plan to increase school spending.

She vowed to expand character education, a longtime passion, so children in every school learn right from wrong and conceive "larger dreams."

She proposed to encourage adults to volunteer to help their communities, much as Maryland high school students must do to qualify for a diploma.

And shepromised to create a form of family leave so parents can get involved at their children's schools.

Townsend has not ruled out new taxes. But she vowed to practice fiscal responsibility. She said she would spur a sluggish economy by relieving congestion on the state's gridlocked highways and with old-fashioned salesmanship.

"People don't know how good we are," Townsend said in an interview before her announcement. Maryland has the nation's highest family income and high school graduation rate and the lowest child poverty rate, and it is among the nation's leaders in job creation, she said. "We have to make sure that's the image of ourselves: We are a smart, forward-thinking, innovative state."

Townsend, 50, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, enters the race as the undisputed frontrunner with virtually universal name recognition and nearly $6 million in the bank -- three times as much as any other candidate. Much of it comes from outside Maryland, where enthusiasm for Townsend is spilling into the campaign coffers of other women, Democratic fundraisers said.

Over the past eight years, Townsend and Glendening have pursued dozens of popular policies, including cutting taxes, expanding health care for the poor, nearly doubling school funding, spurring economic development and conducting a nationally acclaimed battle against suburban sprawl.

Polls show Townsend holding substantial leads over U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the likely Republican nominee, and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a potential challenger for the Democratic nomination.

The most recent survey for news organizations, a Mason-Dixon poll in late March, showed Townsend leading Ehrlich 49 percent to 36 percent. She led O'Malley 48 percent to 34 percent among Democrats.

Ehrlich and other critics say Townsend's strength is superficial, a function of incumbency and a glamorous family name. Most polls show her under 50 percent support, and Ehrlich contends that voters are looking for an alternative.

Yesterday, as Townsend unveiled her campaign in Annapolis, Ehrlich and O'Malley were stumping in vote-rich Montgomery County, a critical battleground. Ehrlichattended a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.), while O'Malley performed with his band, O'Malley's March, in Bethesda.

During her speech, Townsend jabbed subtlely at Ehrlich. She criticized Congress for failing to provide prescription drug coverage for the elderly. She derided "some people who vote against raising the minimum wage."

Afterward, she said Ehrlich "has voted against any kind of gun restrictions. And he voted -- to me, which I find so terrible -- he voted against gun restrictions on Saturday night specials."

Ehrlich campaign spokesman Paul Schurick said Ehrlich has voted for "a number of gun control measures," including bills to require trigger locks and to ban high-capacity magazines.

But "Ehrlich did vote against some of the bills that he felt did nothing to curb gun violence," Schurick said, such as a ban on assault weapons.

Though Townsend seemed ready to go toe-to-toe with Ehrlich, she declined to discuss O'Malley.

O'Malley is hoping for an opening, banking on Townsend's reputation for goofy screw-ups. In 1999, she spoke of hiring more people who speak "Hispanish"; at last year's Super Bowl, she praised the Baltimore Ravens for scoring a "football."

Those incidents fed some insiders' view of Townsend as a political lightweight -- earnest but unpolished and naive. But Townsend has improved enormously since 1986, when she jogged door-to-door in running shoes during an unsuccessful race for Congress.

In 1998, she was credited with saving the gubernatorial election after Glendening alienated two of the state's most prominent black politicians, snubbed President Bill Clinton and produced boring TV ads. Townsend mended fences and brought in her family's media strategist, Robert Shrum, who is returning for the 2002 campaign.

And over the past year, Townsend has cleared the Democratic field for governor of several heavyweights, including Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry.

The conventional wisdom holds that Townsend's celebrity and phenomenal fundraising ability scared the men off. But Townsend also has built a formidable political organization across the state.

"What she has done quite well is create a sense of inevitability," said former House majority leader Bruce Poole. Townsend is one of 29 women running for governor across the nation -- a record. If she wins, she will become the first Kennedy to claim a governor's mansion. She is already the first female Kennedy to hold political office.

"This is a glorious day. Kathleen is sensational," said Ethel Kennedy, who watched her daughter from a front-row seat between former Maryland governors William Donald Schaefer and Marvin Mandel.

Born on the Fourth of July, 1951, Townsend is the eldest of 11. When she was 10, John F. Kennedy Jr. was president, her fatherwas attorney general and the family lived on a rambling estate in McLean. When she was 12, her uncle was assassinated in Dallas. And when she was almost 17, her father was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Townsend graduated from Radcliffe College, where she met and married her literature tutor. She received a law degree and bore four daughters, three of them at home.

The family moved to the Baltimore area in 1984 to be closer to David Townsend's parents. After her failed bid for Congress, Townsend worked in the Maryland Department of Education, where she lobbied successfully to create a community service requirement for high school seniors.

She also began work on character education, originally a conservative Republican idea and now a central part of her campaign.

"If you teach kids the importance of courage and bravery and leadership, if you give them new language to describe who they are . . . they see themselves differently. They have larger dreams," Townsend said.

In 1993, she moved to the U.S. Justice Department, where she pushed another community service idea: the police corps. Maryland isnow one of several states where volunteer police officers earn money for college.

The program is a direct descendant of the Peace Corps, a Kennedy legacy. Townsend sees herself as her father's philosophical heir.

So do many others. And that constitutes a large part of her appeal. But supporters say Townsend's political savvy turned that advantage into frontrunner status.

"While the name might get her the first meeting, it doesn't get her the enthusiasm and it doesn't get her the checks," said Ann Lewis of the Democratic National Committee.

Al From, founder of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council and a longtime friend, said Townsend gets a "bum rap that she hasn't really done anything."
"The honest truth is she has always been an idea person," From said. "Her ideas reflect pretty core traditional American values, and ideas are what inspire people."

But Townsend's most potent asset may be her intense sincerity. When she works a room, people feel a connection. She grabs their arms. She asks questions that are sometimes surprisingly personal.

"I think people do want to know that their governor knows them, knows the challenges they face, knows the struggles they go through and also knows that each of them has a dream," Townsend said. "I want to help them reach that dream."

� 2002 The Washington Post Company

Long Wait For Disabled To Get Social Security Pay

By Leigh Strope, Associated Press
Washington Post
Monday, May 6, 2002; Page A19

Disabled Americans who apply for Social Security benefits often must wait two to three years to start receiving benefits because of a backlog of pending applications.

The Social Security Administration's findings were delivered last week to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

About 10 million disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits. The Social Security Administration receives more than 2 million applications for disability benefits each year.

"The result is that disabled Americans are left to spend hundreds of days in limbo without critical help," Baucus said.

Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart, who was confirmed last fall, was asked by the Senate committee to study the lengthy delays in processing applications and appeals, and to report her findings in May.

Reducing the backlog would require additional staff and a minimum of $400 million more for the agency's budget.

Also, at least a third of delays could be reduced by new technology and process improvements, according to the findings.

It can take as long as 1,150 days to process an application, the agency said. For about half the time, the applications remain idle because a backlog of cases are unresolved because of legal appeals and other procedures.

There were about 200,000 backlogged cases in 2001 at the administrative judge level.

Out of 100 people who apply for disability benefits, on average 40 will be approved in about 125 days, the agency said, based on 2001 figures.

About 35 of the 60 applications that were denied will go away, and about 25 will appeal.

If a person continues through the entire appeals process, a final decision could come in as long as 1,150 days.

� 2002 The Washington Post Company

Safer Ways of Doing Business

Washington Post Letter to the Editor
Monday, May 6, 2002; Page A20

The Beltway chlorine spill injured two people [Metro, April 29], but it could have had more disastrous consequences. Hazardous chemicals used by industries in thousands of communities and transported across our highways and rails result in thousands of accidents and spills every year. The Army Surgeon General estimates that a terrorist attack on a single chemical facility in an urban area could put more than 2 million people at risk.

Fortunately, many of the hazardous chemicals in use have alternatives that reduce or eliminate the possibility of a health threat. The truck on the Beltway was on its way to deliver chlorine for swimming pool treatment, for which safer non-chlorine alternatives are available; 500 New Jersey water treatment facilities have stopped using chlorine because of its potential to cause industrial disasters.

Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) has introduced a bill to require users of highly hazardous chemicals to reduce the possibility of chemical terrorism by identifying and adopting safer ways of doing business, but the Environment and Public Works Committee hasn't acted on his bill since November. The senator and the committee should act on this bill now to protect the public.

JEREMIAH BAUMANN
Toxics and Environmental Health Advocate
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Washington

� 2002 The Washington Post Company