Maryland / Regional
Vets NOC
(WBALTV 11)
State
employee information lost in the mail
(Baltimore Sun)
Health care
bill passes in the Senate
(Baltimore Sun)
Md. hospitals may have overdiagnosed their financial illness
(Baltimore Sun)
Flu season peak has passed in Maryland, officials say
(Baltimore Sun)
Recession
might be good for your health
(Baltimore Sun)
Nonprofit Pays Restitution For Billing D.C. Fraudulently
(Washington Post)
Special
Olympics fights use of word 'retard'
(Annapolis Capital)
Patients
urge medical marijuana legalization
(Capital News Service)
House bill aims to protect Maryland seniors age 68 and older
(Daily Record)
Clarksburg's
future tied to hospital (Montgomery County
Gazette)
Local
caving group joins bat protection efforts
(Cumberland Times-News)
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield commits $300K to Health Care for
the
Homeless
(Baltimore Business Journal)
Rx in search of a
digital cure
(Baltimore Business Journal)
Dead bird at BWI
costs traveler $300
(Annapolis Capital)
Health insurers, small biz group drop reform opposition
(Baltimore Business Journal)
National /
International
Sebelius vows to
act on health care
(Washington Times)
Pistachio warning could signal food safety shift
(Washington Post)
WHO:
World must fight drug-resistant TB threat
(Washington Post)
Opinion
Curbing domestic violence
(Carroll County Times)
Health fraud bill
deserved defeat
(Baltimore Sun)
Maryland / Regional
Vets NOC
WBALTV 11
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown launched a new program
Tuesday to connect veterans with a variety of health programs.
The Web site networkofcare.org is an online resource that
provides quick access to national, state and local services.
Studies have revealed that one out of three veterans returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from mental health problems,
11 News reporter David Collins said.
"The need is undeniable. Many of our veterans are returning with
wounds that are seen and unseen," said John Colmers, the state
secretary of health and mental hygiene.
Yet many veterans don't sign up for services through the
Department of Veterans Affairs, and their families don't know
where to turn for help.
"In the veteran community in general, there are gaps in
information regarding available resources," said state Deputy
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Wilbert Forbes. "We have to change
this whole country's orientation to caring for their soldiers
when they come home."
- Bruce Bronzan, creator of networkofcare.org
Brown, who has spent 25 years in the military, including a tour
in Iraq, launched the new Web site to connect veterans to the
help they need.
"We owe our veterans a debt of gratitude that we cannot pay," he
said.
The Web site offers links to everything from behavioral health
resources to social networking.
The public service will bring critical information anonymously
and quickly to vets, military service members and their
families, Collins reported. Search engines include a library
containing more than 4,000 health topics. Visitors can create a
private, secure file to store medical information.
The portal serves as a bridge between federal, state and local
services throughout the country.
The launch of the Web site devoted to the states' veterans is
unique -- a model in which Maryland officials said they want the
rest of the country to adopt.
"We have to change this whole country's orientation to caring
for their soldiers when they come home," said Bruce Bronzan, who
created networkofcare.org.
Copyright 2009 by wbaltv.com. All rights reserved.
State
employee information lost in the mail
Officials report no evidence of theft or misuse
By Gadi Dechter
Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The names and Social Security numbers of about 8,000 state
employees and retirees were in a report "lost in the mail" this
month, raising concerns about identity theft and questions about
why sensitive information was sent through the postal service
rather than electronically.
Maryland officials say there is no evidence that the information
was stolen or misused, but the Department of Budget and
Management has suggested compromised employees place a "fraud
alert" with national credit-rating agencies as a precaution.
"We have no reason to believe there was any theft or any
nefarious incident other than something innocent and
accidental," said Robin Sabatini, the budget department's chief
of staff.
On March 3, the Employee Benefits Division received a torn and
empty envelope from SHPS Human Resource Solutions, Inc., the
company that manages the health savings account program for
state workers. Missing from the envelope was a monthly fee
invoice that contained employee names and Social Security
numbers and information about the plans in which they were
enrolled.In an e-mail to affected employees March 23, state
officials said the report was "lost in the mail" and that the
U.S. Postal Service had apologized.
"It's disturbing," said Patrick Moran, Maryland director of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "I
don't understand ... why they're sending this stuff around
through the mail when there's electronic means to do all that."
The incident has prompted the state to require the vendor to
transmit future reports electronically, Sabatini said. The state
has also reported the incident to the postal service's inspector
general for a review, she said. An SHPS spokeswoman declined to
comment.
In the wake of laws requiring disclosure of personal-information
breaches, notifications of such incidents have become
commonplace, but consumer advocates warn against complacency.
"Don't treat it as junk mail," said A. Hugh Williams, who runs
the Identity Theft Program in the attorney general's office.
"Especially when it's something like your Social Security
number."
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
Health care bill
passes in the Senate
By Laura Smitherman
Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Maryland Senate unanimously approved legislation Tuesday
that would require hospitals to provide free care to uninsured
patients with incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal
poverty level. The bill, crafted in response to an investigative
series in The Baltimore Sun into the state's system for charity
care, would also prohibit hospitals from charging interest on
overdue bills before creditors obtain a court judgment, and it
would require them to develop informational literature on
financial assistance to be given to patients. The House of
Delegates approved the legislation over the weekend.
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
Md. hospitals may have overdiagnosed their financial illness
By Jay Hancock
Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Maryland hospitals say: We want our bailout! Not in so many
words, but that's the upshot of last week's Chewbacca-like cry
of anguish from the Maryland Hospital Association.
"Economic Crisis Hits Maryland Hospitals," said the official
statement, launched as the association seeks to push up prices
for Marylanders needing hospital treatment.
Terrible news, if true. Health and social care make up only
about an eighth of the Maryland economy, but they have accounted
for well over half of the state's job growth over the past five
years. The medical industry is one of the few things standing
between a relatively mild recession for Maryland and a full
Michigan.
Fortunately, Maryland hospitals wouldn't know a real economic
crisis if it showed up bleeding in their emergency rooms. Their
business is OK. As their doctors sometimes do, they have
over-diagnosed the problem and are probably prescribing a very
expensive remedy.
"Almost as dumb as AIG" is not normally a rallying cry for
businesses seeking sympathy. But this isn't a normal year, and
the hospitals have evidently noticed that the biggest government
handouts go to industries most burned by derivatives, swaps and
other weird financial bets. The hospital association sadly notes
that Maryland hospitals have booked hundreds of millions of
dollars in losses on interest rate swaps.
Maybe they're just setting us up to ask for a big rate increase.
"That's exactly what they're doing," says Chet Burrell, chief
executive of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Maryland's biggest
health insurer. He grants that hospitals are "in more distress
than they've been in quite some time." But he adds, "How grave
it is, I think we have to have a dose of caution about."
No kidding.
Most hospital "losses" are on paper only. In their business of
treating patients, Maryland hospitals made more money in the
seven months ended in January than they did in the same period a
year previously, according to the state Health Services Cost
Review Commission, which sets rates.
(In last week's announcement, the hospitals noted that medical
profits fell from 2.4 percent last summer to 1.5 percent for the
quarter ending in December. What they didn't tell you is that
margins always fall at the end of the year - people don't get
elective surgery during the holidays.)
Hospitals' losses are mainly a bookkeeping figment that should
disappear as the economy recovers. To protect against soaring
interest rates on the money they borrowed to build cancer wings
and whatnot, more than a dozen Maryland hospitals signed
derivatives deals with Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street
wizards.
But the contracts backfired because rates have plunged instead
of risen. That temporarily increased some hospitals' mortgage
payments - a true decline in cash flow - and required some to
post extra collateral. But because of accounting rules that
haven't been around all that long, hospitals must also treat
interest-rate swaps as securities and deduct declines in their
much larger market value against reported income - even though
those losses may never be realized. So much for Maryland
hospitals' "16 percent loss" for the fourth quarter.
Short-term interest rates will not stay next to zero forever.
When they rise back to normal levels, the red ink that hospitals
are complaining about will disappear.
"Hospitals are not looking to be made whole for the losses that
have occurred," says Carmela Coyle, chief executive of the
Maryland Hospital Association. However, she adds, "This is a
time of shared responsibility. It's a time of shared
commitment."
Neither Coyle nor the cost review commission, which pushes for
low medical inflation, would say what increase they're asking
for in rates effective July 1. But the two sides are surely far
apart. We'll find out more in a couple weeks.
Of course, a hospital rate increase is not really the same as an
AIG bailout. But in both cases there are huge taxpayer dollars
at stake, paid through Medicare and Medicaid, in hospitals'
case. Every patient will pay more, thanks to Maryland's highly
regulated system. What happens will also affect Maryland
employers who have been getting creamed with annual increases in
medical insurance premiums of more than 10 percent.
The hospitals are also mimicking Citigroup and other bailout
recipients in this respect, albeit on a smaller scale: Give us
more, they're saying, to make up for our own mistakes.
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
Flu season peak has passed in Maryland, officials say
Changes are in works for next year's vaccine
Baltimore Sun
By Frank D. Roylance
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The 2008-'09 influenza season is not quite over, but Maryland
health officials say it appears to have peaked and that the
number of new cases is on the wane.
"We expect lower levels of flu throughout the rest of the month
of April, but it should finally be over by the beginning of
May," said Rene Najera, an epidemiologist with the state
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
This flu season has been milder than last year's, Najera said,
and he credits the design of this year's vaccine. "The vaccine
strains were a better match" for the viruses actually
circulating for most of this season, he said. "Last year, they
were a complete mismatch."
Flu-related illness has killed three Maryland children this
season. The state does not require that flu-related adult deaths
be reported.
Baltimore area hospitals reported that 172 adults and 194
children had been admitted for flu-related illness through
mid-March, far fewer than were admitted last season.
This year's flu outbreaks began in Southern Maryland and spread
to metropolitan Baltimore. From there, the illness moved to the
Eastern Shore and finally to Western Maryland.
As good as this year's vaccine protection was, there are changes
in the works for next season, according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
As the current flu season has waned, B-type viruses have come to
dominate, though the A-viruses had been more common for most of
the winter. By the middle of March, the B-type became the
majority — 52 percent of all new cases, the CDC reported. Most
of those B-viruses did not respond well to this year's vaccine.
For next year's vaccine formulation, the World Health
Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have
agreed to once again include protection against the two
A-viruses in this year's vaccine — two varieties of A Brisbane.
But the antigen for the B-viruses will be changed, from the
B/Yamagata virus to the B/Victoria that came to dominate this
season and that showed only limited sensitivity — or none — to
this year's vaccine.
Nationally, through mid-March, seasonal flu has killed at least
35 children, 53 fewer than during the full season last year.
But "we are not out of the woods yet," Najera said. "We
encourage residents to practice good hygiene year-round and to
be ready to get in line to get flu shots come September and
October."
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
Recession
might be good for your health
Drowning their sorrows called myth as drinkers, smokers cut back
By Meredith Cohn
Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
It took a moment to make the connection, but Jake Sawyers says
the recession has been good for him, or at least for his health.
"I smoke when I drink, and I drink when I go out and I've been
doing less of that," said the 36-year-old Canton resident who
was buying a pack of cigarettes at a neighborhood convenience
store. "I am also exercising more. Maybe I have more energy
because I'm not drinking and smoking as much."
Sawyers isn't alone. Data show that many people are taming their
vices rather than drowning their sorrows these days - behavior
that national researchers say is consistent with past
recessions. The desire to drink and smoke may grow with
financial pressures, but sales of some alcohol and cigarettes
are dipping with disposable income.
"It's a complete myth that people drink more during recessions.
In fact, just the opposite is true," said David Ozgo, the
Distilled Spirits Council's chief economist, who has studied
recessions since the 1970s. Liquor sales nationally started
slowing in 2007 and dropped 5 percent to 10 percent in the
fourth quarter of 2008.
The evidence is not conclusive because other studies and
informal polls show that many people are indulging in the same
amounts. Some even more. But the findings, particularly those
compiled since the economy began sliding last fall, indicate
that the country as a whole might end up a bit healthier for its
troubles:
•Nine percent of U.S. consumers have cut down on smoking and 14
percent have cut down on alcohol or bought cheaper brands,
according to a February Nielsen Co. report.
•Consumers were eating out and drinking less in the fourth
quarter of 2008 compared with 2007. Also, more wine was sold by
the glass than by the bottle, according to a report from the
National Restaurant Association. The Beer Institute, a trade
group representing brewers, reported that beer sales dropped
about 2 percent in restaurants and bars in 2008, though less
expensive store sales of beer rose about 1 percent.
•In Maryland, tax receipts from beer sales were down 1.5 percent
in the second half of 2008 compared with 2007, though those from
wine and spirits sales were up about the same amount. Alcohol
sellers fear a proposed state alcohol tax increase would weaken
sales.
•Tax revenue from cigarette sales plummeted almost 29 percent in
the second half of 2008 in the state, with an extra
dollar-a-pack tax added in January, as well as an indoor smoking
ban, likely suppressing demand, according to the comptroller's
office. Smoking in general has been trending downward. About 20
percent of Americans and 17 percent of Marylanders smoked in
2007, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. That's down from about 23 percent and 22 percent,
respectively, in 1998.
However, Dana Lefko, manager of mission services and advocacy
for the American Lung Association of Maryland, said cost has
definitely become an issue. She's been fielding calls from
people seeking help quitting because "they can't afford to smoke
anymore."
As for alcohol, habits are also changing. The Wine Source in
Hampden reports that microbrews are still selling, but they
aren't much more expensive than mass-produced beer. It's wine,
which varies greatly in price, that has people looking for
bargains.
"We have just as many people come to wine tastings, but they
won't buy a case. They'll buy a bottle," store wine buyer Ian
Stalfort said. "We're definitely selling more cheaper wine."
Justin and Darcie O'Connor, puffing on cigarettes while on a
visit to the Inner Harbor from Colorado, said beer at the stores
and bars has become too expensive. They've begun brewing their
own and drinking at home. And if cigarette prices rise more,
they'll probably stop or roll their own.
"Thirsty Thursdays are no more," he said about their favorite
happy hour. "The recession definitely got us thinking."
Christopher J. Ruhm, an economist at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, said he found the "income effect" had
most people turning from heavier consumption of cigarettes and
alcohol to lighter consumption, not to abstinence. They also
sought cheaper alternatives.
That describes Ryan Graham, 32, who bought a kegerator, a
converted refrigerator that holds a keg of beer. He, his friends
and bandmates can now drink their favorite microbrews for far
less at his home in Baltimore. "I have band practice over at my
house. In return for not having to deal with the hassle of
loading up my gear and driving somewhere else to practice, I let
my bandmates drink as much as they want from the kegerator," he
said. "But if I started struggling for money or if the cost of
beer increased much more, I'd definitely start making them bring
their own beer."
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun..
Nonprofit Pays Restitution For Billing D.C. Fraudulently
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post
Wednesday, April 1, 2009; B02
A Northeast Washington nonprofit organization has paid more than
$100,000 in restitution to settle charges that it billed the
D.C. government for services it never provided to families and
children at risk of drug and alcohol abuse.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the organization, the Institute
for Behavioral Change and Research at 401 H St. NE, committed
health care fraud in 2005 and 2006.
The organization's chief executive, Howard Mabry, has paid
$111,172.11 in restitution to the D.C. government as required by
a plea agreement entered in January, according to prosecutors
and the institute's attorney.
Lawyer Peter S. Spivack said yesterday that the institute is
defunct.
Mabry and two officers, who are referenced but not named in
court papers, were not charged with crimes because prosecutors
did not feel they had "adequate evidence" to prove they
committed fraud, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mitzelfeld said
in court.
Mabry, who attended the sentencing before U.S. District Judge
Paul L. Friedman, declined to comment.
Friedman also placed the institute on five years of probation.
In court papers, Mitzelfeld wrote that the institute submitted
19 fraudulent invoices to the D.C. Department of Health's
Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration for $111,172.11
for services it never provided.
Copyright 2009 Washington Post.
Special
Olympics fights use of word 'retard'
Associated Press
By Gillian Gaynair
Annapolis Capital
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Special Olympics launched a campaign Tuesday to
banish the word "retard," a casual insult that derives from an
out-of-favor medical term and has long been considered
inappropriate.
People signed pledges not to use the word and students gathered
to denounce its use at rallies from Florida to Alaska. Over the
long-term, organizers hope to change attitudes about people with
mental disabilities, who number more than 190 million worldwide,
according to the World Health Organization.
"It's insulting, it's painful and it hurts people," said actor
Eddie Barbanell, who has Down syndrome and appeared in the movie
"The Ringer." "Get that word out! End the word! Bury it!"
While "retard" itself was never a medical term, it derives from
the phrase "mental retardation," which by around 1900 was
commonly used by scientists and doctors, said Peter Berns,
executive director of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit
advocate for those with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
Even though Berns said its pejorative connotation was
established in the 1960s, the phrase "mental retardation" is
still used in many state and federal laws, much to the dismay of
those trying to stamp out its use.
"People with intellectual disabilities themselves really mounted
a movement that they did not want to be referred to with the
word 'retarded,'" he said.
As such, the American Association of Mental Retardation changed
its name in 2007 to the American Association on Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities after its members pleaded for the
organization to do so. In another sign that the formal use of
the term "mentally retarded" had lost currency, The Associated
Press replaced it in its stylebook in 2008 with "mentally
disabled."
Still, those seeking to end the term's use face a difficult
battle.
"This word is deeply ingrained in our psyche. It comes up in a
lot of different contexts," said Andrew Imparato, president and
chief executive officer of the American Association of People
With Disabilities. "We have to kind of call it out and start a
conversation about why it's not OK to use the word."
Among the signatures collected Tuesday were several that
belonged to governors: In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
- whose mother-in-law founded Special Olympics - signed a
proclamation to stop using the word, as did Oklahoma Gov. Brad
Henry. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued a certificate of recognition
in support of the campaign.
But the manpower behind the "Spread the Word to End the Word"
campaign comes from the students who devised the campaign last
month during a Special Olympics youth summit in Idaho and
organized rallies around the country.
In Florida, 16-year-old Noah Gray organized a rally for some 600
students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School that featured a
rap performance and a speech by Barbanell about his experiences
of being called a "retard."
"Like many other high school students and adults, I used to use
the word 'retarded' all the time," said Gray, who was invited to
speak at last month's youth summit. "Since coming down from the
Special Olympics, I have not used that word once ... and I'm
discouraging other people" from using it.
At Bowie High School in Maryland, 18-year-old Shannan Barksdale
helped gather 861 pledges that will be sent to the Special
Olympics organization. During the school's lunch periods,
Barksdale yelled, "Say no to the R-word!" and urged students to
sign pledges.
"The word should be eliminated from everyone's vocabulary," she
said.
Special Olympics has enlisted actor John C. McGinley of the TV
show "Scrubs" as a spokesman for the campaign. McGinley, whose
11-year-old son has Down syndrome, said many people don't
realize the word is hateful.
"It is saturated in the vernacular, and this will take a while.
And it's OK," he said Tuesday. "But it's important to get under
way."
Associated Press photographer Jacquelyn Martin and writers
Nafeesa Syeed in Washington, Ron Jenkins in Oklahoma City, Mike
Glover in Des Moines and Juliet Williams in Sacramento
contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Special Olympics:
http://www.specialolympics.org/
Spread the Word to End the Word campaign:
http://www.r-word.org
Copyright 2009 Annapolis Capital.
Patients
urge medical marijuana legalization
By Michael Frost
Capital News Service
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ANNAPOLIS - When a police officer asked her what she was doing
behind a van in the park, Pamela Hughes told him the honest
truth.
"I said I was smoking a cannabis cigarette," she said.
She presented the stunned policeman with a written
recommendation from her doctor and a copy of Maryland's
"Compassionate Use Act," which reduces the penalties for
possession of medical marijuana.
"I honestly thought that I wasn't breaking the law," Hughes
said.
Rather than take her word for it, the officer called for backup
that included a canine unit, she said.
Hughes ended up spending several hours in jail. She fought the
charges and won, but only after a lot of time, stress and money
-- three things that her fibromyalgia, a chronic condition
characterized by widespread pain and fatigue, and a reoccurrence
of stage IV cancer were already monopolizing.
Hughes and several other patients told the House Judiciary
Committee last week that while Maryland's Compassionate Use Act
was a step forward for its time, the law merely provides them
with a false sense of security.
The patients testified on behalf of a bill that would establish
a task force to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of the
current law and consider whether medical marijuana should become
legal in the state. They said medical marijuana provides relief
for certain ailments in ways no other medication can replicate.
No one testified against the bill, and a vote on the legislation
has not been scheduled.
Medical marijuana has been legalized in 13 states, including
California, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont. U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder said recently that federal law enforcement
will no longer target providers that are operating within state
law, a major departure from the Bush administration's stance on
the issue.
The Darryl Putnam Compassionate Use Act, passed by the General
Assembly in 2003, was a compromise between those advocating the
legalization of medical marijuana and those against such a move.
The act is named after Putnam, a former Green Beret and Howard
County Farm Bureau director who advocated for the legalization
of medical marijuana. He died of cancer in 1999.
The Compassionate Use Act reduced the penalties for marijuana
possession to a maximum $100 fine, provided a patient has a
recommendation from a medical doctor. However, patients still
have to buy their "medicine" on the street and face the health
and legal risks inherent in doing so.
Those with drug offenses on their records could also face
eviction from subsidized housing.
John McCarthy, an AIDS activist who has been HIV-positive for 18
years, said that medical marijuana has allowed him to reduce his
pill intake from 45 to 13 pills a day. Most of those pills had
been prescribed merely to alleviate the side effects of other
pills, which include vomiting, headaches and neuropathy, a
condition "where the nerve endings burn."
McCarthy, who lives in subsidized housing, said a drug
conviction under the present law could cause someone to be
evicted from public housing no matter how old they were or what
their condition was.
Eric Sterling, a Chevy Chase lawyer and president of the
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said the law needs to be
revised.
"It's really barbaric to think that we would prosecute sick
people," he said. "These (cases) should never go to court."
The American College of Physicians, which calls itself the
"largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest
physician group in the United States," has endorsed the use of
non-smoked marijuana in cases where it has been proven to have
therapeutic value.
A 2008 policy paper said the organization "strongly urges
protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use
medical marijuana as permitted under state laws." It advocated
further research on the issue and said that "the science on
medical marijuana should not be obscured or hindered by the
debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for general
use."
Americans for Safe Access, a group that advances legalizing
marijuana for therapeutics and research, and brought many of the
witnesses together in Annapolis last week, was careful to
clarify its intentions.
Caren Woodson, director of government affairs for the group,
said the goal was to have safe and legal access to medical
marijuana for patients and researchers -- "and that's it."
"That's the line, and we don't cross over it," she said.
However, some say others are crossing that line every day.
Jerrod Menz, president of A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center
Inc., a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Murrieta,
Calif., said some young people in his state are faking back pain
and other hard-to-prove ailments in order to legally obtain
marijuana. He said a client in his early 20s recently admitted
telling his doctor he was suffering from foot pain, which helped
him obtain a medical marijuana card after a five-minute
examination.
Menz said doctors need to use more care in their examinations to
better prevent people from abusing the intent of medical
marijuana laws. He said that some problems could be prevented by
having the federal government regulate medical marijuana like
any other drug, although he did not endorse such a move.
For Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Vallario Jr., D-Prince
George's, federal law is the line that shouldn't be crossed --
and the reason for the 2003 compromise legislation in the first
place.
"How can you pass something that's against federal law?" he
said. "That really is the bottom line."
Delegate Henry Heller, D-Montgomery, the sponsor of the bill,
said the task force would also consider establishing research
programs at Johns Hopkins University and the University of
Maryland medical schools. He said this would not only allow
further research on medical marijuana, but also help provide a
safe product.
As the law stands, Heller said glaucoma and cancer patients at
Leisure World, a retirement community in Silver Spring where he
lives and represents, have to buy their marijuana on the street.
"It's not the safest way to buy medicine," he said.
Copyright © 2009 University of Maryland Philip Merrill
College of Journalism .
House bill aims to protect Maryland seniors age 68 and older
By Steve Lash
Daily Record
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ANNAPOLIS — The House Judiciary Committee appears poised to
approve legislation to prohibit individuals from using
deception, intimidation or undue influence to deprive people age
68 and older of their money and property, despite concerns from
the state public defender’s office that the measure is
unnecessary and presumes all older Marylanders cannot take care
of themselves.
The bill is sponsored by sister and brother legislators Sen.
Rona E. Kramer and Del. Benjamin F. Kramer, both Montgomery
County Democrats. The Senate passed the legislation, Senate Bill
304, by a vote of 46-0 on March 12.
The Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the measure Tuesday lasted
about 10 minutes, during which time Del. Kramer urged the panel
to approve and send to the full House of Delegates what he
called a “wonderful” bill.
The committee could vote as early as this week on the
Senate-passed measure, in time for the full House to vote on the
legislation before the General Assembly session ends on April
13, panel leaders said.
The public defender’s office, in written testimony to the
committee, stated that the measure is not needed because state
law already criminalizes the use of deception or intimidation to
deprive a “vulnerable adult” of his or her property. The law
defines “vulnerable adult” as someone “who lacks the physical or
mental capacity to provide for [his or her] daily needs,”
regardless of age, the office stated.
The Kramers’ proposal would create “a blanket presumption that
all persons 68 years and older are incapable of looking after
their property or finances,” the office added.
“This is empirically unsupportable; many people of the stated
age and older are fully capable of managing their affairs,” the
testimony continued. “The current definition of ‘vulnerable
adult’ includes all adult individuals, regardless of age, who
are susceptible of undue influence.”
Added protection
Specifically, the legislation would target people who prey on
individuals they “know or reasonably should know” are at least
68 years old.
A person convicted of depriving the individual of at least $500
worth of property could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison
and fined $10,000 under the legislation.
Crimes of less than $500 worth of property would carry a
sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $500 fine.
Regardless of the value of the property, the property would have
to be returned or restitution must be paid to the victim or to
his or her estate.
The Maryland Department of Human Resources submitted testimony
in support of the legislation, stating that in fiscal year 2007,
the department’s Adult Protective Services staff investigated
about 3,245 cases of alleged abuse, neglect, self-neglect and
exploitation of Marylanders age 65 and older.
The Health Facilities Association of Maryland, whose members
include nursing home and assisted living operators, also praised
the proposal as necessary to protect a segment of the population
victimized by scam artists close to home.
Nursing homes and assisted-living facilities “have experienced
many situations where family and friends deplete the assets of
our most frail citizens by selling their homes, spending down
savings and using lines of credit without first using those
assets for the resident’s much-needed care,” HFAM wrote in
testimony submitted to the committee. “We have seen stories in
the media about families and friends building new homes, buying
cars and ignoring the needs of the resident in the nursing home
or assisted-living facility.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Marylanders
age 65 and older is expected to exceed 1.1 million in 2025,
compared to about 712,000 in 2004.
“As Maryland’s population ages … state government must prepare
accordingly and the inclusion of the age minimum in these laws
is an important step,” HFAM stated.
Copyright 2009 Daily Record.
Clarksburg's
future tied to hospital
Adventist argues its upcounty plans were set before those from
Holy Cross
By Susan Singer-Bart | Staff Writer
Montgomery County Gazette
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
How the state rules on whether a hospital is built in Germantown
or Clarksburg could drastically alter the community envisioned
for Clarksburg.
If the Maryland Health Care Commission approves Holy Cross
Hospital's plan to build a hospital on the Germantown Campus of
Montgomery College rather than Adventist HealthCare Inc.'s plan
to build one in Clarksburg, the community fears it would lose
its last chance to become an employment center as outlined in
the 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan.
"It's fast becoming a dormitory town unless we get some
employment here," said Kathie Hulley, president of the
Clarksburg Civic Association. "It's not even a town, it's just
houses."
The federal Food and Drug Administration was seriously
considering building a campus in Clarksburg west of Interstate
270 when the Master Plan was being written. The county expected
Clarksburg to become a balanced community with a mix of houses,
employment and retail. It was to be a transit-oriented community
so homes were allowed to be built closer together in a more
urban configuration, Clarksburg ombudsman Kathleen Mitchell
said.
"The county fights this all the time," she said. "When you do a
master plan and you want it to come out balanced, it's very
difficult to get it developed in a balanced way due to market
conditions."
Generally, houses are built first, Mitchell said. In Silver
Spring, for example, office and retail development was more than
20 years behind residential development and only with the
county's intervention did downtown Silver Spring become a
vibrant mix of housing and businesses.
In Clarksburg, some of the transit plans have been scrapped and
others, such as the Corridor Cities Transitway, are many years
away.
"The Master Plan is a dream, but it's not a fiction," Mitchell
said. "It's very meticulously thought out. Unfortunately, the
county can't force things."
The county Planning Board has allowed developer Newland
Communities to remove office buildings from its plans for
Clarksburg Town Center and plan a town center on a smaller scale
than envisioned in the Master Plan.
Clarksburg residents see the Adventist Healthcare proposal as
the last chance to attract a major employer. The first piece of
its campus, a 100-bed hospital, would employ about 600, said
Thomas Grant, hospital spokesman.
Stores and restaurants depend on customers throughout the day,
Mitchell said. Without businesses such as the hospital complex,
the community will not have the economic base to support them.
"Retail and office go together," Mitchell said. "We haven't
figured out a way to make a community work without it. …The
small, little shopping centers will spring up and the downtown
is never going to develop."
Adventist submitted a letter to the state last week arguing
against the Holy Cross hospital in Germantown and stating it has
the better proposal for an upcounty hospital.
"Rather than looking outward with a focus on community need,
[Holy Cross'] strategy is an inward-looking approach that seeks
to maximize its own capacity and maximize market share, while at
the same time blocking other health care providers from meeting
community need," the letter reads.
But Holy Cross officials contend they want to build in
Germantown because the elderly population in the Gaithersburg
and Germantown corridor is the fastest growing upcounty
population in need of service.
"Our research is showing that is where the aging is going to
occur," said Yolanda Gaskins, hospital spokeswoman.
Adventist bought a piece of what was to be the FDA campus seven
years ago and has been working with the community to plan a
health care campus on its 60-acre site. It has received the
major zoning, land use, traffic and environmental approvals
required by the county.
Adventist questions whether the county would grant permits for
the Holy Cross project.
"[Holy Cross] should be required to demonstrate that the project
will receive the various approvals the [Adventist campus]
already holds," the letter states.
The lack of permits makes it impossible to know whether the
project can be built as proposed, the letter states.
Adventist further argues that the Holy Cross proposal is too
expensive at a projected cost of $3.3 million per bed versus
costs of $1.5 million and $1.1 million per bed for the two most
recently approved hospitals in the state. Adventist's proposed
Clarksburg hospital will cost less than the Holy Cross proposal
by more than $1.1 million per bed, Grant said.
Adventist will spell out the details of its proposal in an
application it plans to file with the state April 10.
"For seven years Adventist HealthCare and the residents have
envisioned a medical campus as an integral part of the
community," Grant wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. "Seven
months ago, a hospital in Germantown was not on anyone's radar
screen, including the county which was putting the finishing
touches on the Germantown Master Plan."
In its letter, Adventist argues its hospital and campus would
serve the health care needs of the growing populations in
Germantown, Clarksburg and Urbana and said it was partnering
with Frederick Memorial Healthcare System.
Gaskins would not comment further on the letter and its
contentions, saying she did not want to argue the matter in the
press.
The Clarksburg Civic Association sent a letter to the state
asking to participate in the Holy Cross case. Holy Cross
responded with a letter saying it objected.
"We don't think they have standing for a hospital application in
the Germantown area," Gaskins said.
Holy Cross will file its response to the Adventist letter next
week, she said.
Copyright 2009 Montgomery County Gazette.
Local
caving group joins bat protection efforts
By Staff Reports
Cumberland Times-News
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
FROSTBURG - The Western Maryland Grotto has agreed to go along
with a volunteer moratorium to refrain from activities in caves
as recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The request was made in an effort to protect bats from
white-nose syndrome, a malady of unknown origin that has killed
hundreds of thousands of bats across the northeast U.S. during
the past three years and continues unchecked.
As of March 18, at least 60 bat hibernation colonies in nine
states, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia, are
known to be affected by WNS.
Cavers are asked not to enter any caves that are located in
these states or adjoining states.
White-nose syndrome threatens to spread to the Midwest and
Southeast, home to many federally endangered bat species as well
as some of the largest bat populations in the country.
The evidence collected indicates that human activity in caves
and mines may be assisting the spread of WNS. The primary
concern is a fungus that is new to science and may possibly be
an invasive species. The fungus grows best in the cold and wet
conditions common to caves and abandoned mines and likely can be
transported inadvertently on boots and gear of cave visitors.
“We recognize that the steps we are recommending will require
sacrifice from the caving community and others, and we regret
this inconvenience,” the Fish and Wildlife Service advisory
said. “However, the observed devastation to bat populations,
exceeding 90 percent mortality at many affected sites, and the
evidence for human-assisted spread justifies that we exercise an
abundance of caution in managing activities that impact caves
and bats.”
The agency also requested cavers in regions outside the affected
and adjacent states to use clothing and gear that has never been
used in the restricted areas and to thoroughly clean and contain
all clothing and gear upon leaving the caves.
Quarterly updates on the advisory will be available at
www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html.
The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that more than 400,000
bats have died from WNS, including 25,000 federally endangered
Indiana bats, and many more bats are at immediate risk.
The Western Maryland Grotto is the local chapter of the National
Speleological Society. The grotto will continue to meet the
third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Frostburg Community
Library. Danny Welsch is the president and can be reached at
danny.welsch@gmail.com.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield commits $300K to Health Care for
the Homeless
By Julekha Dash
Baltimore Business Journal
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield said it is giving $100,000 to a
nonprofit that supports health care for Maryland’s homeless
population.
The grant is one of three annual grants the insurer will award
to Health Care for the Homeless. The grants support health
education, mental health services, addiction treatment and other
medical services for 12,000 Maryland residents.
The insurer also supports the CareFirst/Ravens Community
Touchdowns Program in which the Owings Mills company makes a
donation to Health Care for the Homeless and other charities
every time the Baltimore Ravens make a touchdown.
Health Care for the Homeless serves health clinics in Baltimore
City, Frederick, Harford, Montgomery and Baltimore counties.
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Inc. All rights reserved.
Rx in search of a
digital cure
Is e-prescribing finally ready to take off?
By Scott Graham Staff
Baltimore Business Journal
Friday, March 27, 2009
When Sorrel King arrived at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center
the morning of Feb. 20, 2001, she knew something was wrong with
her 18-month-old daughter Josie.
Admitted to the hospital more than a month prior with first- and
second-degree burns after jumping into a hot bath, Josie was
thin, pale, thirsty and despondent. She was quickly given two
shots of Narcan, a stimulant, and a liter of water before her
doctor gave verbal orders that she was not to be given any more
methadone.
But about six hours later, a nurse told Sorrel King the orders,
which were never documented, had been changed and gave Josie a
shot of the pain-fighting narcotic. Within a few minutes,
Josie’s heart stopped beating and she was rushed back to the
hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.
Two days later, Josie King died.
And more than eight years after her daughter passed away, Sorrel
King wonders whether a more formal way of prescribing drugs
electronically could have saved her daughter.
“Honestly, I think it could have,” said Sorrel, who with her
husband Tony launched the Josie King Foundation to advocate for
young patients’ safety. “They may have had to enter Josie’s
weight with the methadone dosage or something that would have
alerted them to a problem. That little bit could have saved
her.”
The federal government — specifically the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services in Woodlawn — agrees. That is why it wants
all health care providers — primary care physicians and
outpatient surgeons chief among them — to begin electronically
prescribing medications by 2012.
In 2007, just 6 percent of about 35 million prescriptions
nationwide were transmitted electronically, according to
SureScripts, which operates the country’s largest e-prescribing
system. In Maryland, just 3.17 percent of all prescriptions were
done electronically, and the state ranked sixth in total
e-prescriptions that year.
Those numbers likely have grown, but not by much, health care
experts say. Despite a carrot-and-stick approach by CMS and
federal stimulus money to entice doctors to begin e-prescribing
this year, the number of physicians doing it is still scant,
said Ritu Agarwal, director of the Center for Health Information
and Decision Systems at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.
Smith School of Business.
Waiting for the consolidation
While e-prescribing — and the greater gravitation toward
transmitting health information online — is gaining clout as a
way to improve patient safety, it is still rife with
shortcomings and unintended consequences. A lack of transmission
standards, proliferation of e-prescribing systems and hodgepodge
of state and federal regulations have many health care providers
wondering why they should invest the time and energy to wrestle
with the technology.
“What you have is a logistical nightmare; pharmacists and
doctors have different systems,” said Dr. Steve Wienner, owner
and manager of Mount Vernon Pharmacy, which installed an $1,800
e-prescribing system almost three years ago to compete with
chain pharmacies such as CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. Still,
Mount Vernon Pharmacy receives about six e-prescriptions a day;
the average pharmacy fills about 200 prescriptions a day.
E-prescribing also comes with a hefty price tag many small
physician practice groups can’t afford to pay, particularly as
their margins narrow and the recession lingers. A
top-of-the-line electronic health records systems with
e-prescribing capability can cost more than $10,000. A basic,
standalone e-prescribing system can cost about $1,800, but that
does not include monthly maintenance fees of up to $25 and, in
some cases, per transmission charges of 25 cents.
“When it comes to health IT, I’ve been drinking my fair amount
of Kool-Aid. But there are a lot of challenges in
e-prescribing,” said Dr. Christoph U. Lehmann, director of
clinical information technology for the Johns Hopkins Children’s
Center and designer of two e-prescribing systems. “It ain’t as
simple as just putting a computer in a hospital.”
Or maybe it is. At its most basic level, e-prescribing is
something akin to a sophisticated e-mail system. It’s another
way of communicating a prescription to a pharmacist —
handwritten, over-the-phone and faxed transactions being the
other modes of prescribing.
E-prescribing is intended to improve patient safety and
eliminate medical errors by taking the guesswork out of reading
a doctor’s handwritten prescription. The joke about a doctor’s
handwriting withstanding, it can be difficult to read the dosage
and frequency of a prescription scribbled on a notepad, Wienner
said.
It is estimated that more than 30 percent of all prescriptions
require a call from the pharmacist to attending physician to
clarify a handwritten prescription.
E-prescribing advocates say the systems also can improve the
efficiency of a physician’s practice, eliminate tampering with a
prescription and resolve on the front end any question as to
whether the medication is covered under the patient’s health
insurance plan.
But the kinks have yet to be worked out. Without standard
software, information entered into the e-prescription by the
physician may not translate correctly into the pharmacist’s
system. Different codes for the medication’s dosage and usage
may require a callback or result in a faulty fill.
That concerns any physician who hasn’t already adopted
e-prescribing, said Gene Ransom, executive director of MedChi,
the state’s medical society. And until a standard system is in
place, doctors will continue to hold out, he said.
“We want to buy the VHS system, not the Beta system,” Ransom
said. “We want to make sure we pick the right system, one that’s
going to be around for a long time.”
The universal system could be in place by 2011, said Dr. Peter
Kaufman, a gastroenterologist and chief medical officer of
DrFirst, a Rockville-based company that developed and sells a
standalone e-prescribing system.
It all comes down to cost
Meanwhile, the federal government and private health insurers —
both of which stand to gain the most if e-prescribing succeeds
in reducing errors and lowering health care costs — are dangling
federal stimulus cash and other incentives in front of leery
physicians.
For all its benefits and quirks, the obstacle looming largest
over widespread adoption of e-prescribing is the cost of the
system, its maintenance and training of staff.
In some ways, the timing could not be worse for physicians to
plunk down thousands of dollars for new technology. Sagging
reimbursement levels, the rising cost of other supplies and the
pinch of the recession are causing many physicians to trim
expenses.
That is where health care’s federal and private payers come in,
said Shannon Nelson, director of primary care operations for
UnitedHealthcare, the Minnesota-based health insurance giant
that does business in Maryland. “Unless payers fund
[e-prescribing], doctors won’t get involved on their own,” she
said.
The federal government, through CMS, is offering a 2 percent
bonus on Medicare reimbursements to doctors who begin
e-prescribing this year or next. In 2011 and 2012, that reward
drops to 1 percent. By 2012, physicians who are not
e-prescribing will be hit with a 2 percent penalty on Medicare
reimbursements.
And with $19 billion of the $787 billion federal stimulus
package expected to go toward health care information
technology, developers of new e-prescribing systems are lining
up for some of that cash.
“If you’re thinking about [getting an e-prescribing system]
sometime soon, that sometime soon should be this year or next,”
said Dr. Peter Basch, medical director of ambulatory clinical
systems for Columbia-based MedStar Health, which has about 500
of its 1,000 doctors using electronic health records with
e-prescribing capability.
UnitedHealthcare is among the insurers covering as much as 75
percent of the cost of some e-prescribing systems and rewarding
physicians for using electronic health records, including
e-prescribing. Doctors contracted with CareFirst BlueCross
BlueShield, the region’s largest health insurer, can receive
more in reimbursement cash if they e-prescribe, said Dr. Jon
Shematek, the insurer’s senior vice president and chief medical
officer. The incentive is part of the CareFirst Quality Rewards
program, but less than 10 percent of CareFirst’s physician
network is e-prescribing, Shematek estimated.
“While it’s not a panacea, we do see the value to the
technology,” he said. “But doctors will need to see it can
really help them take care of patients before they get
involved.”
All contents of this site © American City Business Journals
Inc. All rights reserved.
Dead bird at BWI
costs traveler $300
Customs agents seize soap-encased carcass, other oddities
By Marc Shapiro
Annapolis Capital
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
James Swanson thought he had seen just about everything as the
head of customs for BWI Thurgood Marshall and the Port of
Baltimore.
But on Friday, after his agents asked a Nigerian man entering
the country if he had any food to declare, they found something
new - a dead bird encased in homemade black soap.
Regardless of the odd nature of the discovery, Swanson, who
heads up U.S. Customs and Border Protection for Baltimore, said
the bird posed a potential threat to American poultry.
"We protect ourselves from agro-terrorism, the intentional
bringing in of something that could potentially cause crop loss
or damage to the American agricultural sector," Swanson said.
He said he was worried about Newcastle disease, a devastating
poultry disease, and other avian-born ailments. In China,
several million chickens had to be killed during a recent
outbreak.
"The economic impact of that would be huge," he said. "The other
problem is nobody's sure when the avian flu will make its jump
over to humans. There have been some serious diseases that have
done that coming out of Africa."
The man, who was not identified by customs officials, also had
3.6 pounds of beef, 3 pounds of chicken bullion and one star
fruit. The bullion is a potential carrier of avian flu, which
even when cooked, is hard to kill, Swanson said. The beef could
have carried foot-and-mouth disease or mad cow disease.
Customs officials said they didn't think he was a terrorist,
just unaware of the danger. He was fined $300 and released.
"For him, it was important and may have some cultural or
religious significance," Swanson said.
It wasn't the first time potentially dangerous plants or animals
were found in someone's baggage at BWI. Long-horned beetles,
considered a serious threat to many deciduous hardwood trees in
North America, and red baron grass, which can take over large
areas of grassland, have both been discovered.
Sometimes the potential threat isn't serious, people simply
forget or choose to not declare certain things.
"We routinely find things people either think they can bring in
or, despite all the warnings we give them, warnings from the
travel agent, on the plane and the laundry list when they come
in, they still think they can get through," Swanson said.
A couple who arrived Monday from London was fined $300 for not
reporting four drumstick fruits and a bag of eight assorted
species of seeds from India.
Another traveler who arrived on Saturday from Jamaica, was fined
$300 for not declaring two prohibited yams and three packets of
prohibited cabbage seeds.
Nationwide, Customs and Border Patrol agricultural specialists
seize 4,125 prohibited meat, plant materials or animal products,
including 435 insect pests each day. At BWI, at any given time
there are about four specialists and about 30 other customs
officers, all of whom take their jobs seriously, Swanson said.
"Our job is to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons," he
said. "From the agricultural perspective, we protect American
agriculture from foreign pests."
Copyright 2009 Annapolis Capital.
Health insurers, small biz group drop reform opposition
By Kent Hoover
Baltimore Business Journal
Friday, March 27, 2009
The National Federation of Independent Business and the health
insurance industry have found common ground on how to make
coverage more affordable for small businesses.
That’s a change from a few years ago, when America’s Health
Insurance Plans opposed NFIB’s efforts to enact legislation that
would allow national trade associations to offer health plans
that were exempt from state regulations to their members.
Congress rejected association health plans, so NFIB now is
working with a variety of groups, including AHIP, on alternative
ways to pool the purchasing power of small businesses and make
health insurance more affordable.
“Cost is the issue for small businesses,” said NFIB CEO Dan
Danner.
Small businesses tend to pay more for health insurance than
larger businesses. AHIP’s board issued a statement March 9 that
addresses the needs of small businesses, with the trade
association proposing the creation of nationwide “essential
benefit plans” for small businesses. The plans would be exempt
from state coverage mandates, but otherwise still subject to
state regulation.
The group also supports tax breaks for small businesses that
offer health insurance, and allowing individuals who receive
government assistance in paying their premiums to apply this
money to employer-sponsored coverage.
These proposals were developed after AHIP CEO Karen Ignani held
meetings across the country and saw “the unique challenges small
businesses are facing.”
Danner, who appeared with Ignani at a joint press conference
during AHIP’s National Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., said
NFIB appreciates AHIP’s interest in and focus on small
businesses.
“Small business is the key for any comprehensive health care
solution,” Danner said.
Kaiser tracks healthy snacks
Who hasn’t succumbed to the siren song of the vending machine
come 4 p.m.?
The local offices of Kaiser Permanente have come to grips with
that craving and adopted a “can’t beat ’em, join ’em” strategy.
In January, the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit health insurer
teamed up with two Beltsville snack vendors, SunDun Office
Refreshments Inc. and Monumental Vending Inc., to make half
their offerings conform to Kaiser’s “Healthy Picks” nutrition
guidelines.
A snack or drink is considered healthy if it meets parameters
such as these: no more than 35 percent of calories from fat, no
more than 10 percent saturated fat and no more than 400
milligrams of sodium.
The tallies from more than 75 newly half-healthy vending
machines at 47 Kaiser locations reveal that when offered a
choice, snackers opt for healthy items 33 percent of the time.
SunDun President Emory Linder was happy with the experiment’s
results. The secret, he said, was “sourcing more stuff than just
peanuts, trail mix and granola bars.”
The vending numbers came in about as expected, said Shannon
Hines, director of Kaiser’s prevention program. She added that
the healthier choices are meant to be options, not complete
replacements. Even the best soy chip in the world won’t always
trump an M&M.
Besides tracking what’s selling, Kaiser hopes to add Weight
Watchers point values to items, as well as diabetic health
information.
Md. to get $1.7B for coverage
Maryland will receive $1.68 billion in federal funds to expand
health care coverage for the poor and out of work.
The bulk of that money, which comes from the federal stimulus
package, will help Maryland’s 760,000 residents who receive
Medicaid coverage.
Both states and the federal government pay for Medicaid, or
health care for low-income individuals. The federal money will
expand the federal government’s Medicaid coverage through fiscal
year 2011.
The federal stimulus money will also help pay for COBRA health
coverage for laid-off workers, construct and renovate community
health centers and upgrade health information technology.
Health care officials say the need for Medicaid assistance will
grow as the economy worsens and more people qualify for
Medicaid. Without adequate Medicaid reimbursements, many
patients will get turned away by physicians and wind up in the
emergency room.
Julekha Dash and the Washington Business Journal’s Jennifer
Nycz-Conner contributed to this report.
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Inc. All rights reserved.
National / International
Sebelius vows to
act on health care
By Sean Lengell
Washington Times
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, on Tuesday
urged quick action on a health care overhaul when opening the
confirmation hearing for the person President Obama picked to
tackle the daunting task, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
"I've benefited from the best of medicine, but we have too many
uninsured Americans," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "We have
sickness care and not health care. We have too much paperwork
and bureaucracy."
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vowed that if confirmed as Health
and Human Services secretary she would immediately pursue a
reforming the nation's health care system.
"Inaction is not an option," said Mrs. Sebelius at a
confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee. "The status quo is unacceptable and is
unsustainable."
She also stressed that revamping the country's inefficient
health care system is critical to helping right the nation´s
economic woes.
"We cannot fix the economy of America without fixing the health
care system," she said.
The governor said that, if confirmed, she also would work to
restore public trust in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
which has been shaken in recent years after several high-profile
cases of food contamination and FDA approved drugs that later
where found to have fatal side-effects.
Mrs. Sebelius' appearance before the committee came nearly two
months after Mr. Obama's first choice for HHS secretary, former
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, withdrew from
consideration after news surfaced he failed to pay $140,000 in
taxes and interest.
The hearing was the first time Mrs. Sebelius has answered
questions publicly from Capitol Hill lawmakers, though the
Senate Finance Committee, which will hold a confirmation hearing
with the governor Thursday, has the final say whether or not to
send her confirmation to the Senate floor for a full vote.
Answering a question from Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican,
Mrs. Sebelius said she supports the president's desire to
establish a government operated health insurance option to
compete with private plans. But she added she doesn't support a
government takeover of the health insurance industry.
Copyright 2009 Washington Times.
Pistachio warning could signal food safety shift
Associated Press
By Garance Burke
Washington Post
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
TERRA BELLA, Calif. -- It could take weeks before health
officials know exactly which pistachio products may be tainted
with salmonella, but they've already issued a sweeping warning
to avoid eating the nuts or foods containing them.
The move appears to indicate a shift in how the government
handles food safety issues _ from waiting until contaminated
foods surface one-by-one and risking that more people fall ill
to jumping on the problem right away, even if the message is
vague.
Officials wouldn't say if the approach was in response to any
perceived mishandling of the massive peanut recall that started
last year, only that they're trying to keep people from getting
sick as new details surface about the California plant at the
center of the pistachio scare.
"What's different here is that we are being very proactive and
are putting out a broad message with the goal of trying to
minimize the likelihood of consumer exposure," said Dr. David
Acheson, FDA's assistant commissioner for food safety. "The only
logical advice to consumers is to say 'OK consumers, put
pistachios on hold while we work this out. We don't want you
exposed, we don't want you getting salmonella.'"
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the president's new acting commissioner
who started Monday, made it clear staff needed to move quickly,
Acheson said.
The agency announced Monday that Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella
Inc., the second-largest pistachio processor in the nation,
recalled more than 2 million pounds of its roasted pistachios.
Suspect nuts were shipped as far away as Norway and Mexico,
Acheson said Tuesday. One week after authorities first learned
of the problem, they still had little idea what products were at
risk, he said.
As federal health inspectors take swabs inside the plant to try
to identify a salmonella source, a whole range of products from
nut bars to ice cream and cake mixes remain in limbo on grocery
shelves.
Company officials said Tuesday they suspected their roasted
pistachios may have been contaminated by salmonella-tainted raw
nuts they were processed with at the hulking facility.
Roasting is supposed to kill the bacteria in nuts. But problems
can occur if the roasting is not done correctly or if roasted
nuts are re-exposed to bacteria.
The firm sells its California-grown pistachios to giants of the
food industry such as Kraft Foods Inc., as well as 36
wholesalers across the country.
"We care about our business and our customers greatly," said Lee
Cohen, the production manager for Setton International Foods
Inc., a sister company to Setton Pistachios. "We've never had an
illness complaint before but obviously this affects the whole
industry. It's not good."
California supplies 99.99 percent of the U.S. pistachio market,
according to the California Pistachio Board.
"What's scary is that it's after the nuts have been processed
that this stuff is getting into it, so it really makes you
wonder," said Marcia Rowland, an avid pistachio eater in Apopka,
Fla.
The FDA learned about the problem March 24, when Kraft notified
the agency that routine product testing had detected salmonella
in roasted pistachios. Kraft and the Georgia Nut Co. recalled
their Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix the next day and
expanded the recall to include any Planters and Back to Nature
products that contain pistachios Tuesday.
Kraft spokeswoman Laurie Guzzinati said her company's auditors
visited the plant early last week, and "observed employee
practices where raw and roasted nuts were not adequately
segregated and that could explain the sporadic contamination."
She said she didn't know specifically what they saw.
Federal inspectors last visited the plant in 2003, and the
California Department of Public Health was there last year,
Acheson said. Federal officials made note of several problems -
an open door into one of the nut rooms, and an employee wearing
street clothes that weren't adequately covered - but nothing
that posed a food safety threat, he said.
Acheson said management corrected the problems that day, and
said he did not have access to California inspectors' records.
Cohen said the plant had never had an illness complaint,
followed industry health guidelines and had its huge metal silos
and warehouse inspected regularly, but refused to provide
additional details or records. Several plaques on the firm's
office walls showed the firm won industry awards for food safety
excellence.
No illness have been tied to contaminated pistachios. Two people
called the FDA complaining of gastrointestinal illness that
could be associated with the nuts, but the link hasn't been
confirmed, Acheson said.
While consumer advocates praised the government's swift action,
they said the pistachio recall illustrated that more oversight
was needed.
"It is encouraging that this response was so quick, but we need
to move to a system that focuses on prevention through the
entire food production process," said Jeff Levi, executive
director of Trust for America's Health.
Two California legislators introduced a bill Tuesday that would
require periodic testing of food at food processing facilities
and mandate processors to report to state authorities within 24
hours any positive test result for a dangerous contaminant.
"We shouldn't be reacting to the next crisis, we should be
preventing the next crisis," said Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los
Angeles.
Associated Press writers Tracie Cone in Fresno and Samantha
Young in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 Washington Post.
WHO:
World must fight drug-resistant TB threat
Associated Press
By Gillian Wong
Washington Post
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
BEIJING -- Countries must fight a "potentially explosive" rise
in hard-to-treat strains of tuberculosis with stronger health
care systems and better drugs and tests for infections, the
World Health Organization's chief said Wednesday.
One of the world's oldest and deadliest infectious diseases, TB
has mutated into hardier forms that withstand some of the most
commonly used medicines. Left unchecked, people with
drug-resistant TB could spread the disease to others, creating a
widespread epidemic in the highly mobile global economy.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told health ministers and
senior officials from 27 countries worst-affected by the new
drug-resistant strains of TB that they must make dramatic
improvements in detecting infections and build stronger health
care systems.
"Call it what you may _ a time bomb or a powder keg," Chan said
at the opening of a three-day meeting on drug-resistant TB in
Beijing. "Any way you look at it, this is a potentially
explosive situation."
In a spur to action, software magnate Bill Gates' foundation and
the Chinese government announced a $33 million project to test
new ways to diagnose drug-resistant TB, new treatments and
better ways to track patients.
The disease is caused by germs that spread when a person with
active TB coughs, sneezes or speaks. It's ancient and treatable
but now has evolved into stronger forms: multidrug-resistant TB,
which does not respond to two top drugs, and extensively
drug-resistant TB, which is virtually untreatable.
The problem has been partly blamed on health care systems that
lose track of patients who do not complete their courses of
treatment, allowing the TB bacteria to develop resistance to
normally potent medicines.
Chan said less than 5 percent of estimated cases of
drug-resistant TB were being detected and fewer than 3 percent
were being treated according to WHO standards.
Even when detected, those infected with multidrug-resistant TB
have to switch to more potent and expensive medicines, posing a
problem for many countries with underfunded health care systems.
In 2007, 1.75 million people died of tuberculosis. Of the more
than 9 million people around the world who contract the disease
every year, about 500,000 get multi-drug resistant TB. The WHO
estimates that 150,000 people die of drug-resistant TB every
year worldwide.
Nearly a quarter of those who contract the drug-resistant
strains are in China, where legions of rural migrants face an
inadequate health care system.
It is also a problem in India, where rural health care is often
poor and there is little control over the sale of anti-TB drugs;
Russia, which faces a shortage of qualified medical staff and
drugs; and South Africa, where the disease thrives amid an AIDS
epidemic that has weakened the immune systems of people with
HIV.
"I urge you to make the right policy decisions with appropriate
urgency," Chan said to the officials. "At a time of economic
downturn, the world simply cannot afford to let a threat of this
magnitude, complexity and cost spiral out of control."
Countries attending the meeting are expected to start drawing up
five-year national plans to prevent and control the spread of
drug-resistant TB.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose to fund the TB project
in China because, Bill Gates said, the scale of the problem is
great and the government has the ability to set an example for
the world.
"Because of its skill, its scale, its TB burden, its love of
innovation, and its political commitment to public health, China
is a perfect laboratory for large-scale testing of new tools and
delivery techniques to fight TB," Gates said at a news
conference.
The project will initially cover 20 million people in six
provinces and then be expanded to 100 million people over five
years, Gates said.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders,
welcomed the Gates project but said China should not neglect
other drug-resistant TB sufferers in the country who are not
covered by the program.
"It's a big pilot project but the question is what happens to
all the other patients who need treatment now and what will be
provided to them while this project is ongoing in the next five
years," said MSF's Tido von Schoen-Angerer.
TB is usually treated in six months with a $20 cocktail of four
antibiotics, but its drug-resistant form takes up to two years
to fight. Chan said the cost of treating drug-resistant TB can
be as much as 200 times higher than normal TB.
Detecting drug-resistant TB quickly improves the chances a
patient will survive and lowers the risk that the disease
mutates further into an even more drug-resistant form of the
disease.
Copyright 2009 Washington Post.
Opinion
Curbing domestic violence
Carroll County Times Editorial
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Laws making their way through the state legislature aimed at
protecting domestic abuse victims by confiscating guns from
people with protective orders against them make sense, and could
ultimately save lives.
Opponents to the bills decry any legislation that includes the
words “guns” and “confiscate” in the same sentence, most often
interpreting it as the first step in totaling eliminating the
Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. And while there is always
the danger of expanding laws once they have been enacted, few
people could deny that in a volatile domestic situation,
removing guns from the picture is a good idea.
The Senate on Monday passed a measure that would require judges
to order that firearms be confiscated from people who have final
protective orders filed against them. Another law would allow
judges to those with temporary protective orders against them to
give up their guns.
Similar versions have already passed the House of Delegates.
Domestic violence situations are difficult enough to work
through. And while eliminating guns from the picture doesn’t
preclude the possibility of other weapons being used if the
situation turns ugly, it does take away one deadly option.
The protection extends not only to potential victims, but also
to law enforcement or others who may have to respond to a
domestic violence call.
People intent on hurting others will attempt to do so whether
they have access to guns or not. But that does not mean that we
shouldn’t take common sense steps to help reduce the chance of
that happening.
Relationships that have devolved to the point where domestic
violence occurs and protective orders are sought need to be
taken seriously. Leaving guns readily available in an unstable
situation is like leaving a can of gasoline next to a burning
fire. There’s a chance that the fire won’t spread to the can and
it won’t blow up, but is that a chance worth taking when we can
just as easily move the can away from the fire?
It’s good that state lawmakers are moving these measures
forward. Ultimately it will mean greater protection for those
involved in domestic violence situations.
Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times.
Health fraud bill
deserved defeat
Baltimore Sun Commentary
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Baltimore Sun's editorial "The defrauders win" (March 27)
unfairly criticized state Sens. Nathaniel J. McFadden, Catherine
E. Pugh and Nathaniel Exum along with the majority of members of
the Maryland Senate who rightly voted to reject legislation that
would have increased the number of lawsuits against Maryland
health care providers.
The so-called False Health Claims Act would not have rooted out
Medicaid fraud or provided a windfall of revenue to the state
treasury.
There is no evidence that other states that have enacted similar
statutes recover more money from Medicaid fraud as a result. The
extra $11 million the bill's proponents said the state would
collect next year as a result of this bill was always an
illusion.
Under this bill, health care providers would have incurred
higher legal costs, faced multiple lawsuits and have been
subjected to duplicative penalties for the same allegedly
wrongful act.
The only winner would have been the trial lawyers.
Given the current shortage of doctors in Maryland and the rising
cost of health care, the last thing we need is more lawsuits
against health care providers.
We thank the Maryland Senate for rejecting this misguided
legislation that would have driven up health care costs. Kathy
SnyderAnnapolis
The writer is president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of
Commerce.
Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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