Backlog

A growing backlog of requests for state medical assistance has Maryland's nursing homes picking up the tab for millions of dollars and patients facing months of uncertainty over the status of their claims. In one case, an Ellicott City nursing home did not receive a payment for a 59-year-old patient with debilitating multiple sclerosis for about a year, between December 2008 and last month. During that time, the patient, Barbara Sherman, her husband, Winston, and their elder-care lawyer repeatedly called and wrote the state Department of Human Resources.

Baltimore is hiring two attorneys to work through a backlog of 2,000 cases in which customers of the city's water system are contesting their bills. The city's spending board agreed Wednesday to pay a total of $56,000 to two attorneys to attempt to resolve the disputes. Public works officials say they have not held meetings on contested water bills since February - around the time the public works department revealed that nearly one in 10 customers had been overbilled over the past three years.

Your article of March 15, "State further behind handling food stamps, medical benefits" does not convey the sense of urgency the Department of Human Resources has placed on processing applications and eliminating backlogs or the progress we have made as a result. We have always been forthcoming with our efforts to address what we consider a major issue for those who depend on food stamp and medical assistance support. Long before the December 10, 2009 ruling by Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams, the department had developed and begun implementing a plan to move us in the right direction.

Anne Arundel County Sheriff Ronald S. Bateman says he has a plan for an innovative crime tool that plays on criminals' greed by making them turn themselves in before they can collect tax refunds. At Bateman's urging, the General Assembly signed off on a bill —awaiting Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature — that will allow the state to withhold refunds for people with outstanding arrest warrants in the county. Bateman says he hasn't seen such a program anywhere else. "I came up with the idea because I know greed is a close first or second to the root of all crimes," Bateman said.

What a backlog: The Social Security Administration has 1.2 million disability applications piled up and 1.5 million cases awaiting reviews to see if the beneficiaries are still too disabled to work. Final decisions on applications could take two years; clearing up case reviews could take five years.It is a system crying for reform. Republican Rep. Jim Bunning, whose subcommittee held hearings this month, plans legislation to speed handling of cases. It can't come soon enough.Simply catching up on the case reviews could save $1.7 billion, according to the General Accounting Office.

More than a year after an internal audit highlighted widespread deficiencies within the Baltimore Police Department's crime lab, the division has a backlog of thousands of analysis requests. The problem has forced city prosecutors to drop or postpone cases - including the high-profile trial of serial drunken driver Thomas Meighan Jr., accused of killing a Johns Hopkins University student in a hit-and-run. And it could get worse. New regulatory requirements are coming that will place more demands on an already stressed lab. The holdups mean "justice suffers," along with victims, the community and defendants, who "deserve to be tried in a speedy fashion," said Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy.

Baltimore Circuit Judge David W. Young cheerfully volunteered his holiday chore list — picking up the turkey, raking the leaves, washing the good china — to those in the courtroom while waiting for a defendant to be brought in for trial. The man wasn't transported from jail that morning as scheduled, the kind of mistake that usually leads to a postponement. But Tuesday was an exception. The judicial bench had declared a moratorium on deferrals as part of a three-day effort dubbed the "Misdemeanor Blast.

The problem: A temporarily patched hole in Lauraville grows larger as time passes. The back story: After at least six calls to 311 within five months about a hole that opened near a storm drain in the 2600 block of Goodwood Road, Anna L. Brown was fed up. A small gap appeared between the concrete alley and the road in the spring, and Brown saw it every day as she drove down the residential street leading out of her neighborhood....

— Charles S. Long was upset to discover that a bulldozer had cleared the land next to his, knocking down trees and uprooting day lilies on his property in the process. A state inspector also found problems with the clearing project: It lacked a plan for controlling sediment pollution, and nothing had been done to keep mud from washing off the land into a nearby creek when it rains. What's more, the landowner, William L. Tarbutton, who lives in Preston, has run afoul of state regulations before— as a contractor, he worked on developments in Queen Anne's and Caroline counties that were cited in 2007 and 2008 for sediment control violations.

Tira Jones can recognize desperation in a caller's tone. When she was an unemployed single mother in need of a financial boost, her voice used to sound the same way. Now, in her full-time job processing online applications for food stamps for the state of Maryland, she is willing to share her story with other families looking for assistance — and put them at ease. "I've learned to have patience in dealing with things because I have a lot of empathy for people," Jones said.

The Maryland Board of Physicians, which has faced scrutiny in recent months because of its backlog of cases and other problems, is getting a new leader, state health officials said Wednesday. Carole J. Catalfo will begin work as the executive director Feb. 21, according to Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "Carole Catalfo is the right person at the right time for the Board of Physicians," Sharfstein said. "She brings both deep experience in regulatory compliance and professional oversight and a fresh perspective on the challenges facing the board.

— Charles S. Long was upset to discover that a bulldozer had cleared the land next to his, knocking down trees and uprooting day lilies on his property in the process. A state inspector also found problems with the clearing project: It lacked a plan for controlling sediment pollution, and nothing had been done to keep mud from washing off the land into a nearby creek when it rains. What's more, the landowner, William L. Tarbutton, who lives in Preston, has run afoul of state regulations before— as a contractor, he worked on developments in Queen Anne's and Caroline counties that were cited in 2007 and 2008 for sediment control violations.

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is absolutely right that the city's school buildings are badly outdated and that the city is not doing nearly enough to reduce the backlog of maintenance problems, estimated at some $2.8 billion. As children are sent home because their non-air-conditioned schools are too hot to provide a conducive learning environment, he has picked a good time to remind the city that the poor state of school facilities has a real effect on academic achievement.

Baltimore Circuit Judge David W. Young cheerfully volunteered his holiday chore list — picking up the turkey, raking the leaves, washing the good china — to those in the courtroom while waiting for a defendant to be brought in for trial. The man wasn't transported from jail that morning as scheduled, the kind of mistake that usually leads to a postponement. But Tuesday was an exception. The judicial bench had declared a moratorium on deferrals as part of a three-day effort dubbed the "Misdemeanor Blast.

The problem: A temporarily patched hole in Lauraville grows larger as time passes. The back story: After at least six calls to 311 within five months about a hole that opened near a storm drain in the 2600 block of Goodwood Road, Anna L. Brown was fed up. A small gap appeared between the concrete alley and the road in the spring, and Brown saw it every day as she drove down the residential street leading out of her neighborhood....

Maryland officials announced Friday the arrests of more than 250 suspects through the use of a DNA database previously backlogged with more than 24,000 samples. Since 2007, Gov. Martin O'Malley said, the state has significantly decreased the backlog of DNA that had not been entered into the state's database. State officials say 267 arrests have been made since those samples were entered into the system. At a news conference with Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and other city and state leaders, O'Malley said 28 of those arrests have led to convictions, including four life sentences.

Nearly 100 volunteer attorneys were honored yesterday at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse for eliminating the civil case backlog in the city."It's nothing short of a miracle," said Maryland's top judge, Robert C. Murphy, as he addressed lawyers and courthouse officials celebrating the defeat of the civil lawsuit logjam.The volunteer attorneys had worked as unpaid mediators once a month since October, nudging the parties in 10 civil suits each day toward out-of-court settlements.Baltimore's Circuit Court had been choking under the weight of 4,505 civil cases not even scheduled, and a projected waiting time of nearly two years.

Tira Jones can recognize desperation in a caller's tone. When she was an unemployed single mother in need of a financial boost, her voice used to sound the same way. Now, in her full-time job processing online applications for food stamps for the state of Maryland, she is willing to share her story with other families looking for assistance — and put them at ease. "I've learned to have patience in dealing with things because I have a lot of empathy for people," Jones said.