Beilenson

Howard County residents are being urged to drink plenty of water, exercise and wear sunscreen this year. The suggestions are part of the latest phase of the county's Healthy Howard Initiative, which was launched in April. "We're another voice to get people out and active," said Howard County Health Officer Peter L. Beilenson, who unveiled healthy tips yesterday. Beilenson suggested that workplaces encourage walking clubs during lunchtime. Walking clubs are also being encouraged by Gary Arthur, director of the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks.

Citing arsenic levels that are 60 times higher than normal, Howard County's top health official called yesterday for mandatory comprehensive testing of land at the Turf Valley planned community in Ellicott City, where the owner has been trying for two decades to add more than 1,000 homes. Health Officer Peter L. Beilenson said he ended negotiations with Turf Valley over voluntary ground testing for the project after learning last week of tests done two years ago that found a high arsenic level on the property.

As a part of Howard County's plan to provide access to affordable health care for every resident, county officials said yesterday they will use the school system to try to identify thousands of children who haven't enrolled in existing state programs for which they might be eligible. Letters are to be sent to the homes of all 48,500 students in the county school system this month, alerting families to Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. "We believe we can get anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 [children enrolled]

After years of going nowhere but up, Baltimore's syphilis cases are finally in decline.The city continues to rank No. 1 in syphilis cases nationwide, according to new figures released yesterday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But last year, Baltimore posted 456 cases, a 31 percent reduction from its 665 cases in 1997."We clearly have a serious problem, but we've made major strides against it," said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, city health commissioner. "We had one of the biggest drops in the country last year, and we continue to go down even more."

Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Baltimore's health commissioner, took himself out of the running yesterday for the post of District of Columbia health director. Beilenson, 39, had been recruited for the job and was one of two finalists. He said he lost interest because the process had dragged on for 3 1/2 months."It was putting my family in limbo and causing some disruption in the city health department," Beilenson said. "I just decided that with the chaos in D.C. right now and other factors, I should stay in Baltimore."

Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter L. Beilenson said yesterday that he wants to double the city's capacity to treat drug addicts and expand services for them -- but he needs about $20 million to do it."The system as it exists makes sense," Beilenson told 24 directors who primarily receive money from the city, state and federal government through the Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems Inc., the umbrella agency that oversees funding for the city's 39 publicly backed centers. "I do believe we can make positive changes."

Baltimore restaurants and city food vendors cited for health code violations soon might have their names published and broadcast under a proposed ordinance unveiled yesterday by the city Health Department.In the past, city laws prevented the Health Department from releasing the names of violators to the news media, saying that city fines and temporary shutdowns were punishment enough.But high-profile violations last year at a large grocer and one of the city's top-rated downtown restaurants caused city leaders to reconsider the policy.

Spot checks this week have revealed that some city schools are not fully enforcing a state law that requires them to bar children who are not immunized, health officials said yesterday.Even at schools that are making enforcement efforts, health oficals who visited several schools yesterday found, some students who should have been sent home were marked present. This discovery comes as city schools prepare today to turn away about 8,600 children who were given until yesterday to get shots, said city Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson.

Baltimore's needle exchange program for drug addicts has already served four times the number of people projected, but it's too early to tell if the program will inhibit the spread of AIDS, the city's top health official said yesterday.The legislature approved a three-year pilot needle exchange program for Baltimore last year in an attempt to halt the spread of AIDS through the use of shared, dirty syringes. About 26,000 city residents are infected with the AIDS virus.Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner, testified before the Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee that addicts have embraced the 6-month-old program, which gives them a clean needle for each dirty one they turn in.Since it began at two sites in East and West Baltimore last August, the program has served 2,000 drug users -- four times as many as officials projected originally.

Baltimore City Council members blasted Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city health commissioner, for not informing them or the community of the plan to distribute Norplant to teen-age girls.Councilman Carl Stokes, D-2nd, also charged that the distribution of Norplant, a contraceptive, is designed to reduce the black population.During a grueling three-hour hearing last night on Dr. Beilenson's re-appointment by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, council members said they first heard about the plan in December, when it it surfaced in a newspaper.

More than a decade ago, Baltimore police commanders gathered in a Mount Washington conference room for an extraordinary meeting to lobby 50 city and state lawmakers. They were fed up with being the only group in town charged with ending the violence consuming the city - and the only one blamed for it. The cops wanted judicial reform, such as a community court to deal with petty crimes that clogged the felony docket. They wanted swift and competent justice for the criminals they arrested over and over.

Peter Beilenson appears to believe that the best defense is a good offense. Appearing before the Howard County Council last week, the health officer called Healthy Howard's initial enrollment period "a tremendous success" and vigorously defended the Ulman administration's signature program before the council's lone critic, Fulton Republican Greg Fox, could say anything. The program seeks to extend access to health services to uninsured county residents. Liddy Garcia-Bunuel, director of Healthy Howard Inc., the nonprofit created to run the program, accompanied Beilenson, along with two other program staffers.

Crafting a new way to extend medical services to uninsured residents has proved tricky for county health officials. The health staff was initially overwhelmed in October, when 1,100 people came to the East Columbia library during nine sessions to enroll in Healthy Howard Inc. All but 66 turned out to be eligible for four existing insurance plans for limited-income people. Now county health officer Dr. Peter Beilenson has come up with a new plan to reopen enrollment while trying to counter criticism from County Council member Greg Fox, a Fulton Republican.

Stung by criticism from a County Council member that Howard County's new health access plan has enrolled too few residents, officials are refocusing their efforts to find more people who qualify. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the county health officer, said yesterday that to ensure continued political support for the Healthy Howard Plan, he is seeking residents who do not have health insurance and who do not qualify for any existing program. The program seeks to provide access to health care to each of the estimated 20,000 limited-income residents who have no insurance.

After just a few enrollment sessions, the county's new health access program for the uninsured attracted so many applicants that sign-up sessions were suspended so staff members could catch up. During the nine sessions, about 1,100 residents representing 716 households filed applications, said the county health officer, Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, and many of the applicants were found eligible for state and federal health insurance programs. The long lines and twice-weekly afternoon sessions at the east Columbia library were so well attended that the sign-ups were suspended, and Beilenson said the enrollment efforts will be redirected.

Turns out Maryland is big enough for more than one guitar-strumming Democrat. Frank Kratovil, the Queen Anne's County state's attorney running for Congress in the 1st District, has a band in his recent past. It appears to have been a back-burner thing compared to the Irish-rock ensemble a certain pol used to front. Kratovil's campaign manager, Tim McCann, even had trouble summoning the group's name when I inquired about it the other day. (I'd asked after hearing Kratovil had taken the stage recently at the big conference for local government officials in Ocean City.

The Healthy Howard health access plan is "a signature issue for the county executive and a signature issue for me," health officer Dr. Peter L. Beilenson told the County Council during a review of expenses for the program last week. It could be the program that helps establish County Executive Ken Ulman's political claim to fame for future campaigns - if it works. Preparations for the program, intended to provide access to affordable health care for the county's uninsured residents, are continuing on schedule, Beilenson told the council.

For the past five years, Howard County school system employees have been told to inform parents if a student is pregnant, but the practice recently struck a nerve with the county's health officer. The school system's policy had been an unwritten one, but that changed this month when the Board of Education voted, 7-1, on a written policy that directs employees to inform parents of their pregnant daughter's status. Under the new policy, once an employee confirms that a student is pregnant, the employee is required to report the information to a designated official - administrator, nurse, or counselor - who would then inform a parent.

The start of Howard County's innovative health access plan for the uninsured will be pushed back three months to Oct. 1 because state legislation is needed to distinguish the program from insurance. Howard County health officer Dr. Peter L. Beilenson said the legislation is necessary to ensure that the Healthy Howard program, which is to be operated by a private, nonprofit corporation, would not be required to have a multimillion-dollar reserve fund that insurance companies must have. "We didn't want to start the program with [state insurance officials]

As a part of Howard County's plan to provide access to affordable health care for every resident, county officials said yesterday they will use the school system to try to identify thousands of children who haven't enrolled in existing state programs for which they might be eligible. Letters are to be sent to the homes of all 48,500 students in the county school system this month, alerting families to Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. "We believe we can get anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 [children enrolled]