Care Program

The success of Anne Arundel County's "Caring Program," which pays for health insurance for children whose families have none, has prompted health department officials to create a program for their parents, too.Anne Arundel was the first local government in Maryland to offer health insurance and dental coverage for "gray-area" children, whose parents made too much money to enroll in government programs but could not afford their own coverage. Such insurance had previously been funded through private donations.

Reacting to a critical news report, state officials have abruptly shut down a Baltimore foster care program serving 51 young adults, requiring some to move to new lodgings with only two days notice.The state Board of Public Works cut off funding Wednesday to New Pathways, a private company that supervised former foster children 18 to 21 years old, after a television report said several have had trouble with the law while in the program.Yesterday, state workers scrambled to move a dozen of them from apartments to foster homes, group houses or the homes of relatives.

Baltimore's foster-care system has agreed to provide greater scrutiny of the grandmothers, uncles and cousins who increasingly are caring for abused young relatives who otherwise would be put in foster homes.Children placed in such "kinship care" arrangements still will receive less government supervision -- and their caretakers less government aid -- than in a regular foster home. But child welfare advocates hailed the new policy as an important recognition of the state's responsibility to look out for such children.

When Gov. Parris N. Glendening presents his first state budget today, a program that provides emergency cash and medical care to poor, disabled people may have disappeared.Several advocates for the homeless say the governor told them Wednesday of his decision to eliminate the program.Known as the Disability Assistance and Loan Program, or DALP, the program gives roughly 20,000 adults a monthly stipend of $157, which costs Maryland about $34 million a year. With the very first check comes access to a clearinghouse of services.

On an aerial platform attached to a 95-foot ladder and a 33-ton fire truck, Clarksville Middle School student Chris Jenkins got the thrill of his life."

Harford Mall, one of the last bastions for shoppers who smoke in the Baltimore metropolitan area, will initiate a smoke-free environment called CARE (Clean Air Rights for Everyone) on Wednesday. All common areas will be off-limits to smokers.Nancy Brown, the mall's marketing director, said the smoking ban -- in the only enclosed mall in Harford County -- is being instituted in response to many patrons' requests. She said each store has its own policy, but the majority already ban smoking.

WASHINGTON -- At the popular Baltimore crab house Bo Brooks, owner Herm Hannan gladly provides health insurance to his full-time staff of 20. But he'd rather deal with a watermen's strike than President Clinton's plan to require coverage of all employees -- which would add two dozen seasonal workers to his insurance bill."

THE GREAT AMERICAN Health Care Debate of the 1990's was doomed to failure before it began. By asking the wrong questions, we were destined to arrive at the wrong answers. The sad fact is that with all the changes and innovations of the last decade we have achieved no substantive improvements in public satisfaction, in effective use of our health care dollars, or in measurable health statistics.In my roles as both an Emergency Medicine physician and a member of the Maryland General Assembly, I am all too familiar with the inadequacies of the current system.

About 60 percent of the doctor practices that are participating in a special patient-oriented program from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield have save on health care costs and improved care, the insurer said Thursday. Those were the goals of the patient-centered medical hom e iniitative, according to CareFirst, which launched the program in January 2011 as the state was forming its own similar program. The practices earned increased reimbursements from CareFirst based on the savings they achieved against the projected care costs for 2011 for the insurer's members.

When the debilitating cell disease that had plagued their daughter since birth began last year to stop her heart for several minutes at a time, Dawn and Stephen Murphy turned to home hospice care. Hospice helped with both the practical and emotional aspects of caring for a 6-year-old child with a terminal illness. Hospice nurses made sure Kayla was comfortable in her Havre de Grace home. Counselors helped the parents cope with the possibility of death. "We don't want her to be in a sterile hospital environment," said Kayla's mom, Dawn.