Care Services

AmericasDoctor.com Inc., an Owings Mills company that allows computer users to communicate with physicians online, has announced plans to go public.In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said proceeds from the offering will be used in part "to fund operating losses."The company, incorporated in August 1997, had an accumulated deficit of $8.1 million as of March 31.The filing said AmericasDoctor.com may use some of the money from the offering "for strategic alliances and acquisitions."

Integrated Health Services of Owings Mills yesterday extended its $4-a-share offer for Community Care of America for two more weeks, until Sept. 18. The offer was to have expired Thursday.Integrated said it had received tenders of more than 93 percent of Community Care's shares, but granted the extension "in order to receive all of the necessary approvals under state change of ownership, health care licensure and certificate of need laws and regulations and all other required consents of third parties."

Integrated Health Services Inc. said yesterday that it had acquired three new companies with over $32 million in annual revenue, extending the health services company into new markets.The companies IHS bought in the past two weeks are in keeping with the company's strategy, according to Marc B. Levin, executive vice president of IHS.The Owings Mills-based company bought the home health operations of Health Care Industries, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., company that provides nurses, therapists and aides to about 40 retirement communities.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton announced a crackdown on Medicare fraud yesterday, targeting the burgeoning home health care market that accounts for a rapidly growing share of federal spending on the elderly.Under the president's plan, Medicare will stop signing up new home health care providers while the Health Care Financing Administration devises new regulations to better screen applicants."During this moratorium, we'll develop tough new regulations to ensure that no fly-by-night providers enter or remain in the Medicare program," Clinton told the Service Employees International Union in Washington.

More than 100,000 Marylanders who are elderly, disabled, or chronically ill will face sweeping changes in the health care and other services they receive.Prompted by soaring costs and anticipating the demands of aging baby boomers, state officials are attempting what few other states have tried: overhauling the costliest and most complicated part of Medicaid.An advisory committee was scheduled to present a report today to the state health secretary, Dr. Martin P. Wasserman, who is charged with submitting a proposal to the legislature in January.

THE DAFFODILS trumpet the arrival of Mother Nature's spring court.Ladies in waiting -- gentle weeping cherries, elegantly dressed coral quince, proud Bradford pear -- whisper excitedly as the princesses arrive.This, at last, is dogwood spring.Services expandingHospice of the Chesapeake is known for its compassionate, professional care of county residents diagnosed with an illness that limits their lives to six months or less. The hospice makes it possible for patients to spend their last weeks and months where they want to be: at home.

Categories of hospital and nursing home beds are expanding, under the advances of medical technology and, more importantly, the cost-cutting pressures from insurance companies and managed-care groups. More categories or layers of care-level can save money by providing patients with adequate care, but not more than required.While "acute care" is the now lowest category of bed assigned to hospitals, "sub-acute care" and "post-acute care" may soon become new categories of competition for patients between hospitals and nursing homes.

Good program needs to be kept goingCritics of "big" government, coming from various sides of the political spectrum, cite the inability or unwillingness of bureaucracies to live within their means as the major cause of swollen budgets and higher taxes.Because of that, perhaps my confusion as a new secretary of a large state agency can be understood, if not forgiven, when my )) first attempt to bring a program under fiscal control is blocked by a legislative committee and greeted by "shame on you" editorials in The Sun and The Evening Sun.The program in question is child care -- sometimes referred to as day care -- unquestionably one of the more crucial services provided by the Department of Human Resources.

Home health care providers are flocking to Howard County.Drawn by its affluent population and proximity to Baltimore and Washington, at least 20 home health care operations regularly treat patients here.About a dozen such firms are based in Howard."It's handy to both areas," said Bonnie Rehm, patient care manager at Howard County General Hospital. "We have access to Baltimore, Washington and Virginia."The county's relatively well-insured population also attracts home health care agencies.

Tri-Home Health Care & Services has opened a satellite office at theHunter Professional Center here.The Forest Hill, Harford County-based firm is a state-licensed and Medicare-Medicaid-certified home health agency and hospice offering home care and support services, including an early maternity discharge program and hospice program."

It's a crisp fall day at Waverly Elementary School in Northeast Baltimore. It's about an hour or so before lunch, and the building perched on a hill is humming with activity. Upstairs in Room 223, about two dozen students in green and khaki uniforms are seated inside the homeroom of fifth-grade teacher Cynthia Rock. Cut-out stars and likenesses of Peanuts characters cover the walls and doors, along with graded test papers. A banner above a chalkboard reads: "Never settle for less than your best."

Mary Gerlich bounced Josias Lazo on a large red-and-blue rubber ball. Then she laid the 2-year-old on top of the ball and began to slowly roll it forward. Occasionally the toddler raised his head. "A few months ago his head fell forward or to one side when he raised it," said Gerlich, a physical therapist. "Now he's more in control of the way he holds his head. But he has to work at it." Gerlich was working with Josias, who was born prematurely, in a day care center she opened recently that caters to children with special needs.

Certifications Judy E. Brown, senior vice president of patient care services at Howard County General Hospital, was named a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Contracts The health care services division of Gaithersburg-based Sodexho was awarded a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract to provide integrated management services to the Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital to manage plant operations and maintenance.

A Catonsville doctor pleaded guilty yesterday to health care insurance fraud in federal court in Baltimore. According to the plea agreement presented in U.S. District Court, prosecutors said that Albert Gerald Little, 61, who had medical offices in Pikesville and Owings Mills, operated a scheme to defraud health care benefit programs. His attorney, Joshua Treem, did not return a phone call yesterday. Little submitted health care claims for nonexistent or fraudulent health care services, according to prosecutors.

In mid-March 2002, Marcella N. Leski, 39, was jailed for failing to appear in court on a drug-possession charge. Twelve days later, she was so ill that her legs were amputated below the knees. Her family alleges in a lawsuit that the prison contractor's doctor failed to diagnose and treat an infection that can be cured with antibiotics. While the question of legal responsibility is in dispute, what is not in question is that Leski's condition deteriorated while she was in the custody of the state-run Baltimore Women's Detention Center.

BANKING & FINANCE The Columbia Bank appointed John M. Meaney, formerly with Bank of Annapolis, as vice president of commercial banking for the Howard County-based regional bank. M&T Bank named Marc Czosnowski manager of the regional bank's Essex branch. He is responsible for business development, sales and daily operations. SunTrust Bank Mid-Atlantic appointed Angela McFadden-Smith as a loan administrator in its real estate finance group based in Baltimore. Retirement Strategies of Maryland LLC announced that John Blamphin, formerly of The Scarborough Group, has joined the Severna Park firm as director of marketing and client services.

After five years of relatively stable health care costs for inmates, the state Board of Public Works approved an increase in spending of more than 60 percent yesterday that could push the annual tab to $110 million as officials try to improve medical services for the state's 27,000 prisoners, particularly in Baltimore's troubled jail facilities. State corrections officials said the increases were driven by several factors: new, costlier treatment for inmates suffering from AIDS and hepatitis C; the need to hire more health care staff; and greater state responsibility for unexpected increases in medical expenses.

AT A BRAINSTORMING session last week on expanding access to health care in Maryland, there was a palpable longing for a solution that somehow wouldn't cost anything. Trim the bureaucratic fat, get people to avoid risky behavior, squeeze more out of the feds (as though federal taxpayers don't include Marylanders) - those were among the notions proposed. The lawmakers present were more realistic about the tough choices required to extend primary and preventive care services to the 690,000 Marylanders without it: You can't get there from here unless somebody pays.

Arbitron Inc. (700 Columbia workers) A company with New York headquarters that measures network and local market radio audiences across the United States, surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers. Its research and technology base is in Columbia. (www.arbitron.com) Columbia Association (1,300 Columbia workers) Private, nonprofit corporation offers cultural, recreational and community service programs and facilities for people who live and work in Columbia.

As an announcer for WBAL radio for several years, Chuck Jackson rose at 1:30 a.m. each day and spent the next several hours in a soundproof booth, barely catching a glimpse of the outdoors. But after leaving his 30-year career in broadcasting and public relations last year, Jackson sees the sunrise every day, often while he is mowing. Jackson is the owner of Lonestar Landscape in Ellicott City. After purchasing the business that was formerly Martin's Lawn Care in May 2001, Jackson says the company is profitable and growing like a well-maintained lawn.