For Profit

A House of Delegates panel considered yesterday legislation that would allow for-profit companies to provide credit counseling in the state, opening up an industry tarnished by AmeriDebt Inc., a Maryland nonprofit accused of bilking debt-strapped consumers of millions of dollars. Consumer advocates say the legislation could allow for-profit companies that have been accused of gouging consumers with deceptive sales practices to set up shop in the state. Many of the nonprofit entities that have been investigated by state and federal regulators and by the Internal Revenue Service are affiliated with for-profit companies.

Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum should reopen Oct. 4, the group responsible for making it profitable announced this week. "That's the official goal. That's the date," said Baltimore-based actor and author Mark Redfield, vice president of Poe Baltimore. "Things are coming along. " Tentative plans call for the house to be open weekends until spring 2014, when hours would be expanded. Final details are still being developed, Redfield said, but plans call for a museum that will be similar to what had been available to visitors before the closing of the house in September 2012.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland's ambitious strategy for regional growth was derailed yesterday when the state insurance commissioner rejected the company's plan to sell stock and reorganize.Blue Cross contended that its plan would have benefited policyholders by making the company more efficient and financially sound, but Insurance Commissioner Dwight K. Bartlett III said it would have violated state law that created Blue Cross in 1937 as a nonprofit insurer.The plan would have made "profit-making the dominant motivation" of Blue Cross, said Mr. Bartlett, who essentially gave the company this choice: You can be for-profit or nonprofit, but not both.

As the Ravens get ready to take on the 49ers in New Orleans, officials back home are preparing to deal with what they hope will be a joyful - but not too rowdy - Super Bowl night. Baltimore police have extensive plans, including mounted patrols, helicopter and camera surveillance downtown, as well as in Fells Point, Federal Hill and Canton, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Police hope to keep people safe while they have a good time. "Come to the city, celebrate the victory," he said, but to avoid traffic, "come early.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland still wants to turn for-profit and sell stock to the public, but yesterday the company and lawmakers threw in the towel for this year.Legislative leaders and Blue Cross executives announced that with less than two weeks left in this session of the General Assembly, it's too late to consider the complicated plan that Maryland's largest health insurer said it needs to compete better in the future."We felt at the end of the session it was too much for the legislature to take up with a thorough discussion," said Del. Michael E. Busch, an Anne Arundel Democrat who chairs the House Economic Matters Committee.

University of Maryland, University College's ballyhooed move into the dot-com business has been put on hold, but school officials blame the delay on federal regulations, not on the virtual collapse of the online economy. It was 18 months ago that the state's 50-year-old continuing education school announced plans for a for-profit company that would market its fast-growing Internet courses. UMUC President Gerald Heeger said he had encouraging talks with venture capitalists about funding the company, but U.S. Department of Education (DOE)

In another defeat for a Blue Cross plan seeking to switch to for-profit operation, the insurance commissioner in the state of Washington yesterday rejected a for-profit conversion proposed by Premera Blue Cross. Maryland's CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield had its controversial plan to become a for-profit blocked 16 months ago. Since then, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld that state's earlier rejection of a conversion, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina withdrew its conversion application, and Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey announced it was dropping its exploration of conversion.

The University System of Maryland is going into the "dot com" business. The Board of Regents yesterday gave the University of Maryland, University College approval to establish a for-profit company to market its Internet courses out of state and overseas, trying to tap into the growing Web-based education market. "I think this may be one of the most significant actions the Board of Regents has ever taken," said Donald N. Langenberg, USM chancellor. "It's an unusual step for a public institution, in Maryland or anywhere else, that gives the state the potential, through University College, to become a major player in an absolutely huge global market," Langenberg said.

PHILADELPHIA - Edison Schools Inc., a controversial for-profit education company, loses money. The company says it can become profitable if it increases the number of public schools it manages. Philadelphia may be about to give Edison that opportunity. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge has hired the company to study the Philadelphia School District and devise a plan for improving its academics and finances. And in two months, Ridge will decide whether this firm, with which he has political ties, should manage some or all of the Philadelphia public schools.

A decade ago, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association broke with a nonprofit tradition dating from the Depression and allowed member Blues plans to convert to for-profit businesses. That touched off a cascade. By the time Maryland-based CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield announced its intention to go for-profit in 2001, more than a dozen Blues had converted on their own or been snapped up by growing national companies. Suddenly, in place of a cascade, there isn't even a trickle. Regulators turned thumbs-down on conversions and sales in Kansas and Maryland.

In his recent op-ed, Professor James Burdick of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine writes that the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ACA was a step toward universal care for all ("Universal care on the horizon," July 13). However, I find this assertion ironic because we are now further entrenched in a market system that does not embrace the idea of health care as a right. Dr. Burdick claims the inevitability of universal care, stating that partisan arguments will have to subside and that ultimately, the ACA reduces costs through cutting over-utilization.

A Towson attorney has filed suit to prevent Sheppard Pratt Health System from opening a residential group home in his Ruxton neighborhood, and is demanding that the state rescind a license recently issued for the facility. Thomas C. Costello claims the home is a "for-profit, commercial enterprise," a use forbidden by state law in an established neighborhood and one that violates Baltimore County's zoning code. He has asked the court to void a state license granted in January for the home at 1506 LaBelle Ave., which would house up to six people transitioning from hospital treatment programs for depression and anxiety.

Baltimore International College is set to hand over control of its operations to Virginia's Stratford University after restructuring its debt and receiving approval from the required accrediting agencies. The downtown culinary college held its final graduation Dec. 10 and will officially become a branch of Stratford on Jan. 1. Baltimore International students will be able to continue their classes at Stratford in January, and the branch will begin admitting new students in February.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Monday he is launching an investigation into the salaries and bonuses paid to the top executives of for-profit colleges, noting that a majority of their revenue comes from students who are receiving federal tuition aid. Cummings, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to 13 schools requesting their senior executive contracts. The Baltimore lawmaker said he wants to determine whether salaries, bonuses and other compensation are tied to student performance.

I recently read the article in the Catonsville Times about i9 sports ("New flag football league puts the fun in fundamentals," Sept. 21). I was shocked to see a for-profit youth sports program getting what amounts to free advertising. I am the former president of Catonsville Youth Football. I am currently in my tenth year as the parent of a player in the organization. I have one son, who participated and went on to play high school football. My second son is completing his last year and hopes to move on to play in high school.

Our Catonsville Youth League recreation programs, run 100 percent by volunteers, have to plead with the Catonsville Times every year to get two sentences listing registrations. Yet I see there is space to run a full page story on I9 sports, a for-profit program. I think it is ridiculous! Charlie Strouse Catonsville

It sounds like an old-fashioned Hollywood movie. A dedicated couple start a boarding school for autistic children in a faded mansion in rural Delaware. Struggling to make ends meet, they pool their personal resources to buy a racehorse named Silk Stockings. The filly not only wins thousands but also makes harness-racing history, all for the sake of the children.That is the way the story of the Au Clair School was told in the mid-1970s, in television features and news articles across the country.

Officials seeking a partner for Howard County General Hospital say they have eliminated a for-profit suitor, easing the concerns of many in the community.In their first large public meeting on the search for a larger health care conglomerate, the hospital's two main leaders -- Alton J. Scavo, chairman of the board and Victor A. Broccolino, president -- spoke to more than 100 community leaders, residents and hospital staff members Saturday at the county's Board of Education headquarters."We are narrowing it down to two institutions, and I can tell you that a for-profit entity is not an alternative," said Scavo, who noted there are now three contenders.

I spend over 500 hours every year working as a volunteer for Catonsville Recreation and Parks programs to provide our community's children with recreational opportunities. I object to your promotion of i9 flag football ("New flag football league puts the fun in fundamentals," Catonsville Times, Sept 21). The paper should promote community-based recreational activities, not private enterprises that profit from divisions in the community and from a lack of exposure to existing programs.

About 320,000 student borrowed who started to repay their loans in 2009 were in default by the end of 2010, according to the latest figures from the Department of Education. The department said that 8.8 percent of borrowers who started repaying loans in 2009 were in default by the end of last year. In comparison, 7 percent of students who started repaying in 2008 were in default by the end of 2009. Debbie Cochrane, program director at the Institute for College Access and Success, says the problem is more severe than these figures suggest.