Health Care Providers

If you had asked Gary Countryman a year ago about the status of workers' compensation programs in the United States, he would have described a system plagued by rising costs, bickering factions and an uncertain future.Now the president of the Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. says progress has been made and there are reasons to be hopeful. However, he said there are still problems with the nation's network of state-run workers' compensation programs.He and other participants in a two-day conference that concludes today in Baltimore pointed to an improved dialogue between representatives of labor, employers, insurers and health care providers.

Health fraud bill deserved defeat The Baltimore Sun's editorial "The defrauders win" (March 27) unfairly criticized state Sens. Nathaniel J. McFadden, Catherine E. Pugh and Nathaniel Exum along with the majority of members of the Maryland Senate who rightly voted to reject legislation that would have increased the number of lawsuits against Maryland health care providers. The so-called False Health Claims Act would not have rooted out Medicaid fraud or provided a windfall of revenue to the state treasury.

HOME SHOULD be a haven, but in too many families home is a dangerous place. According to the American Medical Association, the annual toll of domestic violence in this country includes physical abuse to at least 2 million children, up to 4 million women and 1 1/2 million older adults. A 1993 Commonwealth Fund study found that abuse by husbands or boyfriends is the single largest cause of physical injury to women in America, more common than burglary, muggings and other physical crimes combined.

Mike Miller of Westminster has earned the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' outstanding employee award for helping beneficiaries and health care providers gain easier access to Medicare information on the Internet. He was given the award in May from HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Nancy-Ann DeParle, administrator of the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration. Miller is a computer specialist in the Center for Health Plans and Providers at HCFA headquarters in Baltimore.

The Baltimore City Council gave preliminary approval last night to a bill that would require health maintenance organizations contracting with the city to have minority doctors and dentists as participants.The bill, which still faces a final vote, does not specify numbers of minority health care providers that would be required, but an HMO that bids on a city contract would have to demonstrate to a city panel that it has a diverse group of doctors or dentists."Anyone who bids on a contract with the city to provide health care services will have to prequalify," said Lawrence A. Bell III, the bill's sponsor.

The DentaQuest Foundation said Monday that it will fund efforts to improve the oral health of the region's children, particularly those in lower-income areas. The foundation awarded a $331,343 grant to the University of Maryland to promote statewide oral health literacy and put up another $202,886 to support development of a Maryland Dental Action Coalition. More than a third of the state's kindergartners and third graders in 2006 had untreated tooth decay, according to the foundation.

Attending to the health needs of prisoners presents an array of occupational and professional challenges. Hazards, some might say. Inmates aren't the most fit or healthy members of the population. An overwhelming majority have been involved in the drug trade, which puts them at significant risk for HIV/AIDS and other complications. A recent Johns Hopkins public health study found that asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes were common among women at the state-run jail in Baltimore. Prison inmates are entitled to decent medical care, and incarceration shouldn't be an impediment to their getting it. But in recent years, that too often has been the case for Maryland inmates, as documented by this newspaper and, most recently, a city grand jury.

In a boon to hospitals, patients can be held liable for bills for emergency care they received when they were minors if their parents refused to pay, a divided Maryland Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. "This ruling is critically important for hospitals," said Herbert A. Thaler Jr., lawyer for the hospitals. As a practical matter, he said, the 4-3 ruling largely affects people who turn 18, legal adulthood, within three years of receiving emergency medical care that their parents refused to pay for. The hospital has three years from treatment to file suit.

Baltimore Medical System won a nearly half-million grant to develop a program for patients with both chronic diseases and behavior health needs. The $498,906 from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield will be used to develop a unique-in-the-state turn on patient centered medical homes, a model where a team of providers work to achieve better quality care for lower costs by coordinating patient care. The participants in this program will get integrated care blending primary care, psychiatric care, low-threshold counseling and social services.

At least once a year, executives from Ciena Corp. spend a day at Johns Hopkins Hospital getting poked and prodded as they undergo tests for a barrage of potential ailments, from anemia to prostate cancer. They aren't necessarily feeling ill or showing any symptoms. In fact, the executives of Linthicum-based Ciena are often healthy — and their company wants to keep it that way. The $2,000-per-person prices for these full-body examinations are considered an essential corporate expense.