Hospital Association

Gov. Martin O'Malley says he supports legislation to correct "abusive billing and collection practices" by some Maryland hospitals, while expanding health care and financial assistance for lower-income patients. The governor spoke Friday in Baltimore as his administration released a report that recommends defining who is eligible for free and reduced-price hospital care, requiring hospitals to provide financial assistance information to all patients, and banning hospitals and their collection agencies from charging the uninsured interest and penalties on bills before court judgments are entered against them.

Awards Susana SaCouto, Leslye E. Orloff and Patricia Chiriboga-Roby were honored for their work in the advancement of women's legal rights by the Women's Law Center of Maryland. Joseph M. Oddis, president of Harbor Hospital, was presented with the CEO Quality Improvement Leadership Award by the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute in conjunction with the Maryland Hospital Association and the Delmarva Foundation. The Health Facilities Association of Maryland honored several professionals and advocates in long-term health care.

A state attempt to "reinvent" the way it sets hospital rates will delay efforts by CareFirst BlueCross Blue- Shield to negotiate lower rates on its own, House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said yesterday.The Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC), which decides what the state's hospitals are permitted to charge, began the reinvention effort in March in response to several years in which the cost of an average case in Maryland increased faster than the national average.CareFirst, the state's largest health insurer, began its effort to drive down rates in June, when it said it wanted to negotiate a new rate system with the hospitals.

NEW YORK -- Two years ago, dozens of teaching hospitals across New York state embraced an unusual pilot program to ease the nationwide glut of physicians. The federal government would pay bonuses to the hospitals if they trained fewer doctors, just as it once paid corn farmers not to grow corn.But half those hospitals have dropped out of the plan after finding that they cannot function without the low-cost labor provided by doctors in training, known as residents.The development, which comes even as the government is planning to expand the New York pilot program nationwide, raises doubts about federal efforts to curb the number of doctors in the nation, and it illustrates a conundrum of health care today.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the state's largest health insurer, is pressing hospitals to accept a new payment system in which they would be paid a flat rate for each type of case.CareFirst says the system will save money for its subscribers and promote efficient care, but the Maryland Hospital Association complains that CareFirst is simply using its muscle to force a rate cut.The insurer wrote to hospitals last week, briefly explaining the new system, and began meeting with hospitals this week to provide fuller explanation and to propose new rates.

The state's hospital rate-setting commission yesterday unanimously turned back an effort by the Maryland Hospital Association to stop CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield from negotiating new, lower rates with Maryland hospitals.However, the Health Services Cost Review Commission said it will examine any new contracts to make sure they adhere to commission rules and state law.Calvin M. Pierson, president of the hospital association, said the CareFirst contracts would be "an illegal discount" and circumvent the rate-setting process.

With revenue limited by state efforts to hold down hospital charges, Sinai Hospital announced yesterday that it will lay off some employees, although none of those cuts are expected to be in primary patient care.Jill Bloom, a hospital spokeswoman, said the number will be "less than 70" of its 3,000 employees.Bloom said some of the employees have been notified, but that the hospital had not completed its review of potential cost-cutting measures. "We're looking at everything -- people and programs," she said.

Maryland hospitals and the state regulators who set their rates came closer yesterday on a plan to hold down costs -- but the regulators still want to reduce costs, while the hospitals are still proposing a freeze on charges."

HMOs denied $74 million in hospital claims last year, up more than 50 percent from $47 million the year before, according to a study by the Maryland Hospital Association.In 1996, only $17 million in claims were denied, according to the hospital association.While the hospitals have challenged the legality of claims denials in the past, Linda Bolton, the association's vice president for managed care and health systems integration, said yesterday that the group hopes to "work with HMOs on better strategies" for avoiding claims disputes.

Maryland's hospital rates were not nearly as out-of-whack with the national average in 1998 as state regulators have assumed, the Association of Maryland Hospitals and Health Systems said yesterday.The association presented the new statistics to a state rate-setting board earlier this week in an effort to show that Maryland has gone too far in its efforts to rein in hospital charges.Instead of charging 6.1 percent more than the national average in 1998, as regulators have assumed when setting rates, Maryland hospitals were only 0.1 percent more expensive on average, the association said.

Md. soldier reported killed in Afghanistan The Pentagon says a soldier from Maryland has been killed in Afghanistan. Spc. Rodrigo A. Munguiarivas, 27, of Germantown died Sunday in Bagram of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by indirect fire. Munguiarivas, a vehicle driver, was assigned to the 710th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), in Fort Drum, N.Y. Fort Drum officials said he joined the Army in April 2008 and was deployed in January.

A state regulatory panel approved on Wednesday a 1.77 percent increase in the amount Maryland hospitals can charge their patients - a compromise of sorts between the figure state cost review staff members recommended and what hospitals wanted. The 6-0 vote by Maryland's Health Services Cost Review Commission is expected to translate to higher costs for patients treated in Maryland hospitals, companies that pay for health care costs as part of workers' compensation and insurers. The increase takes effect July 1 and applies for one year to 47 hospitals, employing 88,000 people.

Maryland hospitals say: We want our bailout! Not in so many words, but that's the upshot of last week's Chewbacca-like cry of anguish from the Maryland Hospital Association. "Economic Crisis Hits Maryland Hospitals," said the official statement, launched as the association seeks to push up prices for Marylanders needing hospital treatment. Terrible news, if true. Health and social care make up only about an eighth of the Maryland economy, but they have accounted for well over half of the state's job growth over the past five years.

Lower-income patients who lack insurance would be guaranteed free care at Maryland hospitals, which also would have to follow consumer-friendly debt-collection policies, under legislation adopted by the House of Delegates on Saturday. The bill would require that hospitals develop a financial assistance policy for uninsured and underinsured patients that includes free care for those with incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $33,000 for a family of four.

Gov. Martin O'Malley says he supports legislation to correct "abusive billing and collection practices" by some Maryland hospitals, while expanding health care and financial assistance for lower-income patients. The governor spoke Friday in Baltimore as his administration released a report that recommends defining who is eligible for free and reduced-price hospital care, requiring hospitals to provide financial assistance information to all patients, and banning hospitals and their collection agencies from charging the uninsured interest and penalties on bills before court judgments are entered against them.

Maryland law should be changed so that hospitals are required to provide charity care to more people and give financial-assistance information to all patients, according to the state agency that sets hospital rates. In a report to Gov. Martin O'Malley that will be released today, the Health Services Cost Review Commission recommends several changes to the state's unique rate-setting system, which was designed in part to guarantee all Marylanders hospital care whether they could afford it or not. The commission also recommended that hospitals be required to provide written notice about the availability of financial assistance to all patients before or as they are discharged, and that hospitals and their collection agencies be barred from adding interest and penalties on bills to uninsured patients for periods before court judgments are entered against them.

Hospitals often wind up with stacks of unpaid bills because of the lack of universal health insurance coverage in this country. And certainly, no one likes to receive a letter or call from a bill collector or go to court over a hospital charge. Yet hospitals can only survive if bills get paid. That was one of several key points missing from The Baltimore Sun's series "In Their Debt" (Dec. 21-23). At the same time, hospitals aren't anxious to litigate. Few disputes make it to court: less than 0.5 percent of all hospital bills.

When Dr. Peter J. Pronovost began looking at ways to combat hospital-related infections, physicians and other colleagues almost always had a ready response: Infections were inevitable in caring for thousands of sick patients every year. But the Johns Hopkins physician didn't see it that way and developed a five-step program to prevent dangerous infections contracted in hospitals, research that recently earned him a prestigious MacArthur Foundation genius award. These simple measures have been shown to save lives, and more hospitals should adopt them.

After a national search, the Maryland Hospital Association found its new president in Davidsonville. She's Carmela Coyle, currently a senior vice president for policy at the American Hospital Association (AHA). Coyle will become president and chief executive officer of the Maryland association July 1. She will be just the third chief in the association's four-decade history: Founding President Richard J. Davidson had a 22-year tenure before leaving to head the AHA. Calvin Pierson, who has been president for 16 years, announced in October that he would retire in July.

Edible Arrangements opens in Ellicott City Edible Arrangements International, a company launched in 1999 in East Haven, Conn., opened a franchise in Ellicott City on Monday. The third retail store owned and operated by Peter and Margarete Toeneboehn, the new store at 3355 St. John's Lane offers floral gift and centerpiece designs made of fresh fruit. Boxes of chocolate-dipped fruit are also available. The owners opened their first store in Laurel and their second at Snowden Center in Columbia, both in 2006.