Insurance

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

The motorist who slammed into the back of a Baltimore police car that struck an officer and sent her plunging over the side of elevated Interstate 83 has been convicted of three traffic offenses, closing one chapter of a horrific crash that has ended the officer's career. A District judge fined Robert R. Vanderford $260, assessed three points against his license, ordered him to perform 250 hours of community service at a city police station, and, upon the insistence of the victim, ordered him to spend two days in the city jail.

William E. Chambers III, a retired insurance manager who later worked in home improvement sales, died of colon cancer March 27 at the Dove House Hospice. The Westminster resident was 68. Born in Easton and raised in Federalsburg, he earned an economics degree from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in 1963. He served in the Army Reserve for several years after graduating from college. He worked in downtown Baltimore for the old U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Co. He later held posts in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, N.J., and Lutherville for insurance companies, including Prudential and Aetna.

County officials are urging residents to purchase insurance policies if their homes have recently been added to newly redrawn flood insurance rate maps. The Federal Emergency Management Agency worked with Maryland's Department of the Environment to overhaul the statewide maps, which show which homes and businesses are most susceptible to flooding, and thus are generally required to buy flood insurance . In Howard County, the maps have not changed since 1986. Because of better technology, an additional 360 residences and 130 other structures near rivers and streams will be identified as being at risk of flooding, unless their owners appeal.

The recent op-ed "Insurance bill would be a disaster for Maryland" (May 19) was wrong on its facts. The authors recklessly ignore the reality of America's vulnerability to catastrophe and glossed over the fact that the current system forces taxpayers in Maryland to bailout victims of catastrophes in other parts of the nation. Indeed, following Hurricane Katrina, more than $26 billion of taxpayer funds were siphoned from the federal coffers to pay for uninsured and underinsured properties.

The O'Malley administration will introduce legislation in the coming General Assembly that would create the exchanges where people will buy affordable insurance under health care reform. The Board of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, a group convened to plan and implement the exchanges, released recommendations Tuesday for how they would work. While the board outlined a setup for the exchanges, it put off a decision on how to fund the exchanges until next year. The federal government provides money to run the exchanges during the first year of reform in 2014, but states are responsible after that.

Ralph S. Tyler III, Maryland's insurance commissioner and a former Baltimore city solicitor, announced Wednesday he is leaving state government for a federal post as chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration. "It was not an easy decision, but the opportunity at the FDA is certainly exciting," said Tyler, who said he brought a sharper focus to consumer protection during his tenure as insurance commissioner. "It includes the opportunity to go back to being principally a lawyer, which is how I spent my professional life, and it is what I enjoy."

At a time when physicians and policymakers alike are being asked to reduce health care costs without sacrificing quality care, it's crucial that we unleash the enormous potential for savings that could come from exciting new advances in health information technology. There's no better example of the revolution under way in medical care than electronic medical records and electronic prescribing systems, which not only allow doctors to generate prescriptions and orders electronically and transmit them directly, but provide instant access to drug reference information and a patient's complete medical history.

Joseph Klein Jr., a Baltimore insurance executive and philanthropist who believed in leading by example, died Sunday of pulmonary fibrosis at his Pikesville home. He was 80. The son of a co-founder of Levinson & Klein Inc., an East Baltimore furniture store, and a homemaker, Mr. Klein was born in Baltimore and raised in the Dumbarton neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore. Mr. Klein graduated in 1949 from Friends School, and in 1953 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

After a political duel that pitted trial lawyers against insurance companies, the legislature moved Wednesday to increase the minimum amount of insurance vehicle owners must carry, changing the requirements for the first time in 38 years and making higher premiums likely for as many as 200,000 Marylanders . The Senate voted 27-20 to send the measure raising liability insurance limits to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has signaled that he will...

Joseph "Jerry" Hankoff, a retired insurance agency owner and a decorated World War II bombardier-navigator, died April 24 of complications from dementia at the Edgewater Pointe Estates nursing facility in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 91 and had lived in Pikesville. Born in Baltimore and raised on Linden Avenue, he was a 1938 City College graduate. He attended the University of Baltimore and studied law and accounting. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943 and trained as a navigator-bombardier.

Americans in almost every state are finding it harder to get basic health services, according to a report released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Access to healthcare from 2000 to 2010 has declined in 42 states, especially for the uninsured the study found. Nationally, the share of adults who have not been able to meet medical needs because they can't afford care rose 6 percentage point to 18.7 percent. In Maryland, the number of people who found it too expensive to get care increased 5.1 percentage in the decade to 15.4 percent.

The federal program that offers health insurance to Marylanders with pre-existing conditions has made changes recently that will make some costs go up and others go down. The program was created under the federal health reform law and was intended as a bridge for those who could not buy commercial insurance until 2014 when new exchanges are slated to launch. The program could be terminated if the health care law is overturned by the Supreme Court. But for now, officials say the program operates at market rates and they must adjust premiums and benefits each year as other insurers do with their plans.

The agency that oversees the state's health plan for those uninsured because of preexisting conditions, paid a vendor nearly $367,000 for information technology services without proving that the contract was chosen through a competitive bidding process, a legislative audit has found. The audit also said The Maryland Health Insurance Plan did not perform routine reviews to make sure the insurer that manages the plan for the state, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, was complying with its contract.

Regulators nationwide are pushing life insurers to do a better job of tracking when policyholders die and locating the beneficiaries — an effort that could reap billions of dollars for consumers. Insurers regularly monitor Social Security's Death Master File to verify the death of a customer receiving annuity payments so they can cut off checks. But an ongoing, multistate investigation has found that life insurers haven't been using this information to identify policyholders who died and to pay beneficiaries.

The Maryland medical society and attorney general's office launched a website Saturday aimed at helping doctors file complaints with the state when insurance companies refuse to cover patient care. "Essentially, our goal was to educate our patients and our physicians that there is an avenue for these complaints," said Gene Ransom III, CEO of MedChi, the state medical society. "We thought, 'Let's make it easier.'" The site, called Insurance Watch, is hosted on the Internet by the medical society.

Old Mutual announced Friday that it is selling its Baltimore-based life insurance operation to a private equity firm for $350 million, far less than what it paid nine years ago. The company bought the division — part of the former U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Corp. — from the St. Paul Cos. in 2001 for $635 million. Old Mutual is trying to improve its balance sheet and reduce its "risk profile," and is selling to an affiliate of New York-based Harbinger Capital Partners LLC. The life insurance operation employs 163 in Baltimore.

Maryland's trial lawyers and insurers are squaring off in a politically charged duel over a bill that would increase, for the first time in almost 40 years, the amount of insurance a vehicle owner must carry to protect others in case of an accident. The bill, which has passed the House of Delegates and is headed to the Senate, would almost certainly lead to higher premiums for tens of thousands of Marylanders who carry the minimum liability insurance required by law. Policyholders could see increases ranging from $60 for vehicles on the lower Eastern Shore to $300 in Baltimore, state officials say. Those potential increases - and the possibility that many of those policyholders would drop coverage and drive without insurance as a result - have spurred the insurance industry to oppose the measure.

This week, Michigan became the 30th state to require insurance coverage for autism therapies. Meanwhile, here in Maryland, the General Assembly has for the fourth consecutive year failed families of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders - one of our most significant national health emergencies. Autism is a complex neurological disorder that typically impacts an individual throughout his or her lifetime. It is found in all ethnic, racial and social groups, affecting a person's ability to communicate and relate to others.

Redmer Insurance Group has named Bel Air native Kelly Mee as manager of commercial lines insurance. Mee, a Baldwin resident who is a licensed insurance agent, brings 22 years of experience in administrative, personnel and financial settings. At Redmer Insurance Group, she will oversee the sale of commercial lines insurance throughout the mid-Atlantic region. She most recently served as account executive in the arts insurance department at Maury Donnelly & Parr Inc., an insurance agency and broker headquartered in Baltimore.