Johns Hopkins Health

Steinbach GemsCount me among those readers who will sorely miss Alice Steinbach's columns.Her wonderful way with words made each column a gem. I especially enjoyed her mastery in mixing ironic humor and the essential verities of life and parenthood.I look forward to her feature articles.Jack MecklerRandallstownPound's 'Madness'With regard to Daniel Mark Epstein's March 27 review of the newly-published letters between Ezra Pound and his publisher/friend James Laughlin of New Directions, I beg to take exception to his statement at the opening of the review (and pursued by inference)

One on One is a weekly feature offering excerpts of interviews conducted by The Evening Sunwith newsworthy business leaders. Dr. Richard Tompkins is president and chief executive officer of the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corp.Q. You're head of the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corp. Could you explain how that came into being and what it consists of?A.The corporation is the result of the combination of the provider groups [that had been part] of the Johns Hopkins Health Plan, which was recently sold to Prudential.

Ancelmo Lopes has always been interested in the water. Until recently, he was an avid scuba diver, but last summer he had a diving accident which pretty much forced the water out of his gills."

One on One is a weekly feature offering excerpts of interviews conducted by The Evening Sun with newsworthy business leaders. Robert M. Heyssel, M.D., is president and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Health System.Q. There have been recent reports about Johns Hopkins selling its health maintenance operations to Prudential Insurance and also about the closing of the North Charles and Homewood operations. Is this a move toward retrenchment for Hopkins from its previous expansion plans of the 1970s and 1980s?

Maryland's hospital regulatory agency has granted two Johns Hopkins Health System hospitals a 5 percent rate increase to cover $15.6 million in costs associated with closing financially troubled Homewood Hospital Center.In addition, the Health Services Cost Review Commission wants to increase the cost per admission of each of the 62 Maryland hospitals under its jurisdiction an average of $5 to pay off Homewood's $7.8 million bond debt, according to John Colmers, executive director of the commission, which sets rates for the majority of Maryland's hospitals.

After using its famous name to sell its health maintenance organization since 1984, the Johns Hopkins Health System will be swapping its hospital dome logo for the Rock of Gibraltar.Hopkins will sell its profitable HMO to Prudential Insurance Co., the nation's largest commercial health insurer, for an undisclosed amount. But Hopkins will continue to provide medical care to the HMO's members.Hopkins officials yesterday said it will take about three months to get regulatory approval for the sale.

The Johns Hopkins Health Plan, one of the state's largest health-maintenance organizations, is being sold to Prudential Health Care Plan Inc. for an undisclosed amount, the two companies announced yesterday.The proposed sale would pull the venerable Hopkins name out of the local HMO competition and catapult Prudential into a position as one of Maryland's largest HMOs as it absorbed nearly 115,000 Hopkins members.Officials at the two companies stressed yesterday that the sale would not result in any disruption of medical services to members or physicians and hospitals serving the HMO. The sale is expected to be completed in late spring, pending state regulatory approval.

The Johns Hopkins Health System has agreed to sell its health maintenance organization to Prudential Insurance, the nation's largest commercial health insurer.Hopkins announced today it has signed a letter of intent with Prudential to sell the HMO for an undisclosed amount. Hopkins officials estimated it will take about three months to get the necessary regulatory approvals and then the HMO will change its name from the Johns Hopkins Health Plan to the Prudential Health Care Plan Inc., which trades as PruCare.

Layoffs are being considered at the financially strapped Homewood Hospital Center in Baltimore, which operates under the umbrella of the Johns Hopkins Health System, says the center's vice president for operations.But Edward Chambers, the vice president, denied reports yesterday that 35 to 40 percent of the center's workers would be dismissed in the near future."That's absolutely not true," he said."Layoffs, other expense reductions and a conversion to other kinds of services are among a number of options that are under study" after a recent consultant's report recommended arestructuring of Homewood and a reduction of its size, Chambers said.

Annapolis Mayor Al Hopkins cut the ribbon to welcome the new Johns Hopkins Health Plan office to Annapolis, at a recent ceremony conducted at the South River Health Center, 200 Harry S. Truman Parkway.The event, attended by politicians and community leaders, heralded the opening of the facility, which will serve members of the Johns Hopkins Health Plan as well as fee-for-services patients. The office is one of 70 medical facilities serving members of the plan.More than 100,000 Marylanders use the plan, which has contracts with most major area employers, the state of Maryland, the federal government and Anne Arundel County government.