Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente announced yesterday that it will open a medical center in Columbia Gateway Park next year. The 17,500-square-foot center, scheduled to open in January, will be the health maintenance organization's first foray into Howard County. "We already had 6,000 members who live in Howard County or work for employer groups that have offices there," said Susan W. Simon, a company spokeswoman. "We felt that now is the time to open new centers in areas that are growing and are likely to keep growing."

New Positions McCormick names Wilson U.S. division president McCormick & Co. Inc. named Alan D. Wilson president of its U.S. consumer products division. He most recently was the division's vice president and general manager for sales and marketing. Before joining the Sparks-based spice and flavors company, he was in product supply at Procter & Gamble Co. The Cockeysville resident graduated from the University of Tennessee and served as an officer in the Army. Advertising And Public Relations McWhorter joins MGH as assistant team leader MGH, the Owings Mills ad, design and public relations agency and consulting firm, named Amy McWhorter to the staff as an assistant account team leader.

Kaiser Permanente to open new center in Annapolis in Jan. Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States announced that it will open a new 16,000-square-foot medical center at 888 Bestgate Road next to Westfield Shoppingtown (Annapolis Mall). Doctors will begin serving Kaiser Permanente members at this location Jan. 2. Physicians who specialize in pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, dermatology, allergy, and general surgery will have practices at the medical center.

Faced with ballooning costs, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States said yesterday that it will move members covered by its Medicare HMO to a new plan in 2003 that will tinker with benefits and cost more. Kaiser, unlike some other health maintenance organizations, decided to alter its coverage instead of dropping its members - about 24,000 in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. But the company said it could no longer provide coverage that was not more fully reimbursed by the federal government health program for seniors.

Marketing firm wins eight awards Crosby Marketing Communications received eight awards during the "Best in Maryland" program hosted by the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Crosby won Best in Maryland in: *Nonprofit annual reports for "Shady Grove Adventist Hospital Foundation: Report to the Community 2006" *Audio/video programs for "On Any Given Day," a public education video for the National Association of Social Workers *Marketing communications: existing products or services for Kaiser Permanente's Personal Health Kit. Crosby won the Award of Excellence in: *Special purposes publications for the "Art Bra," a series of posters for the Anne Arundel County Department of Health *Special events and observances for "Celebrating 100 Years in the Community," an anniversary campaign for Washington Adventist Hospital *Public service for "Poverty Line," a campaign for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development *Marketing communications: Existing Products or Services for Kaiser Permanente Federal Open Enrollment *Creative application of technology for "Hack & Yack" teen e-cards, a project to promote non-smoking for the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield said yesterday that it will shut the state's largest Medicare HMO, with 32,000 members, at the end of the year, saying low federal payments were causing the program to lose money. With two other Medicare HMOs, UnitedHealthcare and CIGNA, having announced last month that they were pulling out of the Maryland market, more than 55,000 seniors in the state will have to find new health coverage by the end of the year. The only other Medicare HMO operating in Maryland, Kaiser Permanente, with about 14,000 members in the state, said yesterday that it will remain if federal regulators approve its plans for next year.

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States opened its Columbia medical office this month, returning the health maintenance organization-style of health care to Howard County, but offering more choices in local physicians. The 17,500-square-foot health center in the Gateway office park is the first in the county for the HMO, filling a dead zone in the company's coverage area between Baltimore and Washington. The office will have full-time and part-time physicians. But new to the program is a range of choices for patients, including more than 30 community physicians.

Lockheed receives contract to maintain satellite networkLockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda said yesterday that its Federal Systems unit in Gaithersburg has won a contract worth up to $368 million to maintain a satellite network that serves the Air Force, NASA and NATO.The company won another contract in July to upgrade the network at a price initially set at between $24 million and $48 million. The new contract is to keep the network running while it is being upgraded.Lockheed Martin has been maintaining the satellite system since 1980.

They're United now.Nearly a year ago, United HealthCare Corporation, one of the nation's largest health maintenance organization operators, bought HealthWise of America.Nashville, Tenn.-based HealthWise owned Chesapeake Health Plan, a 20-year-old, 80,000-member Baltimore HMO.At first, there was little sign of the change in ownership. But after "transitional" advertising in November and December linking Chesapeake with Minneapolis-based United, Chesapeake officially became United HealthCare of the Mid-Atlantic on Jan. 1.The change will mean a lot more than new membership cards for Chesapeake subscribers.

Outpatient surgery not best for mastectomy patientsNo one knows how mastectomy patients feel after this surgery. . . . This is the worst pain imaginable. You have tubes runing into the surgical site for drainage. You are unable to lift your arm, and you are taped and bound together.I cannot believe the comments from Dr. Lauren Schnaper, who runs the breast center at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She says, "My philosophy is that breast cancer surgery is more of a psychological trauma than it is a physical trauma."