Kaiser Permanente

Tracey Eberhardt is named president of board for The Arc Tracey C. Eberhardt of Fulton is president of the board of directors of The Arc of Howard County. The former secretary to the board is a nurse for Kaiser Permanente and a parish nurse at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Fulton. Eberhardt has been a member of the board since 1998 and served as chairman of The Arc's Education and Youth Issues Committee from 1995 to 2002. Other new officers are R. Colfax Schnorf Jr. of Manekin, vice president; Dr. Eric Crawford, secretary; and Annette Hinkle, of Hostelling International-USA, treasurer.

Kaiser Permanente and Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc. ranked highest in an annual report of managed-care insurers published yesterday by the Maryland Health Care Commission. The report acts as a guide for consumers hoping to make sense of the region's vast array of insurers. For 12 years, the commission has produced the "report card," which offers rankings on such matters as breast cancer screening, diabetes care and the quality and efficiency of behavioral health care. The scores are determined from a combination of questionnaires filled out by the companies and from health plan records.

Two Maryland health maintenance organizations were among 21 in the country to win a "four-star" rating, the highest, from U.S. News & World Report.The magazine's annual college rankings are its top-selling issue. This is the first time U.S. News has ranked HMOs; its Sept. 2 issue reached newsstands yesterday,The magazine based its scores for preventive medicine on data collected by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a Washington-based industry group that accredits HMOs.Columbia Medical Plan and Kaiser Permanente earned four-star ratings in Maryland.

* French Bray, a family-owned, Glen Burnie-based commercial printing house, has begun a $2.4 million expansion project that includes installation of two electronic Heidelberg presses and a Stahl folder.* Eastern Baltimore Area Chamber of Commerce membership directory/business guide is available for $10 at the chamber offices, 2200 Broening Highway.* Old Dominion Freight Lines added 215 cab tractors and other road and yard equipment, at a cost of $23 million, to expand its fleet to accommodate new business.

Kaiser Permanente intends to buy Humana Group Health, a Washington, D.C.-based HMO, both parties announced yesterday.Humana bought Group Health, one of the country's oldest HMOs, just 2 1/2 years ago. The plan lost $13 million last year.Humana Group Health has 117,000 members in the Washington area; Kaiser has 397,000 in the Baltimore and Washington areas.The deal would strengthen Kaiser in the Washington market and would open Humana's 1,850-physician network to patients at Kaiser's centers, including five in the Baltimore area.

Some health plans generate a lot more consumer complaints than others - and the Maryland Insurance Administration released yesterday its first-ever report comparing complaint rates for different insurers. Insurance Commissioner Steven B. Larsen said the report was designed to help consumers choose health plans, but his department might also use the data to examine the "market conduct" of insurers with high rates of complaints. The report divides complaints into two categories: disputes over whether a given service is medically necessary (if it isn't, the insurer doesn't have to pay)

New research suggests that a screening technique in which doctors use instruments to view the colon and rectum may greatly reduce the risk of death from cancers that arise there.But researchers found that the tests need be performed only every 10 years, rebutting arguments by some health organizations that patients should be tested every three to five years.Although some experts raised cautions about the design of the study, reported in to day's New England Journal of Medicine, they also said it was one of the most comprehensive efforts to settle a long-standing controversy over the usefulness of the test, called sigmoidoscopy.

Opponents of a controversial sex education play shown in Harford County high schools will try to devise strategies today to convince school officials to consider alternatives that emphasize abstinence."

New positionsNurnberg is executive VP at Americom Inc.Americom Inc., a Lutherville firm that provides services to the wireless communications industry, hired Steven R. Nurnberg as executive vice president of its Wireless Services Group. He will oversee more than 500 employees in 30 states who provide facility and mobile-based equipment installation and removal, repair, upgrading and inventory management. Nurnberg, a Drury College (Mo.) graduate, was president of Golden, Colo.-based Superconducting Core Technologies Inc.Villa Julie College appointed Christiane Maier as director of corporate and foundation relations and Robert Reed as college store manager.

High school students who want to learn about AIDS, contraception and other sex-related issues at public school will have to get permission from a parent first.That new policy was adopted by the Board of Education Monday in response to pressure from parents who complained that the past policy stigmatized" students because their parents had to submit written requests for their children to be excused from those sessions.The board approved the measure, 5-1. Board member Anne Sterling voted against it.In addition, the board said that high schools can use the play "Secrets" as part of their AIDS education curriculum if a controversial picnic scene is eliminated.