Kaiser Permanente

Baltimore County will join a growing number of counties this fall as it sets up a health care plan for some of its 105,000 residents who have no medical insurance.A $100,000 grant from a Columbia-based nonprofit agency will be used to operate a program providing medical services for several hundred adults, according to Dr. Michelle Leverett, county health officer.The services will be donated by Kaiser Permanente.Leverett, formerly a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said the program aims to serve people who depend on hospital emergency rooms for their medical care.

Baltimore County will join a growing number of counties this fall as it sets up a health care plan for some of its 105,000 residents who have no medical insurance.A $100,000 grant from a Columbia-based nonprofit agency will be used to operate a program providing medical services for several hundred adults, according to Dr. Michelle Leverett, county health officer.The services will be donated by Kaiser Permanente.Leverett, formerly a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said the program aims to serve people who depend on hospital emergency rooms for their medical care.

Kaiser Permanente officials are hoping a new agreement wit Johns Hopkins Medicine will attract new customers and strengthen its position in the mid-Atlantic region.The nation's No. 1 HMO, which has about 52,000 members in the Baltimore area, said yesterday that it will allow patients in certain networks to receive care from Hopkins-affiliated physicians after the beginning of the new year. Currently, Kaiser members may see only the HMO's own doctors."We have been unable to sell our choice products in the Baltimore market because of the limited provider network," said Bob Williams, vice president and executive director of Kaiser's Baltimore office.

LAS VEGAS -- Sierra Health Services Inc. agreed to acquire Kaiser Permanente Group's Southwest division, a managed-health services business in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, bolster the managed-care company's Texas presence.Financial terms weren't disclosed for the transaction, which Kaiser said marks the first time the nonprofit organization has sold one of its operations.bTC The companies said they expect the acquisition, which needs to be approved by the two boards and by regulatory agencies, to be completed by Oct. 31.Kaiser's Southwest division includes 123,000 health plan members and 150 doctors.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Kaiser Permanente, the United States' largest health maintenance organization, agreed yesterday to let its Northern California nurses' union appoint "quality liaison" nurses to serve as watchdogs at each of the organization's hospitals in the region and to force prompt attention to abuses and oversights in the care of patients.Because of the organization's size and influence, with nearly 9 million enrollees in 18 states, analysts and federal officials said the agreement was a striking breakthrough in both patient protection and labor-management relations in the health care industry.

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."

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.

The Sheppard Pratt Health System yesterday entered the managed-care market by winning a three-year contract to manage and deliver mental health services for members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program.The contract covers 33,000 members of Kaiser's Baltimore health maintenance organization for a pre-negotiated annual fee, which was not disclosed.It is the first time Sheppard Pratt vied for managed-care business and comes as it seeks to broaden its historic mission of treating mental illnesses.

One on One is a weekly feature offering excerpts of interviews conducted by The Evening Sunwith newsworthy business leaders. Alan J. Silverstone is a senior vice president and regional manager for Kaiser Permanente, a health maintenance organization operating nation-wide. Q. Kaiser Permanente is a well-known Health Maintenance Organization across the country. What is your operation like in the Baltimore region and what are your future plans?A. We currently have five medical centers in the Baltimore area and we have 11 in Washington area.