Medical Assistance

State is negligent on health benefits for former welfare clientsWhile Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg and his colleagues are to be commended for asking the state to "report" to the General Assembly about its efforts to make those exiting welfare "aware that they may continue to qualify for Medicaid," the legislative action misses the mark and perpetuates a basic misunderstanding of the law ("Former welfare clients retain right to Medicaid," letters, May 28).Federal...

Thousands of Marylanders may have left the welfare rolls over the last two years only to have their health insurance improperly cut off due to a bureaucratic snags, according to advocates and state officials who are trying to correct the problem.Other families that have tried unsuccessfully to join the welfare rolls also may have been wrongly denied Medicaid."I'm excited to be working, and in another sense I'm depressed," said Darlene Curry, a Northeast Baltimore woman with diabetes and asthma who has struggled to regain medical assistance since leaving welfare in 1997 for a job as a school custodian.

A medical team will take 1,000 doses of anti-tetanus vaccine and medical supplies from New Windsor to storm-ravaged Central America tomorrow.Tetanus toxoids, water purification kits, and anti-cholera medicines are included in the 70-pound medicine boxes that a New Windsor-based relief agency -- Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. -- is sending to Honduras and Nicaragua to aid victims of Hurricane Mitch.In the past two weeks, the agency and another New Windsor relief group -- Emergency Response Service Ministries, the disaster relief arm of Church of the Brethren -- have provided $3 million in aid to Honduras.

A medical team will take 1,000 doses of anti-tetanus vaccine and medical supplies from New Windsor to storm-ravaged Central America tomorrow.Tetanus toxoids, water purification kits, and anti-cholera medicines are included in the 70-pound medicine boxes that a New Windsor-based relief agency -- Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. -- is sending to Honduras and Nicaragua to aid victims of Hurricane Mitch.In the past two weeks, the agency and another New Windsor relief group -- Emergency Response Service Ministries, the disaster relief arm of Church of the Brethren -- have provided $3 million in aid to Honduras.

A traveling health clinic that dispenses free care to the needy in Central Maryland can now offer its patients surgery at a Baltimore hospital.Mission of Mercy, a nonprofit organization based in Emmitsburg, provided free medical and dental care to nearly 10,000 patients at six locations in Maryland and Gettysburg, Pa., this year. A clinic on wheels has its limitations, however.While the mission has arranged for laboratory and X-ray services at Carroll County General Hospital, Frederick Memorial Hospital and St. Agnes HealthCare in Baltimore, surgery for the uninsured poor seemed an impossible task.

A medical team will take 1,000 doses of anti-tetanus vaccine and medical supplies from New Windsor to storm-ravaged Central America tomorrow.Tetanus toxoids, water purification kits, and anti-cholera medicines are included in the 70-pound medicine boxes that a New Windsor-based relief agency -- Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. -- is sending to Honduras and Nicaragua to aid victims of Hurricane Mitch.In the past two weeks, the agency and another New Windsor relief group -- Emergency Response Service Ministries, the disaster relief arm of Church of the Brethren -- have provided $3 million in aid to Honduras.

Social-service recipients will get help faster and social workers' jobs will get easier after April, when a new computer system tried out in smaller counties over the past decade arrives in Anne Arundel.People who get food stamps, medical assistance and child-support payments can expect to see claims processed more efficiently once the county installs the Client Information System (CIS), a Department of Human Resources computer program that helps case workers track the progress of aid recipients.

HEALTH CARE regulators and managers need to remember the children's story about the Little Red Hen.The Little Red Hen is the one who found a grain of wheat, then couldn't get anyone in the farmyard to help her plant, harvest, grind or bake. So she did it herself.When it came time to eat the freshly baked bread, however, there were plenty of volunteers. Only now it was the Little Red Hen's turn to say "no." She had earned the right to eat the bread. The freeloaders had not.In health care, however, the freeloaders are eating the bread, served to them on a silver platter, while the equivalent of the Little Red Hen is expected to keep doing the work with no reward.

Hundreds of Maryland residents are set to lose federal disability and medical assistance benefits Wednesday because they are alcohol- or drug-addicted, a cutoff state officials fear will almost certainly increase the number of homeless and strain local programs for the poor.Under legislation approved by Congress this year, people will no longer be able to claim an addiction as a disability to qualify for Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI), which carries with it Medicaid benefits.An estimated 2,338 residents of Maryland fall into that category.

When a prescription needs to be filled, pharmacist Don M. Padgett is on the job -- usually on a plane.His latest assignment took him to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in the southeast region of the former Soviet Union, where the United Methodists Committee On Relief (UMCOR) is planning to open eight clinics this month.In Baku last month, Padgett met the first part of what is expected to be a $1 million shipment of medicine and medical supplies donated to the UMCOR Emergency Distribution Project in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Miracyle Thompson, a pregnant Baltimore County mother of two little boys who have sickle cell disease, was skipping meals and battling with angry doctors over unpaid bills. Her husband's sales job wasn't bringing in enough money to support the growing family. Seeking help, she applied in February for state food and medical assistance. Federal law requires that those emergency benefits be approved within 30 days. A month ticked by, and then a letter from the state Department of Human Resources arrived: "An agency delay has occurred beyond our control."

The Harford County Health Department will open a dental clinic early next year that will provide care for some of the 7,000 children who are eligible for medical assistance but have little access to a dentist. The number of children receiving medical assistance has increased by 238 percent since 2000 and there could be many other eligible youths who are not enrolled in the program, said Dr. Andrew Bernstein, Harford County's health officer. "There is a real need for this service," Bernstein said.

The transformational moment for Carroll County-based IMA World Health came the day in 2000 when it won the United States government's approval to run what became a $28 million health project in the beleaguered Democratic Republic of Congo. "It was like going from sandlot baseball to the big leagues in one jump," recalled Paul Derstine, president of IMA, an association of 12 Protestant relief and development agencies. IMA started in 1960 as a clearinghouse for drugs donated by Merck and other pharmaceuticals.

Reaching out to survivors of the tsunamis that have killed tens of thousands of people in 11 countries from Thailand to Somalia, workers at Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. in New Windsor have begun packing medical supplies for a shipment of 75 boxes bound for Sri Lanka, an official with the nonprofit organization said yesterday. "We know the response will have to be long-term to really provide what they need," said Vickie Johnson, communications director for Interchurch Medical Assistance.

Reaching out to survivors of the tsunamis that have killed tens of thousands of people in 11 countries from Thailand to Somalia, workers at Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. in New Windsor have begun packing medical supplies for a shipment of 75 boxes bound for Sri Lanka, an official with the nonprofit organization said yesterday. "We know the response will have to be long-term to really provide what they need," said Vickie Johnson, communications director for Interchurch Medical Assistance.

A Carroll County medical assistance agency will use a $100,000 grant from an American pharmaceutical company to bolster its efforts to fight AIDS in Africa. Interchurch Medical Assistance, an association of a dozen Protestant churches dedicated to providing international emergency relief, will use the grant from Pfizer Inc. to strengthen the health care system in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as offer testing, counseling, caregiver training and treatment. "With this program, we become part of the effort to create a delivery system among a network of hospitals," said IMA President Paul Derstine.

A Carroll County medical assistance agency will use a $100,000 grant from an American pharmaceutical company to bolster its efforts to fight AIDS in Africa. Interchurch Medical Assistance, an association of a dozen Protestant churches dedicated to providing international emergency relief, will use the grant from Pfizer Inc. to strengthen the health care system in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as offer testing, counseling, caregiver training and treatment. "With this program, we become part of the effort to create a delivery system among a network of hospitals," said IMA President Paul Derstine.

A faith-based medical relief organization with headquarters in Carroll County has secured a $2.3 million grant as part of a global campaign to eliminate elephantiasis, a debilitating parasitic disease that affects 120 million people in 73 countries, an organization spokeswoman said yesterday. Interchurch Medical Assistance in New Windsor is managing the grant, which is from a $20 million trust fund established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight disease in undeveloped countries.

Baltimore physician Bill McConnell's first trip to Honduras was as part of a relief team after a 1998 hurricane that devastated the Central American country. And although the effort was meant to provide emergency relief wrought by Hurricane Mitch, McConnell soon realized that Honduras - one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere - required assistance that went beyond the need created by that single catastrophic storm. "It's a developing country," he said. "Most of the people don't have access to the most basic health care."

Dear Mr. Azrael: We are a couple in our 70s - both have adult children from previous marriages. To safeguard "their inheritance" we have kept our money separate. My husband owns the home we live in. We often consider downsizing - either to a condo (which he would own) or an apartment (investing the money from the sale of this house). We've heard owning a home protects that investment in the event he would have to go to a nursing home. Since my name would not be on this home (or condo)