State Health

The Maryland State Police are requiring people who want to buy firearms to sign a release allowing authorities to check whether they have ever resided in a state mental health institution for 30 days or more. In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings this year, Gov. Martin O'Malley and state Health Secretary John M. Colmers gave their blessing to the state police to broaden the firearms application -- an effort, officials said, to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns. Before the change, "we were relying on your honesty as an applicant that you were telling us the truth about your mental health history," said Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the state police.

The second Baltimore-area nursing home within a month is losing state and federal funding because of repeated problems with patient care, the latest of which sent an 89-year-old woman suffering from dehydration to the hospital, state health officials said.Carol Benner, director of the state health department, said yesterday that funding would be cut off Dec. 30 for new patients admitted to Irvington Knolls Care Center at 22 S. Athol Ave. in West Baltimore. Funding for current patients in the 220-bed facility will end Jan. 28."

State agents raided the headquarters of PrimeHealth Corp. in Lanham yesterday, seizing computers and cartons of office records as part of a broadening corruption probe into the business dealings of former state Sen. Larry Young.State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli confirmed late yesterday that the raid took place, but he declined to say why the health maintenance organization was raided or what was seized from the firm, which received a lucrative state contract with help from Young.Armed with search warrants, the agents seized records and computers from PrimeHealth's offices at 9602 Martin Luther King Highway in Lanham.

The state health department overpaid HMOs $80 million last year to care for Medicaid patients, Dr. Martin P. Wasserman, the state health secretary, told a legislative hearing yesterday.His testimony brought consternation from legislators, who are concerned about apparent overspending, and from representatives of health maintenance organizations and hospitals, who said they could be pushed into the red if their rates are cut.The hearing left unsettled the question of how much the HMOs should be paid for the fiscal year that began this month.

Thousands of Maryland's working poor are rushing to enroll in a new state program that makes it possible to take their children to the doctor without getting sick over the bill.In the first five months, the state has extended government-paid health coverage to as many as 30,946 children and 74 pregnant women from low-income households. Families have flooded a state hot line with calls, snapped up brochures at schools and churches and surprised state officials with their dash to sign up."We were prepared for a big turnout, but the acceptance of the program was faster and more widespread than we had anticipated," said Ned Wollman, eligibility director for the Children's Health Program for the state Health Department.

The Army and environmental regulators have agreed to several actions that a Joppa-based citizens' group says will begin to address public health concerns in communities around Aberdeen Proving Ground."

With his budget pared by the state fiscal crisis, Carroll County Deputy Health Officer Larry Leitch is saying that county property owners may discover they have no place to complain about rats and trash in their neighborhood and drug addicts may end up with no place to go for residential treatment.Health departments throughout metropolitan Baltimore face a loss of funds as the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cuts $61 million and as many as 700 jobs statewide.In Carroll County, which will lose $1.6 million in state aid, Leitch plans to terminate 93 people -- 50 full-timers, 35 on contract, seven temporary employees and one consultant.

ANNAPOLIS -- As a Republican candidate for governor last year, Dr. Ross Z. Pierpont needled Democratic Gov. William Donald Schaefer as a "big spender" who is too free with taxpayers' money and too eager to dole out jobs to political insiders.But Dr. Pierpont says those labels do not apply to his case, even though the Schaefer administration managed in these desperate economic times to set aside as much as $77,480 to hire the 74-year-old surgeon to help out at the state health department.Dr.

Norplant, the contraceptive implant effective for five years, has been drawing attention across the state, but county doctors say there is little demand for the prescription among Carroll women."

Although state Health Secretary Adele A. Wilzack ordered a hiring freeze throughout her department more than a year ago, the agency continued to hire workers to promote amateur athletic competitions and to attempt to bring an Olympic Festival to Maryland, according to state payroll records.The records show that in the past year, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene hired six new employees for the Maryland State Games program and offered new contracts to four other temporary workers whose assignments were supposed to be finished.

The first shipments of swine flu vaccine should start arriving in Maryland by Tuesday, but the initial batch will be so limited that the doses will be offered mainly to health care workers in hospitals and clinics, state health officials say. The state is getting just 31,600 doses of vaccine to start, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - only about 1 percent of what's needed to vaccinate all the children and vulnerable adults that...

A year into a new effort to expand health coverage, recession-weary Marylanders are flocking to the state's Medicaid program in numbers far greater than expected, costing the state $50 million more in the process. As of this week, 44,255 additional state residents had enrolled in Maryland's Medicaid system after income limits were significantly relaxed, outpacing projections that enrollment would increase by 26,605. Officials say the economic downturn has swelled the ranks of the unemployed, driving more people than expected into the public plan.

The Maryland State Police are requiring people who want to buy firearms to sign a release allowing authorities to check whether they have ever resided in a state mental health institution for 30 days or more. In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings this year, Gov. Martin O'Malley and state Health Secretary John M. Colmers gave their blessing to the state police to broaden the firearms application -- an effort, officials said, to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns. Before the change, "we were relying on your honesty as an applicant that you were telling us the truth about your mental health history," said Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the state police.

The top Maryland gubernatorial candidates focused on improving the state's health care system yesterday, with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announcing a new program to expand access for the working poor and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley unveiling a plan to attract and retain nurses. Speaking at a health clinic in Park Heights, Ehrlich announced the start of a program that will allow about 22,000 more low- to moderate-income Marylanders to get free primary health care with little additional investment from the state.

Claiming Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. unfairly targeted immigrants when he slashed a Medicaid benefit last year, attorneys for 13 families asked a Montgomery County judge yesterday to force the state to cover the plaintiffs' health care costs. It is the latest skirmish in a battle between the administration and advocates for 13 children, who say the plaintiffs have suffered since the $7 million program was eliminated July 1. Circuit Judge Durke G. Thompson granted an injunction two weeks ago, ordering the state to re-instate the program for the plaintiffs and to pay their health care costs dating back to July.

Just as flu activity has begun to pick up in Maryland, state health officials are relaxing restrictions on those eligible to receive vaccine to prevent it. Following the lead of the nation's top public health agency, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced yesterday that everyone age 50 and older should be able to get a shot. Because of the nationwide vaccine shortage, vaccinations had been limited on a voluntary basis to those 64 and older, those with chronic illnesses, pregnant women, children younger than 2 and health care workers.

Dr. Michelle A. Gourdine, Baltimore County's top health official for nearly a decade, has been appointed deputy secretary of public health services for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to state officials. The appointment by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will take effect Feb. 1. Gourdine, a board-certified pediatrician, has served as the county's health officer since 1995 and oversees about 550 employees and a $44 million budget, county officials said. As deputy secretary, Gourdine, 42, will oversee seven areas of the state health agency, including those dealing with alcohol and drug abuse, AIDS and community health.

Opponents of proposed cuts to state health programs criticized Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday for threatening drastic reductions in medical services for the poor. Members of Health Care for All Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for improving health care coverage for Marylanders, gathered for a news conference and rally at the Men's Health Center on North Avenue with several elected officials and public health leaders. The group is trying to garner opposition to the state Health Department's proposed $480 million in cuts that, if enacted, would make thousands of children ineligible for free health insurance coverage and close four mental health facilities.

The state health department has drafted a $480 million list of potential program cuts that, if enacted, would deprive thousands of children of free health insurance coverage and shutter four mental health facilities, and could force women to pay for their own laboratory tests after rapes, according to documents obtained yesterday by The Sun. "It basically tells people if you are sick, leave the state," said Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, a nurse and chairwoman of...

A veteran federal official who held department management posts in the Reagan and first Bush administrations was nominated by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday to replace departing state health secretary Nelson J. Sabatini. S. Anthony McCann, 61, would earn $155,000 a year as secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, a job he is scheduled to start next month. The department manages more than $6 billion in state and federal funds, including nearly $4 billion for Medicaid programs, and is viewed as a probable source of spending cuts as Ehrlich seeks to balance the budget without new taxes.