Vips

I had an opportunity to meet and photograph ice skater Kimmie Meissner recently while she practiced at the University of Delaware preparing to defend her national figure skating title in a new season of competitions. I was scheduled to photograph her and other skaters at Skate America, an international event, in Reading, Pa., and seeing her practice helped me tremendously in preparing. On this day, she had driven with her mother to the university at 7 in the morning. She had already attended at least one class before we met, and she still had two hour-long practice sessions and a weight-training program to complete before she was done for the day. She had been enduring such a vigorous training schedule since she was about 6, her mother said.

VIPS Healthcare Information Solutions, a Towson software and consulting firm, became a free-standing company yesterday after being sold sold by its parent, First Data Corp.Jenny G. Morgan, president and chief executive officer of VIPS, said she and all 240 employees will remain. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Cornerstone Equity Investors LLC, of New York, acquired a controlling interest in VIPS. "Our intention is to keep the company independent and use it as a base for growth," said Stephen Larson, a managing director of Cornerstone.

Reaching the age of adulthood this year, VIPS, a Towson health software company, has experienced three transition milestones this spring: A major line of business, Medicare claims processing, switched from contractors choosing software to a government bid process, and VIPS won a four-year, $24 million contract to provide software for durable medical equipment claims.VIPS shipped its first managed-care software, entering a new and very different market.Wilson T. Gildee, who founded the company in 1979, retired -- two weeks short of his 50th birthday -- and Jenny G. Morgan, who had been the company's chief operating officer, replaced him as president.

If you enjoy an Imax movie, a starry planetarium, the political antics of Capitol Steps, a live auction or just good food and drink, you'd have loved the Maryland Science Center's Solstice Gala . Barbara Bozzuto, whose husband, Tom, chairs the center's board of trustees, chaired this year's successful fund-raiser for the center.The gala began with cocktails at the center, where guests checked out the planetarium and Imax Theater before boarding buses to the Hyatt Regency for dinner. WJZ's Richard Sher did the intros of VIPs responsible for raising for $203,000 before the live auction.

Burke, Virginia. -- Ending an 11-year wait for the rush of VIPs that never arrived, tomorrow the Pentagon will flip off the ''vacancy'' signs that still hang outside a string of secret underground bomb shelters located near Washington. Designed to serve as both home and office for government executives during a nuclear war, these telecommuting centers performed well in make-believe war games. But a fatal human flaw in the $8 billion Doomsday Project would have quickly scuttled the scheme had it been launched under real-life circumstances.

You can still get a good seat for last July's All-Star game -- and it will set you back only a little more than $200.For $199.95, plus $13.95 in shipping and handling, you get a vinyl-padded folding chair touted in the most recent Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog as one of the "actual guest chairs that were used to seat VIPs during baseball's annual All-Star game at Baltimore's Camden Yards . . . in a limited edition of 300."But before you dial the toll-free order number, you might want to know that, while Major League Baseball licensed 300 chairs for the 64th All-Star game, the Orioles used only 160 on the field, according to Roy Sommerhof, director of stadium operations at Camden Yards.

Name: William Ford of PasadenaAccomplishments/ Interests: Mr. Ford is one of the more than 100 volunteers who serve in the Maryland State Police program known as VIPS -- Volunteers In Police Support.In his capacity as a fingerprint technician, Mr. Ford takes prints and helps maintain fingerprint records for an estimated 10,000 Baltimore-Washington International Airport employees.The need to update the records is constant, as IDs expire at the same time as an individual's driver's license.

Recovering from one of the biggest blows it took during the real estate downturn, Heritage Properties Inc. of Towson said it has reached a deal to lease 49,250 square feet of space in its 515 Fairmount Ave. building on the east side of the Towson business district.The new tenant will be Clinical Associates P.A., a diversified medical practice that will be consolidating several Towson-area offices into the 117,500-square-foot building. Clinical Associates, whose largest Towson office had been another building it co-owned with Heritage, will occupy all or part of six of the building's 10 floors.

VIPS acquires rights to insurance softwareVIPS Inc., a Towson-based software developer and systems integrator, has acquired the rights to the Metropolitan Medicare System, an insurance package it developed with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.The software, which VIPS plans to rename in the near future, is used by 11 major insurance companies around the country to process Medicare claims on large systems from IBM Corp. VIPS says the companies handle a third of all the Part B Medicare claims in the country.

Flags were flying, champagne's flowing, and stretch limos with diplomatic tags were lining the drive way of the HarborView Condominiums. It was just enough fanfare to make the grand opening of the complex seem quite grand. And if that didn't do it, walking in and being greeted by concierge Roland Goodwin, did. Old-timers will remember Roland from his days at the Belvedere Hotel, many moons ago. Without question, Roland knows the names and faces of more Maryland people than I do, which is saying a lot.He whisked me off to the private party being held in an 11th floor condo.

Towson-based ViPS Inc., a health software company that was acquired by General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. last month, is keeping its headquarters in Towson and hopes to expand there during coming years as part of the redevelopment of that area, Baltimore County economic development officials said yesterday. The company, which employs 600 people, more than 500 of them in Towson, signed a seven-year lease extension for its offices at 1 W. Pennsylvania Ave. The owner of the office tower, Towson Commons LLC, will receive business retention loans totaling $700,000 - $250,000 from the county's Department of Economic Development and $450,000 from the state's Department of Business and Economic Development.

Towson-based ViPS, a health software company and unit of HLTH Corp., will be sold to General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. for $225 million in cash, HLTH Corp. said yesterday. ViPS, which employs 600 people, will remain at its headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Towson and is not expected to face job layoffs, said Mark Meudt, a spokesman for the buyer, which is a subsidiary of Falls Church, Va.-based defense company General Dynamics Corp. "At this point we don't anticipate any significant changes," Meudt said yesterday.

I had an opportunity to meet and photograph ice skater Kimmie Meissner recently while she practiced at the University of Delaware preparing to defend her national figure skating title in a new season of competitions. I was scheduled to photograph her and other skaters at Skate America, an international event, in Reading, Pa., and seeing her practice helped me tremendously in preparing. On this day, she had driven with her mother to the university at 7 in the morning. She had already attended at least one class before we met, and she still had two hour-long practice sessions and a weight-training program to complete before she was done for the day. She had been enduring such a vigorous training schedule since she was about 6, her mother said.

Gerald "Jerry" Siegel, a Baltimore Orioles usher who seated fans -- and more than a few VIPS -- behind home plate for 40 years, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Slade Manor Assisted Living. He was 85. "He was a terrific guy, great to the families of the Orioles players, right there in Section 41," former Oriole and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said yesterday. Born in Perth Amboy, N.J., Mr. Siegel moved to Baltimore in the late 1940s and lived on Woodland Avenue in Pimlico.

ViPS Inc., a Towson health software firm, is being sold to WebMD Corp. for $160 million, the New Jersey firm announced yesterday. While WebMD said it could not discuss its plans in detail until the deal closes, the sale is expected to have minimal impact on privately held ViPS' management and its nearly 400 employees. The purchase is expected take 30 days, including an antitrust review. The acquisition would join two companies in the business of processing and analyzing medical claims for insurers and doctors.

Is America willing to spend its hard-earned cash to hear a rock star rail about how craven pop culture has become? Tom Petty is about to find out. On his acidic concept album, The Last DJ, which arrives today, the famously laid-back Florida-born rocker bemoans an entertainment industry with executives whose mantra is, "You get to be famous, I get to be rich." In songs plainspoken and devastatingly direct, Petty laments the corporatization of radio and the greed that stunts artistic careers, the false worship of American Idols and the profit-at-any-cost orientation that derailed Enron and, he believes, exists throughout the business world.

Don't expect, Jenny Morgan said with a smile, to see a ViPS Stadium anytime soon. ViPS Inc., the Towson company that produces software and related services for health insurers, hasn't been one for splashy promotion. And when some companies grew rapidly during the tech bubble of the late 1990s, ViPS remained steady. "I used to have to apologize because our growth rate was only 17 percent," Morgan said. But over her five years as chief executive officer of ViPS, the quiet and steady growth has added up. Revenue has nearly doubled, from $24.5 million in 1997 to $45.2 million last year.

When President Bush called on Americans to volunteer in their communities during his State of the Union address, phones at the Anne Arundel County Police Department started ringing almost immediately. Within hours of Bush's speech Tuesday night, county residents responding to Bush's message had followed links from the White House Web site to the county Police Department's Volunteers in Police Service program. "We've gotten dozens of calls for people interested in volunteering," said Sgt. James B. Cifala, head of the county police crime prevention unit.

When President Bush called on Americans to volunteer in their communities during his State of the Union address, phones at the Anne Arundel County Police Department started ringing almost immediately. Within hours of Bush's speech Tuesday night, county residents responding to Bush's message had followed links from the White House Web site to the county Police Department's Volunteers in Police Service program. "We've gotten dozens of calls for people interested in volunteering," said Sgt. James B. Cifala, head of the county police crime prevention unit.

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - Suburbs have always had one big idea, to be comfortable and safe places for families with children. But local politicians here and around the country are working hard these days to cater to a new generation of suburban VIPs - retired couples in the three- or four-bedroom houses down the street. People such as Fred and Mary Froehlich. The Froehlichs love the Cape Cod house that Fred Froehlich built with his own hands 46 years ago, when West Windsor was a blue-collar farming community and not the vast plain of expensive houses it has become.