Red dresses, red ties and red hearts will have their day in the sun this Sunday, February 8. Approximately 100 churches across Maryland will participate in Red Dress Sunday, raising awareness about heart health and decorating their congregations with the color of life, love and vitality.
Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Baltimore was one of the first churches to participate when the annual awareness day began five years ago. Speaking for the Mt. Pleasant Read the rest of this entry »

Salmonella infections cause nausea and vomiting, leading to stomach pain and diarrhea, fever, chills and muscle pains lasting a few days to two weeks.
Citing patient confidentiality concerns, given the small number of cases, Hammond declined to provide further detail about the Maryland victims, except to say the cases came from “across the state.” At least two people were hospitalized and discharged, and all had recovered, he said.
Alvina Chu, Read the rest of this entry »

Regulators pore over reams of data to determine how much hospitals can charge but don’t monitor how hospitals collect patient debts. The system enables hospitals to charge rates to all patients to cover their costs of free and unpaid care, yet hospitals have sued 132,000 patients to collect unpaid bills over the past five years and have won at least $100 million in judgments, court records show.
Policies at hospitals for deciding who is eligible Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Family Health Plan, a Department of Defense-sponsored health care plan that serves military families, had 2008 member satisfaction ratings that were 42% higher than the national average, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Quality Compass 2008 Public Report.
The plan is offered through six hospital and physician networks, including Johns Hopkins Medicine, which serves Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The plan Read the rest of this entry »

A former Maryland employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $1.7 million from the Maryland
in a decade-long payment processing scheme.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said Donna McRae Lam was convicted of felony theft in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City after entering her guilty plea. Sentencing for Lam, 50, is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2009.
A state investigation uncovered a scheme that involved processing patient Read the rest of this entry »