Insurance Companies

Amid the many messages you will hear about screening for prostate cancer in the coming days, I hope these stand out: There is at best a small potential benefit from prostate cancer screening, and there are substantial known harms. We need a better test, and we need better treatment options. The panel I chair, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, has just issued a recommendation against screening men of any age for prostate cancer using the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput does not yet wear the empowering red hat of a cardinal, and he is so new to Philadelphia that he recently called it "Denver. " But in the mere five months since he arrived here from the Rockies, Chaput has already emerged as a fierce warrior-bishop, unlike anyone Philadelphia has seen since the mighty Cardinal Dennis Dougherty reigned more than 60 years ago. His fighting words have refocused the national spotlight on the archdiocese, led lately by the low-profile Cardinals Justin Rigali and Anthony Bevilacqua.

Sidney Grossman, 91, who after a near-fatal accident while in his mid-20s was inspired to go into the insurance business, died June 29 in Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., of complications after a fall. Mr. Grossman had homes in Northeast Philadelphia, Medford Lakes, and Ocala, Fla. Mr. Grossman learned to work hard as a child and kept his work ethic throughout his life. From age 5, Mr. Grossman worked with his parents and five siblings in the family's deli at 40th Street and Girard Avenue.

Just as New Jersey motorists begin paying a new $66 surcharge on their cars, controversy has flared over whether insurance companies were allowed to charge too much money to issue policies through the state's auto-insurance fund. The state's Public Advocate's Office and a state assemblyman who has specialized in insurance matters say that companies were allowed to collect higher-than-necessary fees and that the money could have been used to offset the need for the $66 levy. "Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars would have been available," Deputy Public Advocate Donald W. Bunda wrote the Insurance Department earlier this month.

In the midst of his campaign for re-election, Gov. Casey yesterday embarked on a second campaign, this one to sell motorists on the state's new auto-insurance law and to prod insurance companies to help drivers save money. Casey announced in Pittsburgh that he was sending letters to the presidents of the state's 231 insurance companies, urging them to educate motorists who are confused about the new law and who are being bombarded with "misleading" information by opponents of the law. The governor's letter criticized trial lawyers for trying to discourage motorists from selecting a type of no-fault insurance that will save them the most money.

A group of Philadelphia lawmakers disclosed yesterday that they had formed their own auto-insurance company designed to lower the price of coverage for city residents. But one member of the group, Rep. Ralph Acosta, conceded that a similar company that he and other lawmakers promoted last year was later determined by the state Insurance Department to be a "fictitious insurer. " Acosta said he was serving as a board member with the new company, Futura Mutual Insurance Co., because "we've got to keep finding ways to help the people of the city.

A prominent Center City lawyer accused of building a fraudulent insurance empire on a network of shell companies was found guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court of fraud and racketeering charges. Allen W. Stewart, 58, a former partner with Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, was convicted on all 135 counts of an indictment for mail and wire fraud, money laundering, and racketeering in a case that hinged on whether criminal activity on his part forced the financial failure of two insurance companies under his control.

Every Pennsylvanian has a stake in the insurance industry's bid for a 28 percent increase in premiums for workers' compensation - which covers job- related illness and injuries. Such a big increase, costing employers nearly $700 million more in the next year, would hurt the state's competitiveness. Yet workers, who never know when they might need this coverage for health care and lost income, must be sure that the system stays on a sound financial basis. Right now, these vital interests must be balanced by Insurance Commissioner Constance B. Foster in her rate decision.

A Havertown businessman, who needs larger quarters for his growing insurance company, has told the Haverford school board that he is interested in purchasing the vacant Llanerch School for offices. Walter Lenhard, owner of Continental Life Insurance Co. at 812 Darby Rd., told the board on Feb. 24 that the school, also on Darby Road, would be a fitting location for his company. The company sells insurance and performs computer work for other insurance companies. "It would be a very attractive building and an asset to the neighborhood," Lenhard said in an interview later.

The Pennsauken First Aid Squad has a new leader and is heading toward a new way of doing business. Mike Coyle, the squad's newly hired chief, and township officials held the first in a series of four public meetings last week to discuss plans to begin billing insurance companies for ambulance services. The next meeting is at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at St. Cecelia's Catholic School on Camden Avenue. The meetings are a result of an advisory committee's report on ways to improve service at the formerly all-volunteer squad, which was suffering under manpower shortages that left it unable to respond to 450 calls in 1994.

A New Jersey state legislator said Thursday that she planned to propose a state law to prevent insurance brokers from splitting commissions from public agencies without performing services for those agencies. Sen. Jennifer Beck (R., Monmouth) said the proposed legislation was prompted by recent revelations of commission-splitting arrangements at the Delaware River Port Authority. State Comptroller Mathew Boxer last month issued a report critical of mismanagement and political cronyism at the DRPA that also detailed an insurance payback deal allegedly orchestrated by George E. Norcross III, the South Jersey insurance executive and Democratic Party power broker who is chairman of the board of Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

WASHINGTON - A possible misunderstanding about President Obama's health-care overhaul could cloud Supreme Court deliberations on its fate, leaving the impression that the law's insurance requirement was more onerous than it actually was. During the recent oral arguments, some of the justices and the lawyers appearing before them seemed to be under the impression that the law did not allow most consumers to buy low-cost, stripped-down insurance to...

Independence Blue Cross, the biggest health insurer in the Philadelphia region, added 45,020 members last year, the first growth since 2008 for the Center City nonprofit, which serves nearly 3.1 million people. IBC has yet to release comprehensive financial results for 2011, but president and chief executive Daniel J. Hilferty said the company continued its recovery from losses in 2008 and 2009 and expected to report an improvement over 2010, when it had a profit margin of 2.2 percent.

MIAMI - Political leaders, sports stars and entertainers were among several thousand people who gathered Sunday at a Miami rally to call for an arrest in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer. The rally in the teenager's hometown was one of the largest yet, and drew basketball stars Alonzo Mourning and Isaiah Thomas, singers Chaka Khan and Betty Wright, politicians and civil-rights leaders. Martin's father, speaking briefly, promised the crowd that he would not stop fighting "for my Trayvon and for your Trayvon.

Calling the Obama administration's mandated insurance coverage for contraceptives an "assault" on religious freedom, Pennsylvania's 10 Catholic bishops have urged Catholics statewide to make Friday, March 30, a day of prayer and fasting. "On that day, offer your sacrifice for the cause of religious liberty, that the Church may be granted the basic right to practice what she preaches, and for our political leaders, that their eyes may be opened to the rights of all Americans," the bishops said in a letter issued last week and read Sunday at some parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Alan Milstein practices law in Moorestown, N.J., and teaches bioethics at Temple University Republicans are trying to make the point that the current debate about contraceptives is about religious liberty, not about access. Indeed, on Meet The Press recently, Newt Gingrich said Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student maligned by Rush Limbaugh, has always had full access to contraceptives, just not through the medical insurance policy she and other students purchased through their university.

Senate Democrats narrowly defeated efforts Thursday to repeal a portion of President Obama's controversial policy requiring insurers to pay for contraception coverage. Missing from their ranks? Pennsylvania's Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. In a vote that could feature prominently in his reelection campaign this fall, Casey broke from his party and backed a Republican amendment that would have allowed employers and insurance companies to opt out of medical coverage that conflicted with their moral beliefs.

Protect the church I applaud Archbishop Charles J. Chaput's defense of our religious liberty. Not only the Catholic religion is threatened by this dictatorial and insulting federal mandate that religious institutions provide health insurance coverage that includes birth control, but all other religions as well. Religious freedom was a first concern of the framers of our Constitution. Thus, it protected it with the First Amendment, for which this administration has no regard. I have lived under many presidents.

PITTSBURGH - A college in Western Pennsylvania sued the federal government Tuesday, saying regulations that require employers to offer birth-control coverage that includes drugs that abort fertilized embryos are "directly at odds" with its religious values, including the Sixth Commandment. The Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Geneva College. The school in Beaver Falls is associated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.