BIZJOURNALS----is a national media outlet with local sounding names like Baltimore Business Journal---it is actually probably owned by a global investment firm. Here we have health care policy news in Baltimore and of course a global health insurance corporation would come to Maryland to do pilots that will lead to citizens being more uninformed. Look who is writing this article-----the global health systems partner to Johns Hopkins. So, we already know this information will be slanted to mis-inform consumers and indeed it does.
CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA far-right 1% Wall Street neo-liberals and Republicans POSED PROGRESSIVE by pretending breaking up our Social Security Trust and creating privatized stock market accounts---that handing control of local pension investments to individuals----and now this idea that individual citizens have the power and resources needed to make sound consumer decisions with the information we have available----WHEN A PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC WHO STUDIES NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY CAN BARELY DO SO----is only meant to push people into bad health policies thinking they made a choice.
UnitedHealthcare is a global health insurance corporation made large from these few decades of massive Medicare and Medicaid frauds----and it has no intentions of changing its ways. US citizens cannot get real information from these kinds of corporate media reports.
Watch for the reporter below as she is likely hired because she is a 5% to the 1% ONE WORLD media citizens. Learn to question when these media players are involved.
I sit on the local bus often hearing our local public sector employees trying to figure out the best investments for their assets. Not to short change those citizens it is almost impossible for main street investors to know all the global economic MANIPULATIONS AND CORRUPTION that affect their investments----this will be true of HEALTH CARE POLICIES.
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
Industry News Health Care
UnitedHealthcare testing new customer service program in Maryland
Sep 26, 2016, 10:24am EDT
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
UnitedHealthcare is testing a new customer service pilot program in Maryland, part of an attempt to help consumers get a better grasp on their insurance plans and health care options.
The company is the second-largest health insurer in Maryland and operates in the small group market, with a market share of 17 percent, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. For its pilot, UnitedHealthcare is deviating from the traditional customer service approach, to try and improve consumer experiences after a survey revealed consumers's attitudes and concerns regarding insurance and health care.
Instead of waiting for consumers to call in with questions about their plans or coverage, UnitedHealthcare is reaching out to members who enroll in a plan, asking if they have questions about finding a physician, their pharmacy benefits and what their plan covers.
The carrier is aiming to better serve its customers amid a increasingly competitive and complex insurance market, said David Smith, vice president of small business sales at UnitedHealthcare.
With open enrollment starting Nov. 1 for the 2017 health insurance market, UnitedHealthcare conducted a survey of consumers examining opinions on health care topics including comparison shopping, wellness programs, health literacy and customer service. Results from the survey revealed most Americans do not enjoy shopping for health coverage and don’t understand the terms of their insurance plans.
“We’re at a crossroads of inspiring people to become more engaged and more accountable for their care,” Smith said. “And that’s the piece we’ve really been focusing in on — how do we inspire them to take part in their own health and wellness?"
The survey of 1,011 U.S. adults found just 7 percent of respondents were successfully able to define four basic health insurance concepts: plan premium, deductible, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum. Part of the problem is that the health care world, even with the advantages of the internet today, can still be complex and often confusing to consumers, Smith said.
Open enrollment season is the number one time that people are looking at policies and options and trying to figure out what they are buying or what they are covered for, Smith said. UnitedHealthcare is beefing up its customer service efforts and trying to “meet consumers where they are” to help them navigate health care options.
“We recognize there is sort of this avoidance or challenge with getting people to take the time reviewing their options so we really have to make that initial experience simple and personable,” Smith said.
Smith said there are two factors are especially important in reaching and inspiring consumers: they want something that is simple and personally meaningful.
“That follow-up is crucial…and that component is usually missing,” Smith said. “We want to be more proactive, connecting to these members, guiding them, educating them and showing them all the resources after they’ve purchased so they can get the best out of their plan.”
The goal is make health care a more understandable, personal experience at all levels, Smith said, and to avoid the occasion of a consumer asking questions like “Why didn’t you tell me…?”
Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.
______________________________________
Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.
I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad. So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad? Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.
Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC. Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy. Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus. That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
If we look at the MARYLAND DAILY RECORD----of course they are business news but they did used to provide some articles holding power accountable. Now Daily Record is folded into Baltimore Sun -----which controls almost all our local printed media.
Industry News Education
Teach for America - Baltimore lands largest gift in its history from local philanthropists
Sep 27, 2016, 7:40am EDT
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
Teach For America - Baltimore has received the largest gift in its 24-year history, a pledge from local philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.
The amount of the gift was not disclosed. But previously the largest Teach for America - Baltimore announced was $1 million over four years from Constellation Energy in 2011. Meyerhoff and Becker have supported the organization since 2009, when they made another large donation that allowed the group to double its corps in Baltimore.
The new gift from Meyerhoff and Becker will support Teach for America - Baltimore’s new vision and strategy to better connect and support its network of 1,100 members and alumni.
Since its founding in 1992, the primary focus has been recruiting and developing first and second-year teachers in its local network. Teach for America - Baltimore currently includes over 550 corps members as well as an extended network of alumni working as classroom teachers, school principals and administrators, as well as nonprofit leaders, startup founders, policy makers and advocates.
"What we’ve seen is that the initial belief we had that by recruiting the nation’s most promising future leaders and getting them to teach for two years in low-income schools, it would have a life-changing impact, is really playing out," said Courtney Cass, executive director of Teach For America - Baltimore. "About 89 percent of our network still work directly in education and are having an impact at the school level. But they also don’t know each other."
Through broader programming, Cass said the organization will aim to support a lifelong continuum within its network that includes a focus on recruiting and retaining leaders and providing more intensive and customized support for first and second-year teachers. There will also be a focus on leadership development to alumni through learning communities, which will host peer-to-peer courses throughout the year on topics like starting a nonprofit and how to lead a school. The new strategy, she said, marks a shift from a sort of advising role for alumni to building out a talent-sourcing arm for the organization.
"It's about bringing people together, creating more intensive support models for our teachers and alumni to increase impact," Cass said.
The organization wants to offer its expanding network opportunities "whether you're a 15-year veteran teacher or new principal or an entrepreneur," Cass said, and create a lasting connection among people who share a mission of improving educational inequity.
Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.
___________________________________________
Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.
I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad. So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad? Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.
Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC. Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy. Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus. That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.
**********************************************
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
**************************************************
Our Wall Street progressively getting richer former mayor and governor O'Malley brokered this critical energy deal handing our energy to global corporations. O'Malley has of course his Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations that pretend this is all about the poor and jobs.
1% Wall Street pols in Maryland made this merger deal sound environmentally progressive by throwing things like green energy and getting rid of coal---which it did neither.
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
On Thursday, the boards of directors of Exelon and Constellation signed off on an all-stock deal valued at $7.9 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Constellation shareholders would get 0.93 shares of Exelon for each share of Constellation. Based on Wednesday’s closing price of Exelon’s shares, Constellation stockholders would receive shares valued at $38.59, an 18 percent premium.
The deal is expected to close in early 2012, and if completed, Exelon shareholders would own 78 percent of the company with Constellation shareholders owning the rest. The deal requires approval from shareholders and regulators at the federal and state levels.
The new company would keep the Exelon name and the headquarters would remain in Chicago. The Constellation name would live on in the new company’s power marketing and retail and wholesale businesses, which would be headquartered in Baltimore. The companies’ renewable energy businesses would also be consolidated and be based in Baltimore.
Constellation’s regulated utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric, would also keep its name and headquarters, but would become a subsidiary of Exelon.
“We believe this brings a whole new growth engine to the Baltimore community,” Exelon CEO John W. Rowe said.
The new company will be led by current Exelon President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher M. Crane, who will be the CEO. Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III will serve as executive chairman, and Rowe will retire after the deal is completed.
Experts approved of the deal, especially for what it brings to shareholders of Constellation.
“We think it’s a very good deal for Constellation shareholders,” said Travis Miller, an analyst with Morningstar Inc., in Chicago. “But, it’s a very poor deal for Exelon shareholders.”
Shares of Constellation closed at $36.26, up $1.96, a 5.7 percent increase. Exelon’s shares gained 69 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $42.18.
To help ease the sting of losing a corporate headquarters, the deal includes a package of investments in the state that the companies said amounts to $250 million. This includes a $100 credit to each BGE customer within 90 days of the deal closing. BGE would see no impact on employment for two years, and the companies agreed to keep charitable giving at $10 million a year for a decade after the close of the deal.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the deal will mean more jobs for the city since the combined company’s biggest growth area — the power marketing, retail and wholesale businesses — would be based in Baltimore.
Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said it was a positive sign that the deal would bring the renewable energy and power trading businesses to Baltimore.
HMMMM---having our own Maryland public energy utility vs having what will be global green corporations. WE WANT OUR ENERGY PUBLIC AND LOCAL!
“New growth industries and new construction are always a plus to the economic and job creation future of a community and serve as a sign of growth and progress,” Fry said in a prepared statement. “The bottom line is that a major employer and corporate leader in Baltimore is evolving to its next stage of growth.”
Shattuck said the combined units in Baltimore would need a larger space than the company’s headquarters along Pratt Street off the Inner Harbor has to offer.
A new office for the company would either be built or significantly renovated to meet green building standards. But, Shattuck said, the location would remain within Baltimore.
“We’re committed to the city,” Shattuck said.
Anirban Basu, CEO of the Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore-based economic and policy consulting firm, said while creation of jobs is always welcome, moving a corporate headquarters out of the city can have a ripple effect. Basu said one area that can be affected is who the company does business with, and where.
“A firm headquartered in Baltimore is more likely to hire an accountant in Baltimore, or bank with bankers in Baltimore,” Basu said. “The loss of another corporate headquarters makes it more likely that business won’t take place in Baltimore — that’s the harm.”
Basu said the loss of Constellation also underscored a recurring theme of businesses in Baltimore being acquired by others outside the city. He pointed to previous sales of institutions like Alex. Brown and Sons and USF&G, which changed hands and saw corporate headquarters leave the city.
“I am really looking forward to when this generation of corporate leaders in Baltimore retires — what they have been very adept at is selling off companies,” Basu said. “They have not created anything like a Microsoft, Sun MicroSystems or an Apple. What they have managed to do is to sell off Baltimore’s most historic and profitable companies.”
Third time’s the charm
The Exelon deal marks the third time in six years that Constellation has tried to sell itself. In 2006, a merger with the Florida Power & Light Co. fell through after significant pushback by elected officials.
In 2008, Constellation was beset with credit concerns and saw its stock and market value plummet and the threat of bankruptcy was even a potential outcome. A deal was quickly enacted to sell the company to Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy for $4.7 billion. But that deal was called off after Constellation agreed to what it considered a better offer from Electricite de France, which bought 49 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business for $4.5 billion.
“Over the last five years, Constellation has consistently been in the market to grow its business, and the easiest way to do that is with a merger,” Morningstar’s Miller said.
Exelon and Constellation officials said they are optimistic the deal will be successful. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Rowe said the Constellation deal was thoroughly examined and the companies were optimistic it made sense and had a good chance of passing regulatory and shareholder approval.
“We are confident we can execute this deal,” Rowe said.
“This one is going to work.”
If the deal falls through, breakup fees would amount to $200 million for Constellation and $800 million for Exelon. The agreement includes provision excluding breakup fees if regulators nix the deal.
Farewell to coal?
The proposed deal will also alter Constellation’s electric generation footprint in Maryland. The companies plan to sell the three coal-fired power plants that Constellation owns — Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane.
HOW IS IT REDUCING COAL-FIRE POLLUTION IF WE ARE SIMPLY SELLING THEM?
The plants, along with Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant, make up the backbone of the state’s generating capability. Together, the plants, which have been outfitted to meet Maryland’s clean air legislation, can generate 2,648 megawatts of electricity.
“Those are valuable assets,” Exelon’s Crane said.
But with stringent federal air pollution regulations looming, the demand for coal-fired plants is not strong.
“We really don’t think the companies will get top dollar for those plants,” Miller said.
___________________________________________
All US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones like Baltimore have had their global corporate campus or two taking all revenue these few decades. Moving Forward means adding more and more global corporate campuses and as we do they continue to be made the only game in town for everything---from job creation to charity, from subsidiary businesses filling our local economies to creating corporate non-profits to write all our societal policies. Once only Johns Hopkins'/Wall Street's job we are now blessed with one more global corporate campus patron.
We discussed how venture capitalists and innovation investment funds are targeting only ONLINE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES because these are the ones Wall Street wants to grab if a startup becomes successful. These startup competitions will first be awarded skewed to individual connections----then by ability to succeed----the funding that comes then goes if the business is successful making these ENTREPRENEURS sell out, go out of business, but certainly not allowed to be local business competition to existing corporations.
Federal, state, and local funding going to this UNDERARMOUR global campus is tracked into these economic innovation schemes. IT'S ALL ABOUT JOB CREATION!
In just a few years of being told UnderArmour was are new global corporate rule campus----we have UnderArmour subsidiary businesses everywhere. We have UnderArmour development and global real estate, UnderArmour as corporate sponsors for schools, events, all coming with a free UnderArmour TEE SHIRT----or school uniform. When the Asian nations saw Wall Street International Economic Zones installed---as South Korea, Singapore, China-----this is the same slow walk to re-educating citizens that they are human capital owned and operated by those global corporate campuses.
ANYONE UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS AND FREE MARKET KNOWS THAT EXTREME MONOPOLY IS NOT FOUND IN GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT.
Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta City
A file photo of the City Garage property in Port Covington.
(Caitlin Faw / Baltimore Sun)
Sarah GantzContact Reporter
The Baltimore Sun
Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta CityEight startups will face off Thursday in a pitch competition for investments at City Garage, the bus depot-turned-innovation center by Sagamore Ventures.
The Venture Capital Pitch Day is part of Beta City, a day-long startup showcase put on by Sagamore Ventures, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank's private venture investing arm, and Betamore. Beta City, now in its second year, aims to cast Baltimore as an emerging hub for entrepreneurship and technology, by highlighting promising young companies and entrepreneurs.
During the pitch contest, companies will present their business plans to a panel of judges, who will award about $75,000 in prizes.
Here are the companies that will be pitching:
•Emocha, a mobile health platform being used to improve medication adherence;
•Fixt, a mobile app for smartphone maintenance and repairs;
•Sickweather, a company using social media networks to map and track illness in real-time;
Caption Google competes with Amazon Prime
Caption Young men choosing video games over working, study says•
Sisu Global Health, a medical technology company developing health care tools for underdeveloped countries;
•SnobSwap, an e-commerce platform for consignment boutiques;
•Tissue Analytics, a mobile app used to track wound healing;
•TopBox, asoftware program that helps call centers analyze customer issues;
•Workbench, an online community for makers, educators and students connect and share projects.
Another 17 companies were selected to present their companies at booths set up inside City Garage.
____________________________________________
'Kevin Plank grew up in Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C., one of five brothers. His father William was a prominent Maryland land developer. His mother, Jayne (née Harper), is a former mayor of Kensington, who went on to direct the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Department of State under President Ronald Reagan'.[3]
I'm not trying to debunk that almost all of today's billionaires are not self-made success stories in business--I simply want to debunk all the national and local media that tries to sell this idea to WE THE PEOPLE. These are not people who come up with that great idea----it is highly likely a research facility like Johns Hopkins developed UnderArmour sports material that went on to be those sports wear people love to buy. Guess who could have BOUGHT that patent? Plank's rich father and mother no doubt would give him a financial boost. So, what happens when someone buys that patent especially from an IVY LEAGUE like Johns Hopkins? Well, that self-made PLANK immediately gets investment funds from global investment firms, hedge funds, and other global Wall Street
Investment firms. Did Plank really sell his products from the back of a vehicle filing funding requests and other ordinary steps WE THE PEOPLE are told we must take? Not likely.
When Plank took his Wall Street funding overseas to International Economic Zones---he then had all the help of our Federal IMPORT EXPORT BANK that simply subsidizes the global expansion of already rich people. We know the rest as UnderArmour is known as a global sweat shop factory manufacturing in those International Economic Zones.
'Plank grew up playing football for the Maplewood Maple Leafs, which have appeared in a few Under Armour commercials. He left Georgetown Preparatory School because of poor academic performance and behavioral issues, but went on to play football at Fork Union Military Academy. He graduated from St. John's College High School.[4] He later attended the University of Maryland and graduated in 1996.[5]
Plank married Desiree Guerzon in 2003.[6] Plank has made donations to numerous Republican candidates, including $2,000 to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in 2008.[7][8]
According to Federal Election Commission, Plank has donated to both parties and to individuals of both parties'.
'In 2013, Plank purchased a mansion in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. for $7.85 million'.
What should be part of Baltimore's public transportation has been outsourced from corporate non-profit to now simply global corporations. Global VEOLA Transportation was in the running ---but WE THE PEOPLE----not so much.
Under Armour Founder to Take Over Baltimore’s Water Taxis
August 19, 2016
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank hopes to buy the company that operates Baltimore’s Water Taxis, Harbor Boating Inc. Harbor Boating was founded in the 1970s and has been the city’s sole water taxi operator since 2005. The company operates both the water taxi, which caters to tourists, and the free Harbor Connector Service for commuters.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Board of Estimates is expected to approve an agreement that would give Harbor Boating exclusive rights to the city’s docks and wharves for at least 20 years, renewable for up to 10 more.
New water taxi design to be launched by Sagamore Ventures. Photo courtesy Baltimore Sun
Plank’s firm, Sagamore Ventures, is expected to purchase Harbor Boating as the city agrees to award the firm another long-term contract to operate passenger service around the Inner Harbor. The purchase is expected to close in 30 days if the city contract is approved.
Sagamore plans to add new boats to the line, more stops, longer hours, and an on-demand offering in conjunction with Uber. The goal is also to bridge the gap between the $8 one-way tourist prices and the commuter-friendly fares. Price changes are expected to appear next spring. The first new vessel in the line, which will be able to carry about 50 people, should be ready for launch this fall.
CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA far-right 1% Wall Street neo-liberals and Republicans POSED PROGRESSIVE by pretending breaking up our Social Security Trust and creating privatized stock market accounts---that handing control of local pension investments to individuals----and now this idea that individual citizens have the power and resources needed to make sound consumer decisions with the information we have available----WHEN A PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC WHO STUDIES NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY CAN BARELY DO SO----is only meant to push people into bad health policies thinking they made a choice.
UnitedHealthcare is a global health insurance corporation made large from these few decades of massive Medicare and Medicaid frauds----and it has no intentions of changing its ways. US citizens cannot get real information from these kinds of corporate media reports.
Watch for the reporter below as she is likely hired because she is a 5% to the 1% ONE WORLD media citizens. Learn to question when these media players are involved.
I sit on the local bus often hearing our local public sector employees trying to figure out the best investments for their assets. Not to short change those citizens it is almost impossible for main street investors to know all the global economic MANIPULATIONS AND CORRUPTION that affect their investments----this will be true of HEALTH CARE POLICIES.
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
Industry News Health Care
UnitedHealthcare testing new customer service program in Maryland
Sep 26, 2016, 10:24am EDT
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
UnitedHealthcare is testing a new customer service pilot program in Maryland, part of an attempt to help consumers get a better grasp on their insurance plans and health care options.
The company is the second-largest health insurer in Maryland and operates in the small group market, with a market share of 17 percent, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. For its pilot, UnitedHealthcare is deviating from the traditional customer service approach, to try and improve consumer experiences after a survey revealed consumers's attitudes and concerns regarding insurance and health care.
Instead of waiting for consumers to call in with questions about their plans or coverage, UnitedHealthcare is reaching out to members who enroll in a plan, asking if they have questions about finding a physician, their pharmacy benefits and what their plan covers.
The carrier is aiming to better serve its customers amid a increasingly competitive and complex insurance market, said David Smith, vice president of small business sales at UnitedHealthcare.
With open enrollment starting Nov. 1 for the 2017 health insurance market, UnitedHealthcare conducted a survey of consumers examining opinions on health care topics including comparison shopping, wellness programs, health literacy and customer service. Results from the survey revealed most Americans do not enjoy shopping for health coverage and don’t understand the terms of their insurance plans.
“We’re at a crossroads of inspiring people to become more engaged and more accountable for their care,” Smith said. “And that’s the piece we’ve really been focusing in on — how do we inspire them to take part in their own health and wellness?"
The survey of 1,011 U.S. adults found just 7 percent of respondents were successfully able to define four basic health insurance concepts: plan premium, deductible, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum. Part of the problem is that the health care world, even with the advantages of the internet today, can still be complex and often confusing to consumers, Smith said.
Open enrollment season is the number one time that people are looking at policies and options and trying to figure out what they are buying or what they are covered for, Smith said. UnitedHealthcare is beefing up its customer service efforts and trying to “meet consumers where they are” to help them navigate health care options.
“We recognize there is sort of this avoidance or challenge with getting people to take the time reviewing their options so we really have to make that initial experience simple and personable,” Smith said.
Smith said there are two factors are especially important in reaching and inspiring consumers: they want something that is simple and personally meaningful.
“That follow-up is crucial…and that component is usually missing,” Smith said. “We want to be more proactive, connecting to these members, guiding them, educating them and showing them all the resources after they’ve purchased so they can get the best out of their plan.”
The goal is make health care a more understandable, personal experience at all levels, Smith said, and to avoid the occasion of a consumer asking questions like “Why didn’t you tell me…?”
Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.
______________________________________
Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.
I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad. So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad? Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.
Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC. Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy. Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus. That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
If we look at the MARYLAND DAILY RECORD----of course they are business news but they did used to provide some articles holding power accountable. Now Daily Record is folded into Baltimore Sun -----which controls almost all our local printed media.
Industry News Education
Teach for America - Baltimore lands largest gift in its history from local philanthropists
Sep 27, 2016, 7:40am EDT
Morgan Eichensehr Reporter Baltimore Business Journal
Teach For America - Baltimore has received the largest gift in its 24-year history, a pledge from local philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.
The amount of the gift was not disclosed. But previously the largest Teach for America - Baltimore announced was $1 million over four years from Constellation Energy in 2011. Meyerhoff and Becker have supported the organization since 2009, when they made another large donation that allowed the group to double its corps in Baltimore.
The new gift from Meyerhoff and Becker will support Teach for America - Baltimore’s new vision and strategy to better connect and support its network of 1,100 members and alumni.
Since its founding in 1992, the primary focus has been recruiting and developing first and second-year teachers in its local network. Teach for America - Baltimore currently includes over 550 corps members as well as an extended network of alumni working as classroom teachers, school principals and administrators, as well as nonprofit leaders, startup founders, policy makers and advocates.
"What we’ve seen is that the initial belief we had that by recruiting the nation’s most promising future leaders and getting them to teach for two years in low-income schools, it would have a life-changing impact, is really playing out," said Courtney Cass, executive director of Teach For America - Baltimore. "About 89 percent of our network still work directly in education and are having an impact at the school level. But they also don’t know each other."
Through broader programming, Cass said the organization will aim to support a lifelong continuum within its network that includes a focus on recruiting and retaining leaders and providing more intensive and customized support for first and second-year teachers. There will also be a focus on leadership development to alumni through learning communities, which will host peer-to-peer courses throughout the year on topics like starting a nonprofit and how to lead a school. The new strategy, she said, marks a shift from a sort of advising role for alumni to building out a talent-sourcing arm for the organization.
"It's about bringing people together, creating more intensive support models for our teachers and alumni to increase impact," Cass said.
The organization wants to offer its expanding network opportunities "whether you're a 15-year veteran teacher or new principal or an entrepreneur," Cass said, and create a lasting connection among people who share a mission of improving educational inequity.
Morgan is a reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. She covers technology, education and health care.
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Here is Morgan again telling us about global corporate neo-liberal privatization education policy and yes, Baltimore would be ground zero for all those structures and is ground zero for TEACH FOR AMERICA----Baltimore is a far-right neo-conservative Johns Hopkins and Wall Street Baltimore Development----capturing all our local and state pols.
I am sure Morgan is a nice person but we need to know the stances our media take to understand the articles they write are meant to keep us UNINFORMED as to why global corporate policies are bad. So, who is writing why global Wall Street neo-liberal K-university is bad? Find that citizen and you have a left-leaning voice.
Constellation is now global Exelon and Exelon is Chicago and Chicago is one of the most 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL NEO-LIBERALISM outside of NYC. Below we see Exelon which was allowed to build a global corporate headquarters on a Harbor Point deal typically filled with wrongful subsidy. Exelon posed progressive in donating $1 million to build what will be its own corporate charter school on its campus. That was a CHARITABLE DONATION and Exelon donates all over the nation to Teach for America, corporate charter chains, and pols deregulating our public K-university---as in all Baltimore Wall Street player pols.
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Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
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Our Wall Street progressively getting richer former mayor and governor O'Malley brokered this critical energy deal handing our energy to global corporations. O'Malley has of course his Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations that pretend this is all about the poor and jobs.
1% Wall Street pols in Maryland made this merger deal sound environmentally progressive by throwing things like green energy and getting rid of coal---which it did neither.
Constellation Energy, Exelon Corp. to merge in $7.9 billion deal
By: Ben Mook Daily Record Business Writer April 28, 2011
If Exelon Corp. is successful in its acquisition of Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore could become a hub of energy trading and benefit from the addition of jobs, but it would come at a cost — the loss of the city’s only Fortune 500 company headquarters.
On Thursday, the boards of directors of Exelon and Constellation signed off on an all-stock deal valued at $7.9 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Constellation shareholders would get 0.93 shares of Exelon for each share of Constellation. Based on Wednesday’s closing price of Exelon’s shares, Constellation stockholders would receive shares valued at $38.59, an 18 percent premium.
The deal is expected to close in early 2012, and if completed, Exelon shareholders would own 78 percent of the company with Constellation shareholders owning the rest. The deal requires approval from shareholders and regulators at the federal and state levels.
The new company would keep the Exelon name and the headquarters would remain in Chicago. The Constellation name would live on in the new company’s power marketing and retail and wholesale businesses, which would be headquartered in Baltimore. The companies’ renewable energy businesses would also be consolidated and be based in Baltimore.
Constellation’s regulated utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric, would also keep its name and headquarters, but would become a subsidiary of Exelon.
“We believe this brings a whole new growth engine to the Baltimore community,” Exelon CEO John W. Rowe said.
The new company will be led by current Exelon President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher M. Crane, who will be the CEO. Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III will serve as executive chairman, and Rowe will retire after the deal is completed.
Experts approved of the deal, especially for what it brings to shareholders of Constellation.
“We think it’s a very good deal for Constellation shareholders,” said Travis Miller, an analyst with Morningstar Inc., in Chicago. “But, it’s a very poor deal for Exelon shareholders.”
Shares of Constellation closed at $36.26, up $1.96, a 5.7 percent increase. Exelon’s shares gained 69 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $42.18.
To help ease the sting of losing a corporate headquarters, the deal includes a package of investments in the state that the companies said amounts to $250 million. This includes a $100 credit to each BGE customer within 90 days of the deal closing. BGE would see no impact on employment for two years, and the companies agreed to keep charitable giving at $10 million a year for a decade after the close of the deal.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the deal will mean more jobs for the city since the combined company’s biggest growth area — the power marketing, retail and wholesale businesses — would be based in Baltimore.
Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said it was a positive sign that the deal would bring the renewable energy and power trading businesses to Baltimore.
HMMMM---having our own Maryland public energy utility vs having what will be global green corporations. WE WANT OUR ENERGY PUBLIC AND LOCAL!
“New growth industries and new construction are always a plus to the economic and job creation future of a community and serve as a sign of growth and progress,” Fry said in a prepared statement. “The bottom line is that a major employer and corporate leader in Baltimore is evolving to its next stage of growth.”
Shattuck said the combined units in Baltimore would need a larger space than the company’s headquarters along Pratt Street off the Inner Harbor has to offer.
A new office for the company would either be built or significantly renovated to meet green building standards. But, Shattuck said, the location would remain within Baltimore.
“We’re committed to the city,” Shattuck said.
Anirban Basu, CEO of the Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore-based economic and policy consulting firm, said while creation of jobs is always welcome, moving a corporate headquarters out of the city can have a ripple effect. Basu said one area that can be affected is who the company does business with, and where.
“A firm headquartered in Baltimore is more likely to hire an accountant in Baltimore, or bank with bankers in Baltimore,” Basu said. “The loss of another corporate headquarters makes it more likely that business won’t take place in Baltimore — that’s the harm.”
Basu said the loss of Constellation also underscored a recurring theme of businesses in Baltimore being acquired by others outside the city. He pointed to previous sales of institutions like Alex. Brown and Sons and USF&G, which changed hands and saw corporate headquarters leave the city.
“I am really looking forward to when this generation of corporate leaders in Baltimore retires — what they have been very adept at is selling off companies,” Basu said. “They have not created anything like a Microsoft, Sun MicroSystems or an Apple. What they have managed to do is to sell off Baltimore’s most historic and profitable companies.”
Third time’s the charm
The Exelon deal marks the third time in six years that Constellation has tried to sell itself. In 2006, a merger with the Florida Power & Light Co. fell through after significant pushback by elected officials.
In 2008, Constellation was beset with credit concerns and saw its stock and market value plummet and the threat of bankruptcy was even a potential outcome. A deal was quickly enacted to sell the company to Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy for $4.7 billion. But that deal was called off after Constellation agreed to what it considered a better offer from Electricite de France, which bought 49 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business for $4.5 billion.
“Over the last five years, Constellation has consistently been in the market to grow its business, and the easiest way to do that is with a merger,” Morningstar’s Miller said.
Exelon and Constellation officials said they are optimistic the deal will be successful. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Rowe said the Constellation deal was thoroughly examined and the companies were optimistic it made sense and had a good chance of passing regulatory and shareholder approval.
“We are confident we can execute this deal,” Rowe said.
“This one is going to work.”
If the deal falls through, breakup fees would amount to $200 million for Constellation and $800 million for Exelon. The agreement includes provision excluding breakup fees if regulators nix the deal.
Farewell to coal?
The proposed deal will also alter Constellation’s electric generation footprint in Maryland. The companies plan to sell the three coal-fired power plants that Constellation owns — Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane.
HOW IS IT REDUCING COAL-FIRE POLLUTION IF WE ARE SIMPLY SELLING THEM?
The plants, along with Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant, make up the backbone of the state’s generating capability. Together, the plants, which have been outfitted to meet Maryland’s clean air legislation, can generate 2,648 megawatts of electricity.
“Those are valuable assets,” Exelon’s Crane said.
But with stringent federal air pollution regulations looming, the demand for coal-fired plants is not strong.
“We really don’t think the companies will get top dollar for those plants,” Miller said.
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All US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones like Baltimore have had their global corporate campus or two taking all revenue these few decades. Moving Forward means adding more and more global corporate campuses and as we do they continue to be made the only game in town for everything---from job creation to charity, from subsidiary businesses filling our local economies to creating corporate non-profits to write all our societal policies. Once only Johns Hopkins'/Wall Street's job we are now blessed with one more global corporate campus patron.
We discussed how venture capitalists and innovation investment funds are targeting only ONLINE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES because these are the ones Wall Street wants to grab if a startup becomes successful. These startup competitions will first be awarded skewed to individual connections----then by ability to succeed----the funding that comes then goes if the business is successful making these ENTREPRENEURS sell out, go out of business, but certainly not allowed to be local business competition to existing corporations.
Federal, state, and local funding going to this UNDERARMOUR global campus is tracked into these economic innovation schemes. IT'S ALL ABOUT JOB CREATION!
In just a few years of being told UnderArmour was are new global corporate rule campus----we have UnderArmour subsidiary businesses everywhere. We have UnderArmour development and global real estate, UnderArmour as corporate sponsors for schools, events, all coming with a free UnderArmour TEE SHIRT----or school uniform. When the Asian nations saw Wall Street International Economic Zones installed---as South Korea, Singapore, China-----this is the same slow walk to re-educating citizens that they are human capital owned and operated by those global corporate campuses.
ANYONE UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS AND FREE MARKET KNOWS THAT EXTREME MONOPOLY IS NOT FOUND IN GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT.
Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta City
A file photo of the City Garage property in Port Covington.
(Caitlin Faw / Baltimore Sun)
Sarah GantzContact Reporter
The Baltimore Sun
Eight startups to pitch during venture contest during Beta CityEight startups will face off Thursday in a pitch competition for investments at City Garage, the bus depot-turned-innovation center by Sagamore Ventures.
The Venture Capital Pitch Day is part of Beta City, a day-long startup showcase put on by Sagamore Ventures, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank's private venture investing arm, and Betamore. Beta City, now in its second year, aims to cast Baltimore as an emerging hub for entrepreneurship and technology, by highlighting promising young companies and entrepreneurs.
During the pitch contest, companies will present their business plans to a panel of judges, who will award about $75,000 in prizes.
Here are the companies that will be pitching:
•Emocha, a mobile health platform being used to improve medication adherence;
•Fixt, a mobile app for smartphone maintenance and repairs;
•Sickweather, a company using social media networks to map and track illness in real-time;
Caption Google competes with Amazon Prime
Caption Young men choosing video games over working, study says•
Sisu Global Health, a medical technology company developing health care tools for underdeveloped countries;
•SnobSwap, an e-commerce platform for consignment boutiques;
•Tissue Analytics, a mobile app used to track wound healing;
•TopBox, asoftware program that helps call centers analyze customer issues;
•Workbench, an online community for makers, educators and students connect and share projects.
Another 17 companies were selected to present their companies at booths set up inside City Garage.
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'Kevin Plank grew up in Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C., one of five brothers. His father William was a prominent Maryland land developer. His mother, Jayne (née Harper), is a former mayor of Kensington, who went on to direct the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Department of State under President Ronald Reagan'.[3]
I'm not trying to debunk that almost all of today's billionaires are not self-made success stories in business--I simply want to debunk all the national and local media that tries to sell this idea to WE THE PEOPLE. These are not people who come up with that great idea----it is highly likely a research facility like Johns Hopkins developed UnderArmour sports material that went on to be those sports wear people love to buy. Guess who could have BOUGHT that patent? Plank's rich father and mother no doubt would give him a financial boost. So, what happens when someone buys that patent especially from an IVY LEAGUE like Johns Hopkins? Well, that self-made PLANK immediately gets investment funds from global investment firms, hedge funds, and other global Wall Street
Investment firms. Did Plank really sell his products from the back of a vehicle filing funding requests and other ordinary steps WE THE PEOPLE are told we must take? Not likely.
When Plank took his Wall Street funding overseas to International Economic Zones---he then had all the help of our Federal IMPORT EXPORT BANK that simply subsidizes the global expansion of already rich people. We know the rest as UnderArmour is known as a global sweat shop factory manufacturing in those International Economic Zones.
'Plank grew up playing football for the Maplewood Maple Leafs, which have appeared in a few Under Armour commercials. He left Georgetown Preparatory School because of poor academic performance and behavioral issues, but went on to play football at Fork Union Military Academy. He graduated from St. John's College High School.[4] He later attended the University of Maryland and graduated in 1996.[5]
Plank married Desiree Guerzon in 2003.[6] Plank has made donations to numerous Republican candidates, including $2,000 to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in 2008.[7][8]
According to Federal Election Commission, Plank has donated to both parties and to individuals of both parties'.
'In 2013, Plank purchased a mansion in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. for $7.85 million'.
What should be part of Baltimore's public transportation has been outsourced from corporate non-profit to now simply global corporations. Global VEOLA Transportation was in the running ---but WE THE PEOPLE----not so much.
Under Armour Founder to Take Over Baltimore’s Water Taxis
August 19, 2016
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank hopes to buy the company that operates Baltimore’s Water Taxis, Harbor Boating Inc. Harbor Boating was founded in the 1970s and has been the city’s sole water taxi operator since 2005. The company operates both the water taxi, which caters to tourists, and the free Harbor Connector Service for commuters.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Board of Estimates is expected to approve an agreement that would give Harbor Boating exclusive rights to the city’s docks and wharves for at least 20 years, renewable for up to 10 more.
New water taxi design to be launched by Sagamore Ventures. Photo courtesy Baltimore Sun
Plank’s firm, Sagamore Ventures, is expected to purchase Harbor Boating as the city agrees to award the firm another long-term contract to operate passenger service around the Inner Harbor. The purchase is expected to close in 30 days if the city contract is approved.
Sagamore plans to add new boats to the line, more stops, longer hours, and an on-demand offering in conjunction with Uber. The goal is also to bridge the gap between the $8 one-way tourist prices and the commuter-friendly fares. Price changes are expected to appear next spring. The first new vessel in the line, which will be able to carry about 50 people, should be ready for launch this fall.
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