Tony Ondrusek, Publisher

The former CEO of Maryland’s CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, William L. Jews, must feel as if he is Alice magically falling into Wonderland.How else could one possibly rationalize Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler’s ruling against a previously approved exit compensation package for Mr. Jews, which permits CareFirst to pay Mr. Jews only half of what they originally agreed to?The original compensation agreement in the early 1990’s for the man who helped get CareFirst back on track in its organization, marketing and distribution was approved by none less than: a Democrat-majority committee in the Maryland General Assembly; a Democrat-majority of legislators in the General Assembly; a proclaimed Democrat insurance commissioner who was appointed by a Democrat state governor; and said Democrat state governor. A few years later, in 2003, no one squawked when the General Assembly passed legislation that would require a “revisit” to Mr. Jews’ contract by the CareFirst board; a review that  found Mr. Jews’ contract to be ethical and legal.Now, jump ahead a few more years, and a new Democrat insurance commissioner, appointed by a new Democrat governor, wants to grab some headlines by saying that Mr. Jews’ compensation package is “illegal.”Illegal? This coming from a Harvard-educated attorney?Certainly, Mr. Jews’ contract calls for him to get a boatload of money ($18 million-plus), more than this publisher would ever expect to receive in the form of a “golden parachute,” or the $2.2 million in annual compensation he eventually received during his 13 years at the CareFirst helm. A sum that is nothing but a dream to most blue- and white-collar workers.And it appears to many that a non-profit should not pay that kind of money to a chief executive.But the guy had a contract. And not just any contract. It was a contract scrutinized, sanitized and approved by virtually everyone in power in Maryland at the time, including, we are told, the janitor who cleaned the restrooms in the state house. No one – read: NO ONE — made noise about the contract when it was written and approved, or reviewed and approved a second time.Even former insurance commissioners (from other states) and experts testified in the recent hearings that Mr. Jews’ contract with CareFirst was legal, and that his compensation package was not out of line with what his peers in other states make. Not one person in Mr. Tyler’s witch-hunt hearings testified that the contact was illegal; not one.A big sticking point, and one that might be stuck in current Gov. Martin O’Malley’s and Commissioner Tyler’s collective craws, is that Mr. Jews tried unsuccessfully to convert CareFirst into a for-profit entity. In a Democrat-controlled state such as Maryland (which has had one Republican governor in the past four decades, and which last had a Republican general assembly when cars were called “horseless carriages”) that is tantamount to high treason.Needless to say, Mr. Jew’s proposal was soundly opposed by many Democrat powers that be (including former Insurance Commissioner Steven B. Larsen, who went on to become head of Gov. O’Malley’s Public Utility Commission, which coincidentally was not able to stop exorbitant electric and gas rate increases, but I digress), and they went so far as to enact legislation that brought CareFirst under the strict oversight of the state.The insurance commissioner and the General Assembly all opposed Mr. Jews’ proposal to turn the company for-profit. So what is one of the reasons Commissioner Tyler gives to show that Mr. Jews’ performance as CEO was less than stellar? That he wasn’t able to turn CareFirst for-profit!!Here, directly from the Maryland Insurance Administration’s press release, explaining Mr. Tyler’s rationale: “The former CEO’s mixed record of achievement, prominently including the failed transaction which he championed to convert the company to a for-profit entity and have it acquired,” was one reason the contract was illegal.Mr. Tyler further goes on to state that Mr. Jews’ contract was illegal for a slew of other reasons, and further states that he reviewed more than 1,400 pages of testimony from recent hearings and “nearly 400″ legal cases.But in this case, Mr. Tyler — a former state deputy attorney general, private practice attorney, and chief legal counsel to the governor — has rejected contract law in favor of a page quite different from the 1,400 cited above: the front page of the local newspaper.

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