Reform-minded Md. skips health accounts. (Maryland stops introduction of medical savings accounts)

Medical savings accounts will start showing up across the country in a few weeks, but Maryland isn't embracing the controversial federal experiment.

The accounts, one of the most debated and criticized provisions of this summer's federal health reform legislation, conflict with Maryland's much-lauded small business insurance reform plan, according to state regulators.

As a result, the state's Health Care Access and Cost Commission has decided not to make them available to small businesses here - at least not right away.

"The commission had some serious concerns," said John M. Colmers, executive director of the state's Health Care Access and Cost …