93-12-08 Development of a regional health care system

RELEASE ON RECEIPT

                                               Contact: Tom Doran
     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 8 -- Development of a regional
health care system through a partnership of community hospitals
and physicians and the University of Virginia Health Sciences
Center shifted into higher gear this week.
     Capping six months of preliminary studies with the aid of
consultants, the regional approach to managed care won
enthusiastic support on Monday from the Health Affairs Committee
of U.Va.'s Board of Visitors.
     Rector Hovey Dabney urged center officials to go "full speed
ahead" on the plan, aimed at creating a network that would
actively seek the involvement of most health care facilities and
physicians in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Board
members had been briefed on the plan in earlier meetings.
     Dr. Don E. Detmer, vice president and provost for health
sciences, outlined the plan after Monday's board meeting.
     As envisioned in talks to date, he said, people would enroll
in the plan through employers or individually and be able to
choose a primary physician who was a member of the regional
system.
     Primary physicians could refer patients to other sources of
care within the network such as specialty clinics, community
hospitals or the U.Va. Medical Center with its array of
specialists and advanced technologies if needed.
     In most cases, care at any level within the network, by
physicians and facilities
participating in the plan, would be covered by the patient's
membership fees. Those who sought care outside of the network
could do so, but would be responsible for part of the resulting
charges.
     University officials have held discussions with governing
boards and executives of hospitals in the region on how the
system might be organized and have sought the advice of scores of
physicians, Detmer added.
     "Our goal is to develop a plan that will meet the challenge
of proposed health care reforms and accommodate the various plans
needed to provide coverage for the people of this region,"  he
said.
     "We intend to give people who enroll in the plan a choice of
physicians, while controlling costs by better management of the
region's resources through close cooperation and information-
sharing among its care providers.
     "For patients, the regional network would help to ensure
access to the most effective human and technological resources as
needed. Such access is a major problem in some of the rural areas
of Central and Western Virginia.
     "This region has an exciting opportunity to be in the
vanguard of effective health care reform, and the reactions we've
experienced to date are most encouraging."
     Detmer said the regional network would be governed by a
board of directors composed of representatives of community
hospitals and physician groups, community
leaders and officials of the University. The Health Sciences
Center would provide start-up funding for the system, and if
final approval is granted by the full Board of Visitors early
next year implementation of the plan is scheduled to begin next
summer.
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[Submitted by: unknown (cab2j@dmt03.mcc.virginia.edu)
               08 Dec 93 14:13:37 EDT]