ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995              TAG: 9512260054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: HOLIDAY 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press 

UVA MEDICAL SCHOOL TO SEEK MORE MONEY REQUEST GOING TO LEGISLATORS

University of Virginia officials say they will ask the General Assembly to increase state medical education spending by $10.4 million over the next two years.

The university's medical school dean said the school will take its plea to legislators because the request was not included in Gov. George Allen's 1996-98 budget, which was released last week.

School officials say the state will need to pick up more of the tab for training medical students as market-oriented reforms in health care threaten to cut the amount of money University of Virginia doctors take in.

The $10.4 million would help offset anticipated losses in revenue, which could drop by up to 25 percent in the next five years, officials said.

As revenues drop, doctors will have an incentive to spend more time with patients and less time with students, said Dr. Robert M. Carey, dean of the UVa School of Medicine.

In the past, university doctors could charge a higher price for their services, meaning they could teach without taking as much of a hit on the bottom line.

Now, the market is destroying this ``differential fee structure'' and doctors can no longer subsidize the costs of teaching, Carey said.

If the state doesn't increase the amount it contributes, officials said the doctors will be placed at a competitive disadvantage with private physicians who don't have to worry about finding time to teach students.

``In order to attract and retain outstanding faculty ... we have to pay a market price,'' said Carey. ``At some point, we begin losing people.''

The medical school's request includes funding for the state's generalist initiative, which aims at training more general practitioners and fewer specialists.

The medical school has pledged that it will reduce the number of specialist doctors it trains. But training generalists is time-intensive, Carey said, meaning the state must come through with the money if the medical school is to develop more primary care doctors.

``We're not simply calling out for help without taking actions ourselves,'' Carey said. ``We're taking these actions to preserve and defend the medical school.''

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