Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994                   TAG: 9411040087
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LICENSE APPROVED FOR HMO

A North Carolina company has become the first licensed health maintenance organization in Western Virginia.

The State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance has approved a license for Partners National Health Plans of North Carolina Inc., the Winston-Salem-based health maintenance organization said Thursday.

An HMO is a type of prepaid group medical practice with a defined patient population, such as the employees of specific businesses. Generally, each patient pays a set fee regardless of the medical services used.

Partners' license allows the company to operate in Roanoke, Carroll, Franklin, Grayson, Henry, Patrick and Pittsylvania counties and the cities of Roanoke, Martinsville, Danville and Galax.

The first Virginia business that Partners has signed to provide health care is the 5,500-employee Bassett-Walker Inc. of Henry County, a division of the V.F. Corp. of Reading, Pa., according to Stuart Veach, Partners' vice president.

Partners, a privately owned company, has been in business since 1986 and has grown 30 percent yearly since then, Veach said. The company serves 80,000 patients in North Carolina and is licensed to provide health care in all of North Carolina's 100 counties, he said.

His company eventually plans to open an office in Virginia. The office may be in Roanoke but the location will depend on where most of the company's patients are located, Veach said.

Partners has been negotiating with both Carilion Health Systems and Lewis-Gale Hospital as a potential health care provider in the Roanoke area, Veach said.

Other HMOs are in the works in the area. John Deere Health Care's Heritage National Healthplan recently signed a letter of intent with the Carilion Provider Network of hospitals and doctors to serve its subscribers. John Deere, an Illinois company, plans to have its managed care available by Jan. 1.

Carilion also is creating an HMO with Trigon-Blue Cross/Blue Shield that is expected to be up and running soon.