
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994                    TAG: 9406200209 
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY                     PAGE: 21    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Short 
DATELINE: 940620                                 LENGTH:

HEALTH CARE: "IT'S HARD TO PREDICT WHAT WILL HAPPEN"

{LEAD} Ask anyone with a view from the top what's likely to happen in health care this year, and the answers come as no real surprise: More managed care. More grouping of physicians. More out-patient services. Slightly higher prices.

As the industry awaits a verdict from Congress on reform, expect hospitals to continue the ``vertical integration'' that began several years ago, says Douglas L. Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Tidewater Health Care Inc.

{REST} By that he means the modern hospital system will not only have a place to deliver care - the hospital itself - but an insurance company to offer customers coverage and doctors to provide the care.

``It's hard to predict what will happen,'' says Glenn R. Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of Sentara Health System. ``This is a dynamic time in health care. I don't recall another time when it was like this.''

{KEYWORDS} ALMANAC

by CNB