THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080379
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
The state's three medical schools released a report Wednesday that says they pump $2.7 billion into Virginia's economy.
Hampton Roads' Eastern Virginia Medical School, the report says, accounts for about one-third of that.
The announcement comes with a challenge of sorts from the schools, squeezed by funding cuts on all sides: Virginians must think about how the schools benefit them and how much they're willing to pay to train future doctors.
EVMS, a private school that gets some money from state and local governments, is asking the General Assembly for about half a million dollars more to fund a program to train primary care doctors. The school currently gets about $12 million a year from the state.
The others - the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and the Medical College of Virginia, part of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond - are public schools. U.Va. is asking for $5.2 million more a year; MCV is seeking $6.7 million more.
The institutions, like other medical schools around the country, face a triple threat:
Insurance companies - which financed medical education by paying for the cutting-edge care at teaching facilities - are shrinking payments and limiting patients' access to high-tech specialty care.
The government is cutting back on programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the other key sources of patient-care money.
Money to support research is dwindling.
To add to the pressure, a national committee of health-policy experts recently declared that America has too many medical schools and that some schools should close.
Virginia's schools, like their counterparts around the country, have been reorganizing to survive.
EVMS is revamping its doctors' clinical practices to make them more efficient while keeping them attractive to patients. Eventually, the school might act as a sort of health maintenance organization, contracting directly with employers to provide medical services to employees.
U.Va. and MCV are asking the General Assembly for greater autonomy in how they run their organizations.
But cost cutting and reorganizing isn't enough, said Don Combs, EVMS's vice president for planning and program development. These tactics will help the schools survive, but they won't be enough to fund education.
``In the future, there's going to have to be more support'' from the state, he said.
In return, the schools contribute to the economy in broad and complex ways, says the report, from direct spending like salaries and equipment purchases to indirect spending by patients who come from out of state and buy meals at local restaurants.
The report, for which the three schools paid a total of about $30,000, was done by Tripp-Umbach Associates of Pittsburgh.
Last fall, another report commissioned by EVMS and done by staffers at Old Dominion University showed that EVMS contributed about half a billion dollars annually to Hampton Roads' economy. This latest report puts the school's contribution at almost twice that - $923 million - to the state overall.
The difference occurs partly because this latest study counts revenue generated by five Hampton Roads hospitals that serve as teaching hospitals.
These hospitals don't belong to EVMS, however. Unlike its sister schools, EVMS does not own a hospital, although it is closely affiliated with Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
But the presence of EVMS improves the quality of local hospitals, said Comb.
``You get specialty services that (local hospitals) would not otherwise have,'' he said. ``Without the medical school, there's no question. . . that they would be less.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE FINDINGS
According to their report, Virginia's three medical schools:
Contribute $2.7 billion to Virginia's economy.
Provide 58,000 jobs, directly and indirectly.
Spur $116 million in state tax revenue.
Attracted $160 million in research funds last year.
by CNB