Section: CAPITAL REGION
Page: B8

Friday, May 17, 1996

RUSSIAN MEDICAL OFFICIALS STUDY HMO SYSTEM

BOB GARDINIER Staff writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Four Russian health care specialists touring a local health maintenance organization this week saw patients getting everything from dental to dermatology care at one facility.

``They are surprised at how user-friendly the system can be,'' said Warren Paley, chairman of the board of Community Health Plan.

The four specialists, all from Moscow, included the minister and the deputy minister of health for the Russian Federation, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the deputy director of the State Central Scientific Medical Library. They toured CHP offices in Latham and Saratoga Springs.``For us, it's a big problem to make the right decision between out-patient and in-patient care,'' said Vladmir Shabalin, deputy minister. Most people who seek medical care in Russian, Shabalin said, end up as in-patients, crowding hospitals and rendering care tedious and time consuming.

``The quantity of procedures which we have seen here available in one place will give us ideas to change our system,'' Shabalin said through interpreter Dr. Michael Dubrovsky of Albany, a Moscow native and now a physician at CHP.

From the Saratoga Springs offices, the group went to to CHP Schenectady facility and then to Skaneateles to tour Welch Allyn, a manufacturer of primary care equipment.

The visit was an outgrowth of the cooperation between the Albany-Tula Alliance, CHP and Albany Medical College, which are working to bring managed care to Russia. Some 65,000 residents in Tula, Albany's sister city, will be enrolled in a demonstration project by the year's end.

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