University Announces New Health Services

An intensive health and safety program will be available to all Faculty members and employees of the University beginning July 1, the Administration announced yesterday.

The University, through its various schools, will bear about 40 percent of the cost of the insurance plan, and will provide several other services.

Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, Director of University Health Services, outlined the new plan as follows:

1) A health survey, including a physical examination, will be made for any member of the Faculty or permanent employee who desires it. The purpose of the survey is to detect any existing trouble and to provide essential basic data for the individual's future medical care.

Farnsworth pointed out that the combined results of the health inventory would be helpful in any efforts to minimize the harmful effects of stress on members of the University.

2) Medical and hospital insurance, optional for the individual, will be handled through the Blue Cross-Blue Shield organization, which now has a unit at Harvard.

With University financial support, how-ever, the coverage will be more extensive than in the past, although fees will not increase.

For a man or his wife, or any child up to 19 (up to 23 if still in college or graduate school), the plan will pay 80 per cent of all medical bills up to $10,000. Where family income is moderate, the insurance will cover full cost of medical and surgical care up to the maximum.

For this protection, a single person will pay $36 a year, and the head of a household $96.

3) When the University builds its new Health Center, Faculty members and employees will be able to consult doctors for diagnosis or emergency treatment and for preventive medicine procedures. Such persons will also be eligible to use Still-man Infirmary.

4) A new division of Environmental Health and Safety in the University Health Service will assist various parts of the University in setting health and safety standards for the protection of students, Faculty and employees.

Farnsworth expressed his belief that a "program of preventive medicine and health education, the saving of time to the individual in the case of minor illness, and the spreading of the costs of major and catastrophic illnesses will add immeasurably to the attractiveness and satisfaction of working for Harvard."