Harvard Opens Health Facility Near Kenmore

The Harvard Community Health Plan (HCHP), a health maintenance organization, has opened a new health care facility near Kenmore Square in Boston.

The new Kenmore center, at 2 Fenway Plaza, will be able to provide comprehensive out-patient care to 40,000 of the plan's 80,000 members, Deborah Doyle, assistant to the president of HCHP, said yesterday.

An alternative to traditional health insurance policies, the HCHP has grown at a rate of 15 per cent per year since it was founded in 1969, Doyle said. Its rapid growth has necessitated expansion of its three centers, she added. Additional facilities are planned in Medford and Wellesley.

The program is not formally affiliated with Harvard University, although it was established by the Medical School. HCHP centers are staffed by Harvard-trained physicians, most of whom teach at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gordon T. Moore '59, medical director of HCHP, said yesterday the success of the program stems from the quality of its physicians and nurses.

"We are able to offer quality medical care at affordable prices, and people are pretty interested," Moore said.

The HCHP lowers medical care costs by decreasing the need for hospitalization, Thomas O. Pyle, president of the plan, said yesterday.

The HCHP sends patients requiring hospitalization to Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals.

The HCHP physicians are salaried and do not charge additional fees when a patient is hospitalized, Pyle said. Any monetary incentive to put patients in the hospital is thus removed, he added.

The HCHP physicians can also reduce hospitalization time because its centers provide many hospital services, such as laboratory and x-ray, on an out-patient basis, Pyle said.

Although individuals can join the program, 95 per cent of HCHP members have joined through an employer. The $118 monthly family fee is usually deducted from the employee's paycheck, Doyle said.