THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 2, 1995 TAG: 9505020302
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
The Department of Defense awarded a $63 million contract Monday to Norfolk-based Options Mental Health for care of military families at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
It was the third big contract Options has won recently. A subsidiary of First Hospital Corp., Options landed back-to-back contracts in December and January worth a combined $56 million a year to provide mental-health services to 160,000 people in Colorado and Nebraska.
The Fort Bragg contract, effective Oct. 1, covers an estimated 111,000 military personnel and their families. It offers care and counseling for disorders such as anxiety and depression and for help in fighting drug and alcohol abuse, said Dr. James J. James, senior vice president of Options.
The contract will mean about 20 to 30 new jobs in North Carolina, and perhaps one or two additional staff in Norfolk, James estimated.
In choosing Options, the Pentagon also showed a slow but significant shift in how it wants to deliver health care to the armed forces across the globe.
Instead of going to a base clinic or selecting a doctor from a government-approved list, personnel are receiving more and more care from managed-health providers, such as Options.
Under the Options plan, for example, a troubled Fort Bragg beneficiary can call a diagnostic hot line and talk to a trained expert about his or her problem. The expert then can suggest a counselor, doctor or psychiatrist to visit.
The idea is to save both the patient and health care system time and money.
``Because we offer military families a wide range of mental-health services, we have been able to both increase access and manage costs,'' said Dr. Ronald T. Dozoretz, president and chief executive officer of First Hospital Corp. Health Systems, which controls Options.
Options has proved itself to the military by running the Tricare Tidewater Project in Hampton Roads. For six years, the company has offered mental-health services to more than 270,000 beneficiaries in the area, while reducing health costs and doubling the amount of patients seen, company officials say.
Formed in 1986 by Dozoretz, Options employs about 350 people in Norfolk. It serves more than 2 million people, including clients from Norfolk Southern Corp. and military personnel under the CHAMPUS benefits plan.
Under its agreement announced Monday with the Department of Defense, Options has five one-year contracts totaling $63 million. ILLUSTRATION: Color graphic
The Recent Growth of First Hospital Corp.<
A look at the Norfolk-based operator of psychiatric and
mental-health plans
Color photo Founder: Dr. Ronald I. Dozoretz
Headquarters: 240 Corporate Blvd., Norfolk.
Number of workers: 4,500 nationwide
1,700 in Hampton Roads
Revenue: more than $200 million
For complete copy of graphic, see microfilm.
by CNB