Ford Loan Aids Area Health Plan

The Harvard Community Health Plan (HCHP) has moved out of the experimental stage after one year of operation and has recently received a $600,000 Ford Foundation loan, Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Medical School and the plan's president, announced last week.

The plan is the first prepaid health care delivery program by a university for persons from a variety of income levels.

"The plan is the boldest undertaken by any medical school and is a financially viable plan that can serve as a model for the rest of the country," Dr. Quigg Newton, president of the Commonwealth Fund, which provided the initial funding, said.

The HCHP provides a means of linking existing arrangements for first-rate group medical practice to group health insurance. Blue Cross of Massachusetts and ten other insurance companies are cooperating with the plan to provide employees of 170 groups and their families with total out-patient and hospital medical coverage.

The groups, which range from small law firms to giant corporations, give employees a choice of traditional medical insurance or the more extensive Harvard plan. Though only 7,500 are currently enrolled in the program, the plan's officials hope for an enrollment of 30,000 by 1972.

Small Cost

Premiums cost about $51 per month for a family of any size and $18 per month for a single person. Subscribers receive care at the center in Kenmore Square from a staff of 26 full-time salaried physicians.

Families on public welfare in the Mis-sion Hill section of Roxbury, a section of Boston, are also covered by the plan. Their participation enabled the plan to receive a grant of $550,000 from the Public Health Service. The grant allows the plan to subsidize on a sliding scale basis premium payments for low-income families.

The grant stipulates that the plan must be run in part by the community. In fact, the community does have majority control of the plan. A board of directors, composed of seven community members, and a policy board, composed of four community members and three Harvard appointees, head the plan.

Sources in the community indicated yesterday that there has been some disagreement over the management of the program.

These sources said a rift has developed between the board of directors and the policy board members, which has allegedly resulted in the stifling of the community voice in the program.