HEALTH

Study Supports View That HMOs Save Money: The Price Waterhouse study was done for the American Assn. of Health Plans, a trade group for managed-care companies. Researchers found it would cost the government more if Medicare patients now in health maintenance organizations switched back to fee-for-service care. That contradicts oft-cited findings by Mathematica Policy Research, which based its conclusions on 1989 data. That study supports the idea that HMOs attract a younger, healthier portion of the over-65 Medicare population and that it would therefore cost Medicare less if those people had fee-for-service coverage. The newer study reached its conclusion based on 1992 data. Price Waterhouse health analyst John Rodgers said the reason for the different conclusions is not clear but that he suspects it is that the managed-care sector has “matured and grown substantially” in the last few years.