Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Plan to Push HMOs for Elderly Is Fading

Clinton Administration officials say they will not push Medicare patients to join health maintenance organizations, partly because the government loses money on them, the New York Times reported. Bruce C. Vladeck, head of the agency that runs Medicare, said he would not aggressively promote HMOs until he could guarantee consistent high-quality care and a better way of paying for it, the newspaper reported. Medicare officials had once insisted that HMOs would raise the quality of care for the elderly and save money. But a new study found that the government paid 5.7% more for Medicare patients in HMOs than for patients in the regular Medicare program.