CorVel Posts Impressive Fiscal Gains : Workers’ comp: The nation’s agitation over soaring medical costs lifts company to new heights in profit and revenue.

CorVel Corp., a provider of managed health care programs in the workers’ compensation field, on Tuesday reported record profit and revenue for its latest fiscal year.

CorVel President Gordon Clemons said that nationwide concern over rising health costs has helped the company expand rapidly and swiftly diversify its services.

Last quarter, the Irvine-based company introduced a new line of health information work stations for employers and insurers to help hospitals and clinics become more efficient. The desktop information systems allow customers to tap directly into CorVel’s database for quick access to information.

“The heightened national interest in controlling health care costs is bringing rapid change to the managed care market,” said Gordon Clemons, CorVel president.

The company has also expanded its patient management services with so-called preferred provider organizations--physician groups that offer discounted treatments.

For the year ending March 31, CorVel reported net income of $4.4 million, or $1.01 a share, up 76% from annual profit of $2.5 million, or 61 cents a share, for the previous fiscal year.

Annual revenue for the past fiscal year was $80.6 million, up 30.4% from annual revenue of $61.8 million for the year before.

The company reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.2 million, or 29 cents a share, compared to profit of $755,000, or 18 cents a share, for the previous fourth quarter. Quarterly revenue was $21.5 million, compared to $17.3 million in revenue for the year ago fourth quarter.

CorVel’s announcement caused the company’s shares to jump $1 on the Nasdaq market, closing Tuesday at $25 a share.

The performance is impressive, considering CorVel shares sold at $10 when the company went public in June, 1991, said Leonard S. Jaffe, a health care analyst for Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.

“They have been very successful,” said Jaffe, adding that Montgomery Securities has issued a buy recommendation on CorVel.

Jaffe said that the company has plans to diversify further, and hopes to offer its cost-saving programs to health care companies and insurance carriers outside the workers’ compensation field in the next few years.

For now, however, Jaffe suggests the company continue its focus on the workers’ compensation.

“Workers’ compensation cost containment is one of the last frontiers of health care to come under managed-care constraints,” Jaffe said. “It is something that has been neglected for too long.”