CAMARILLO : HMO Seeks OK for Medical Building

In an effort to retain more doctors who practice family medicine, Foundation Health Inc. will ask the Camarillo Planning Commission tonight to approve its proposal to build a 19,120-square-foot building in eastern Camarillo.

The single-story building would include examining rooms, X-ray laboratories and a pharmacy, said company spokesman Kurt Davis. The building is proposed for a vacant three-acre parcel near Adolfo Road and Avenida Acaso.

Davis said that health maintenance organizations such as Foundation Health have recently found themselves vying with other organizations to retain general medical practitioners.

Currently, about a dozen doctors under contract with the company run their practices out of their own facilities.

“Basically, we are offering our doctors a chance to work in a facility that would house all of their basic medical needs under one roof,” Davis said. “They would be left alone to practice the art of medicine and not have to worry about the overhead.” Davis said the project will cost the company an estimated $4 million to $5 million and could be completed by June, 1995.

Foundation Health is the largest group health-care provider in Ventura County with more than 30,000 members. The company is currently considering plans to build similar-sized buildings in Ventura and Oxnard, Davis said.

The Planning Commission will consider the application tonight at 7:30 at City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive.