Northwest Medical Services Organization, a nonprofit doctors group formed here about six years ago, is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, says Jason Sargent, its top management executive.


Since last fall, the provider-sponsored entity, which is set up to manage care much like a conventional health-maintenance organization, has added about 300 doctors, giving it about 950 now in seven Eastern Washington counties, he says.


Meanwhile, it and its main Spokane-based affiliate, the Northside Physician Hospital Network, have increased to nearly 50,000 the combined number of people to whom theyre providing health-care services, he says. Thats up from about 18,000 last fall.


The bulk of that increase came at the beginning of this month, when the doctors group began providing care to about 17,000 QualMed commercial health-plan members in Spokane, Ferry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille counties. Some of this months increase also was due to a commercial expansion into the Yakima area, where Northwest MSO already had been providing care to some state Medicaid patients.


I think its been an excellent growth, Sargent says. He adds that technology, such as a specialized HMO computer operating system and a proprietary intranet for exchanging information about patient issues and referrals electronically, has given us the tools we needed to expand rapidly.


While Northwest MSO and Northside Physician Hospital Network provide care through health plans they contract with, theyre unlike health insurers in that they dont provide insurance coverage for care.


Sargent is CEO of HealthLink Inc., a management subsidiary formed by Northwest Medical Services Organization. HealthLink now employs about 75 people, all full time, which is up from about 40 people last fall. It handles all of the administrative needs of the doctors group and its affiliates, including another provider-sponsored organization called the Northwest Mental Health Network, and also markets administrative services to individual doctors offices, medical clinics, and managed-care organizations.


Those services range from case and claims management to billing, marketing, customer service, and even physician recruitment. In return, HealthLink retains a percentage of the premiums paid to health-care providers that use its services.


It recently has begun garnering some of that type of administrative business outside of Eastern Washington. For example, a group of hospitals and doctors that bought a 20,000-member health plan in the San Francisco Bay area has contracted with HealthLink for all of the processing and information systems needed to administer the plan, Sargent says. They also want us to work with them on risk management, he says.


HealthLinks administrative offices occupy about 6,000 square feet of space, including all of the fifth floor and part of the third floor, in Gateway Building No. 5, at 140 S. Arthur. The management company recently leased another 6,000 square feet of space in the nearby single-story Gateway Building No. 2 and is setting up a processing center there, Sargent says.


He predicted in an interview last year that HealthLink would distribute more than $50 million in health-services premiums to doctors and hospitals in 1998.


Northwest MSO was formed by 128 North Side doctors here. It joined with Holy Family Hospital in the fall of 1993 to create the Northside Physician Hospital Network, which was Spokanes first physician-hospital organization (PHO). A PHO differs from other types of health-care delivery systems in that the participating hospitals and doctors share a financial stake in the system.