The bill also provides for four days of care after Caesarean births, twice the current standard in many managed-care contracts.

You have to be at least our size to get managed-care contracts.

The insurers agreed in return to strengthen business relations with National Medical, including an opportunity to negotiate managed-care contracts, the company said.

The company excited investors last week when it announced $25 million in new managed-care contracts for mental health services and its shares climbed $6.625, to $25.50.

Among doctors who work in group practices, the share of such managed-care contracts was 89 percent by 1993, up sharply from 56 percent the year before.

Yet the analysis shows that even when discounts and managed-care contracts are considered, Columbia's prices for in-the-hospital services are higher than average.

They are now negotiating with medical companies to create this spring what would be the largest managed-care contract for inmates in the country.

Last year, 92 percent of the nation's physicians had some type of managed-care contract, according to the American Medical Association.

And they are looking to sign more managed-care contracts, in an effort to diversify.

It has courted managed-care contracts, streamlined billing and improved primary care.