June 23, 1984

Congressional taxwriters have taken a tentative step toward imposing price controls on the medical profession by proposing to freeze Medicare fees for 15 months and assess penalties against doctors in the program who increase their charges. The step came Thursday night in a compromise agreement of House and Senate members seeking to reduce the Federal deficit, but its full effect on the Federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled did not become apparent until today. House-Senate conference deliberations on overall deficit-reducing legislation continued today. (Page 8.) The move was criticized as coercion by some medical societies and praised as progress against soaring health costs by the American Association of Retired Persons. (Page 9.)

United States intelligence sources uncovered a plot by right-wing Salvadoran extremists to kill the United States Ambassador here last month, according to an Administration official in Washington and two sources in El Salvador. They said Roberto d'Aubuisson, leader of the National Republican Alliance, known as Arena, was among a small group of Arena members who were said to have planned to kill the Ambassador, Thomas R. Pickering. (In Washington, senior officials confirmed that the Administration had learned of a right-wing Salvadoran plot to assassinate the Ambassador and that a high-level official had been sent to El Salvador to issue warnings to the plot leaders. (Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, who had been a strong supporter of Mr. d'Aubuisson's candidacy, said: ''I think it's an absolute falsehood. There is no evidence that I have seen that he is contended to have been linked'' to the reported plot to murder Mr. Pickering. Page 5.)

It began, innocently enough, with a series of late-night cab rides. When Kenneth Petricig finished his job as a night proofreader at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, he would often find Stephen L. Wallis driving the cab he rode home. Gradually, their conversation turned to corporate takeovers - the firm's specialty. And by November 1982 the two men had formed a partnership that seemed full of promise, but which ended two and a half years later with Mr. Wallis's arrest as he was preparing to leave for Switzerland. Their partnership, as outlined in court papers, was simple and, it seemed, foolproof: Mr. Wallis would pay Mr. Petricig for information on planned corporate takeovers that Mr. Petricig gleaned from proofreading Skadden, Arps documents. Mr. Wallis would then trade stock on the basis of this information.

Senator Gary Hart promised today to pursue his quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination, but he sounded much more conciliatory toward the foe who has apparently already locked up the prize, Walter F. Mondale. A top Hart strategist said he had inferred from signals from the Mondale camp that the former Vice President, weighing his choices for a running mate, would be watching Mr. Hart's behavior carefully in the next few days. And speaking today to members of the National Press Club, Mr. Hart left the door open to accepting the second spot. 'Race Isn't Over' ''The race isn't over,'' Mr. Hart said. ''We intend to press our case.'' He dismissed talk of the Vice Presidency as ''premature.'' Previously, the Colorado Senator has said the job did not interest him.

Eleven Latin American nations, including some of the most heavily indebted countries in the world, took their first concrete step today toward unity in dealing with the world debt crisis. The nations meeting here agreed in a statement they called the Consensus of Cartagena to set up a rotating secretariat among themselves and come together in frequent meetings. The agreement called for the meetings in order to ''reflect together'' on the debt crisis. In the agreement, the Latin Americans called for the establishment of a working group of industrial and third world nations inside the World Bank's development committee to consider a wide- ranging list of proposals.