August 5, 1992

Doctors in the New York region and throughout the nation are once again turning to one of the oldest forms of medical care: house calls. Pushed by insurance companies looking for ways to cut down on expensive hospital stays, they are climbing stairs to take the blood pressure of elderly patients too weak to make office visits, or dropping in on mentally ill patients who might not keep a regular appointment.

Phar-Mor Inc., a high-flying discount drug chain that recently opened its 301st store, said yesterday that senior executives had embezzled company funds and reported $350 million in nonexistent profits to Phar-Mor's owners, banks and other creditors over the last three years. Phar-Mor said that Michael I. Monus, 43 years old, a company co-founder and professional sports team executive who was dismissed as president last week, had also "diverted company funds for his own use."

GOLD MEDAL RESTORED Khalid Skah of Morocco, disqualified Monday, was restored as 10,000-meter gold medalist. EXPORTER OF COACHES Long an importer of athletic advisers, Cuba is now sending coaches to other countries. PERFECT, AND PAINFUL China's Sun Shuwei earned several 10's in diving, but a failed plunge drew most of the gasps. SportsWednesday, page B11.

IT makes Jean-Francois Fraysse discombobulated when it's already 9 in the morning and he hasn't bought one radish. Imagine now. It was almost 10 and no item of food had been bought. "O.K., O.K., O.K.," he muttered with an incisory smile. "What is wrong with me? We must buy, buy, buy." Settled into his metallic blue van, Mr. Fraysse -- the owner, chef and moving spirit of La Lunchonette, a small French bistro in Chelsea -- pulled up outside Akiyama Inc. on Little West 12th Street in Greenwich Village on a recent Wednesday to begin his shopping for a few hundred people. Mostly catering to Korean restaurants and groceries, Akiyama makes an exception and sells to one French chef.

NEW YORK CITY MEDIATION SOUGHT IN SCHOOL TALKS Trying to accelerate contract talks that have been stalled for almost a year, Sandra Feldman, the president of the New York City schoolteachers' union, formally declared that the negotiations were at an impasse and asked a mediator to step in. Her move is aimed at putting pressure on Mayor Dinkins and the Board of Education to offer more substantial wage proposals. B3. QUESTIONS ON ABORTED TAKEOFF Pilots are usually trained to continue flying, not to abort a takeoff, in conditions like those that led to the fiery accident at Kennedy International Airport last week, and many aviation experts are puzzled by the decision of the pilot to abort the takeoff of Trans World Airlines Flight 848. B3. PROSECUTOR QUITS CASE