Rockbridge relocates to new, expanded location

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SYRACUSE — Rockbridge Investment Management has relocated to an expanded office on the 9th floor of the Merchant Commons Building at 220 S. Warren Street in Syracuse. The firm announced the relocation on May 15, but held the formal opening on April 10, according to its news release. Rockbridge moved to accommodate its growth after […]

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New study projects health-care costs to increase more slowly

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Subscriber Only

Projected cost increases for all types of medical plans are expected to be down by between 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent in 2014, according to the 28th National Health Care Trend Survey by Buck Consultants, a unit of Xerox (NYSE: XRX). This continues the trend of slower increases since 2010, the survey found. Still, cost

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This continues the trend of slower increases since 2010, the survey found. Still, cost increases are topping 8.5 percent across the major health-plan types.

In a national survey of 126 insurers and administrators, Buck measured the projected average annual increase in employer-provided health-care benefit costs. Insurers and administrators providing medical trends for the survey cover a total of about 119 million people.

Type of Plan: Preferred-provider organization (PPO)
28th Survey: 8.7 percent
27th Survey: 9.0 percent
26th Survey: 9.2 percent

Type of Plan: Point-of-service (POS)
28th Survey: 8.5 percent
27th Survey: 8.8 percent
26th Survey: 9.0 percent

Type of Plan: Health-maintenance organization (HMO)
28th Survey: 8.6 percent
27th Survey: 8.7 percent
26th Survey: 8.8 percent

Type of Plan: High-deductible health plan (HDHP)
28th Survey: 8.6 percent
27th Survey: 9.1 percent
26th Survey: 9.1 percent:

Some survey respondents cited reduced utilization as the primary reason for the decrease.

“This may be a result of the economic slowdown and its impact on consumers’ willingness to seek medical treatment,” Harvey Sobel, a Buck principal and consulting actuary who co-authored the survey, said in a news release. “Even though the decline is good news, most plan sponsors still find 8-9 percent cost increases unsustainable.”

Health insurers reported an average prescription-drug cost increase of 9.2 percent, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the prior survey. On the other hand, pharmacy benefit managers, who generally do not take any underwriting risk, reported a weighted average increase of 4.1 percent — less than half of the rise reported by health insurers — but still up by 0.3 percent from the 3.8 percent reported in the prior survey.

For plans that supplement Medicare, health insurers reported an average cost increase of 5.5 percent excluding prescription drug coverage, up from 4.1 percent in the prior survey, Buck says. Medicare Supplement plans generally have lower cost increases than other medical plans due to the effect of federal controls on Medicare fees and the smaller increases expected in Medicare deductibles and copays, according to Buck.

The survey also reported cost-increase trends for dental and vision plans.
“It’s too soon to tell the impact of public and private health exchanges on [costs],” said Daniel Levin, a Buck principal and consulting actuary, who co-authored the survey.

“It may take another few years before we really know if (and by how much) the exchanges will “bend” the cost curve.”

Buck Consultants, founded in 1916, is a human resources and benefits consulting firm with more than 1,500 professionals worldwide.

Hamilton College readies $47M arts facility for a summer opening

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Subscriber Only

CLINTON — Hamilton College in Clinton is preparing to open a new facility that will focus on theater and studio arts. The Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts will open in July with the formal dedication scheduled for Friday, Oct. 10, the school said in an April 17 news release.

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CLINTON — Hamilton College in Clinton is preparing to open a new facility that will focus on theater and studio arts.

The Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts will open in July with the formal dedication scheduled for Friday, Oct. 10, the school said in an April 17 news release.

The Kennedys are the lead donors on the $46.8 million project, having provided $10 million for the project, the school announced in April.

Kevin Kennedy, a former chairman of Hamilton’s board of directors, had referred to the school’s arts facilities as “antiquated” when he assumed the role in 1994.

The school made a “firm commitment” to upgrade its arts facilities in 2001, says Sam Pellman, professor of music at Hamilton College.

He spoke with the Business Journal News Network on May 16.

Pellman has led the campus planning committee for new arts facilities at the school. He had previously been involved in the opening of the Schambach Center, a campus music facility which opened in the fall of ’88.

Hamilton formed a committee to “define the scope” of such a project, hire an architect, and generate cost estimates.

The effort has already led to the new Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, which Hamilton opened in the fall of 2012, according to Pellman. The $16.9 million project was “entirely gift funded,” Pellman says.

Now, construction crews are completing the new $46.8 million center located across from the museum on College Hill Road.

“Most of that money has been contributed,” Pellman says. “There’s relatively little debt.”

The facility will have two theaters, including a smaller lab theater that the school will use primarily for senior projects and visiting artists.

An acting classroom and theater sound room will also be “associated” with the lab theater.

The new building includes a drawing studio, the print-making studio, and the painting studio for students in the art department.

It’ll also include a digital-arts suite, which is independent of the theater and art departments and will serve as shared space. The digital-arts suite has two 16-station computer classrooms and a video-production room.

“I’ll be teaching a class there next fall on computer music,” Pellman says.

Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corp. of Utica is the contractor on the project, he says. Boston–based Machado and Silvetti Associates served as the architect.

Naming gift
Hamilton College on April 17 announced it will name its upcoming theater and studio-arts building for Kevin and Karen Kennedy, who donated $10 million for the new project.

The honor is in recognition of the Kennedys’ lifetime donations to the college, including the gift for the project, Hamilton College said in a news release.

They are the lead donors in the nearly $47 million effort, the school said.

Kevin Kennedy is a 1970 graduate of Hamilton College and a life trustee of the college, the school said. He served as chairman of Hamilton’s board of trustees from 1994 to 2002 when the college began planning for new arts facilities.

When he became board chairman, it was “clear” that the school’s arts facilities were antiquated, Kevin Kennedy said in the news release.

“I was in a production or two in Minor Theater in the late 1960s and it was pretty clear then that it was not a first-class theater. We learned from our experience with the sciences that new facilities attract more students. These new facilities will attract more students with interests in the arts and theater,” Kennedy said.

Kevin Kennedy earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Hamilton College. He went on to earn a master’s in business administration at Harvard University.

He worked for more than three decades as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, retiring in 2011 as a member of the firm’s management committee.

Kennedy currently serves as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Opera, an opera company based in New York City, the school said.

After graduating from Manhattanville College and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Karen Kennedy built a “thriving” pediatric practice in New York City.

Now retired, she serves as founding chair of the Children’s Board of Columbia at the Columbia University Medical Center and as co-chair of the American Fellows group of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the school noted.

“Karen and Kevin Kennedy are discerning patrons of the arts and of Hamilton,” Joan Hinde Stewart, president of Hamilton College, said. “We are deeply grateful for their sustaining generosity and pleased that they are allowing us to name this beautiful new building in their honor.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

StartFast Venture Accelerator to move to Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Small Business, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — StartFast Venture Accelerator, LLC a startup accelerator currently operating in downtown Syracuse, has reached an agreement with Le Moyne College to move its operations into the Madden School of Business in 2015. Le Moyne College announced the agreement in a news release on April 16. Launched in 2012, StartFast Venture Accelerator LLC is

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Le Moyne College announced the agreement in a news release on April 16.

Launched in 2012, StartFast Venture Accelerator LLC is a mentorship-based program for seed-stage software, mobile, and Internet companies. Backed by angel investors, venture capitalists, and corporations, StartFast takes an equity interest in each participating company.

StartFast provides selected companies with $25,000 in seed funding.

StartFast has been renting space at 499 S. Warren St. in downtown Syracuse for the 100-day mentoring process, says James Joseph, dean of the Madden School of Business.

Joseph had previously served as president and CEO of Oneida Limited. He spoke in a phone conversation with the Business Journal News Network on May 15.

Beginning next summer, the mentoring program moves to the Madden School, Joseph says.

“So they’re physically moving from downtown to the Madden School during that 100-day period of mid-May through mid-August,” he adds.

During their time in the accelerator program, the entrepreneurs have stayed in apartments around Syracuse. As part of the arrangement, those involved will stay in Le Moyne apartments.

Construction crews are continuing renovation work at the Madden School, so StartFast won’t move to the facility until the work is complete, Joseph says.

Le Moyne College signed a “long-term, memorandum of understanding” with StartFast, so all of [its] activities will happen on campus beginning next summer, he adds.

The two managing directors, Charles (Chuck) Stormon and Nasir Ali, will have permanent offices at the Madden School, he adds.

They will hire five Le Moyne interns to work with the entrepreneurs and will eventually provide classroom instruction

“Chuck and Nasir will also be teaching a course at Le Moyne in entrepreneurship, so we get the benefit of that,” Joseph says.

How it came about?
Stormon has known Joseph for a “long time,” says Nasir Ali, who spoke with the Business Journal News Network on May 19.

Both Stormon and Ali were aware that Joseph had been appointed Dean at the Madden School and the conversation on collaboration just “naturally evolved,” Ali says.

“The more we heard about Jim’s thoughts on … where he wants to take the school and how he wants to build the relationship, the more we realized that this was a world-class … school in the making,” says Ali.

The Madden School of Business is home to three centers of excellence, including the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Creativity

The Keenan Center is also home to three “signature” programs, Joseph says, including the Famous Entrepreneur Series, the Family Business Center, and the StartFast Venture Accelerator.

“Those are the three signature programs that are giving a personality and life to the Keenan Center,” Joseph says.

Established in 2011 and named for Le Moyne College alumnus Michael Madden in 2012, the school moved into the first floor of the renovated Mitchell Hall in 2013.

Crews are working on additional renovations to the second floor of Mitchell Hall this summer to house the school’s three centers of excellence, along with the Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business, the Jesuit Case Series, the Family Business Center, workspace for students and faculty, and a seminar-style laboratory, according to Le Moyne.

StartFast Venture Accelerator is a private, investor-backed program modeled on the TechStars program that started in Boulder, Colo. in 2007 and has since grown to operate 15 programs in cities around the U.S. and London, according to StartFast.

TechStars in 2011 formed the TechStars Network, which is now known as the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), to link the top accelerator programs in the world.

StartFast is a charter member of GAN and the only GAN member accelerator in upstate New York, the organization said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

CDPHP, Independent Health form ‘strategic alliance’

Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Subscriber Only

Capital District Physicians Health Plan (CDPHP), an Albany–based health insurer with subscribers in Central New York, on May 20 announced a “strategic alliance” with a health insurer based in Western New York. CDPHP will work with Independent Health, which is headquartered in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, to “explore opportunities to enhance their efforts to

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CDPHP will work with Independent Health, which is headquartered in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, to “explore opportunities to enhance their efforts to further transform health care in their respective communities, while remaining independent,” CDPHP said in a news release.

The two health insurers are “non-competing,” regional health plans serving different geographic markets, according to the Albany–based insurer.

In Central New York, its service area includes Broome, Chenango, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, and Tioga counties, according to the CDPHP website.

CDPHP lost more than $43 million while generating more than $2 billion in revenue in 2013, according to financial figures posted on its website.

CDPHP incurred the loss despite increasing its enrollment from nearly 410,000 in 2012 to more than 447,000 in 2013.

The alliance will allow the insurers to build “innovative” products, tools, and services for providers, employers, and individuals from Albany to Buffalo, Dr. John Bennett, president and CEO of CDPHP, said in the news release.

The agreement is “not a merger, but a unique alliance” to exchange and implement ideas and strategies that are “essential” to continue driving sustainable health care, Dr. Michael Cropp, president and CEO of Independent Health, said in the release.

“The learning and discipline that will come from working together will greatly accelerate our respective abilities to meet the needs of our provider partners and our customers,” Cropp said.

As they work together, the two nonprofits are hoping to develop tools to help health-care providers manage their entire patient populations and provide patient care in the “most efficient manner,” CDPHP said.

They’ll also partner with physicians through technology and clinical advancements with a focus on patient care at the “right level of cost.”

They also want to invest in new technology to provide consumers easy access to the information and services they need to navigate the “often fragmented” health-care system, CDPHP said.

The nonprofits will also work to develop new products focused on the consumer, “rather than the delivery system,” the Albany–based health insurer said.

CDPHP and Independent Health have maintained a “close relationship” for nearly 30 years. They’re aiming to focus on “innovative” ways to achieve the “Triple Aim,” which includes better health, better care, and lower costs.

“We believe the alliance will help us support consumers as they utilize and navigate increasingly prevalent high-deductible health plans,” said Dr. Cropp. “It will also drive partnerships with providers as we move rapidly to value-based payments and high-performance networks.”

The effort is geared toward providing the two companies with the resources most nonprofit health plans “struggle to achieve” so they can provide better service and products, at a lower cost to customers, said Dr. Bennett.

“It will advance the goals of accountable and affordable care as envisioned by the passage of the Affordable Care Act and will assure upstate New Yorkers of continued value-driven, patient-centric health care,” Bennett added.

Established in 1984, CDPHP is a physician-founded, community-based nonprofit health plan that offers health-insurance plans to almost 450,000 members in 24 counties throughout New York.

Independent Health serves nearly 375,000 members.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

NFIB Research Foundation: Health-insurance tax to cost 152,000 to 286,000 private-sector jobs

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Small Business, Subscriber Only

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Research Foundation recently released an updated study showing what it says are the “significant number of jobs” that will be lost by the national health-insurance tax (HIT) that is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Using independent cost estimates, the Research Foundation’s BSIM (business-size impact module) predicts the rise in cost

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Using independent cost estimates, the Research Foundation’s BSIM (business-size impact module) predicts the rise in cost of employer-sponsored insurance stemming from the HIT will result in a reduction in private-sector employment of 152,000 to 286,000 jobs by 2023, with 57 percent of the job losses occurring at small businesses.

This will amount to a reduction of U.S. real output (sales) by between $20 billion and $33 billion during the same period, the NFIB Research Foundation estimates.

A similar study released in 2012 predicted a loss of 146,000 to 262,000 jobs and $19 billion to $35 billion in sales by 2022.

“The HIT represents a new tax on small business that raises insurance costs for an already struggling Main Street and is contrary to the goals of health care reform,” Amanda Austin, NFIB director of federal public policy, said in a news release.. “Singling out job creators for tax increases makes no sense for our economy, is short-sighted and wrong for our nation’s growth. NFIB will continue to highlight the very real and negative effects the HIT will have on small businesses and everyday Americans as we work to pass bipartisan legislation to repeal the HIT.”

The BSIM is a multi-region forecasting model that analyzes the impact of policy “shocks” on the economy and is unique in ability among models to forecast the economic impact of such policy on U.S. businesses differentiated by size of the firm, the NFIB Research Foundation contends. For this purpose, the BSIM adhered to the Small Business Administration definition of “small business” as a firm with fewer than 500 employees.

Report highlights
– Nationally: 152,000 to 286,000 jobs lost and $20 billion to $33 billion in lost sales

– California: 23,000 jobs gone by 2023, costing $4 billion in sales for California small business

– Colorado: 4,100 jobs eliminated by 2023; $870 million in sales lost for Colorado small business

– Florida: 9,700 jobs lost by 2023, costing $1.2 billion in sales for Florida small business

– Illinois: 5,500 jobs gone by 2023; $1 billion in sales lost for Illinois small business

– Massachusetts: 1,500 jobs eliminated by 2023, costing $450 million in sales for Massachusetts small business

– New Jersey: 2,000 jobs lost by 2023; $380 million in sales lost for New Jersey small business

– New York: 2,800 jobs gone by 2023, costing $630 million in sales for New York small business

– Ohio: 5,900 jobs eliminated by 2023; $1 billion is sales lost for Ohio small business

– Pennsylvania: 4,700 jobs gone by 2023; $790 million in sales lost for Pennsylvania small business

– Texas: 14,500 jobs lost by 2023, costing $2.5 billion in sales for Texas small business

– West Virginia: 2,200 jobs lost by 2023; $230 million in sales lost for West Virginia small business

The NFIB Research Foundation says it is a Washington, D.C.–based 501(c)(3) education and charitable organization affiliated with the NFIB, founded to promote a greater understanding of small businesses and the conditions that impact them. The Foundation says it produces and disseminates various surveys and studies on small business, focusing on areas related to public policy’s effects.

CNY jobless rates fall in last year, job growth mixed

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Subscriber Only

Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Binghamton, Utica–Rome, and Ithaca metro areas declined in April, compared to the same month in 2013. That’s according to the latest New York State Department of Labor data released May 20. The jobless rate in the Syracuse area was 5.8 percent in April, down from the 7.5 percent rate in

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Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Binghamton, Utica–Rome, and Ithaca metro areas declined in April, compared to the same month in 2013.

That’s according to the latest New York State Department of Labor data released May 20.

The jobless rate in the Syracuse area was 5.8 percent in April, down from the 7.5 percent rate in April 2013. The unemployment rate in the Utica–Rome region was 6.1 percent in April, down from 8.1 percent in the year-ago period.

The unemployment rate in the Binghamton region was 6.1 percent in April, an improvement from the 7.7 percent posted a year ago, according to figures from the state Labor Department.

The jobless rate in the Ithaca area came in at 3.5 percent in April, down from 4.6 percent in April 2013.

The data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires, the state Labor Department said.

The New York counties among those with the highest unemployment rates in April include Hamilton at 8.8, Lewis at 8.7, and Jefferson at 8.2 percent. Bronx County had the state’s highest jobless rate in April at 10.3 percent.

At 3.5 percent, Tompkins County posted the lowest unemployment rate in New York during April, the state Labor Department said.

The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

CNY regional data
The Syracuse metro area lost 900 total jobs between April 2013 and this past April, a decrease of 0.3 percent, according to the state data the department released on May 15.

The region lost 1,000 private-sector jobs in the same period, also a decline of 0.4 percent.

The Ithaca region lost 600 total jobs year-over-year, a decrease of 0.8 percent. Ithaca’s private sector lost 600 jobs between April 2013 and April 2014, a decline of 1.6 percent.

In the Utica–Rome metro area, the state figures indicate a year-over-year net gain of 500 total jobs, or 0.4 percent. The region also added 600 private-sector jobs, a 0.6 percent increase, in the same 12-month period.

The Binghamton area saw a year-over-year net decline of 600 total jobs, or a 0.6 percent decrease. In the same time period, the region’s private-sector employers lost 300 jobs between April 2013 and this past April, a decline of 0.4 percent.

The state’s private-sector job count is based on a payroll survey of 18,000 New York employers that the U.S. Department of Labor conducts, the state Labor Department said.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.

Statewide unemployment
New York’s unemployment rate fell 0.2 percent to 6.7 percent in April, its lowest level since December 2008.

That’s according to preliminary figures the department released May 15.

The state’s economy added 1,600 total jobs between March and April and the state’s private-sector job count rose by 2,500 month-to-month.

New York’s private-sector job count held steady at 7,543,000 in April, a figure that represents “an all-time high,” the state Labor Department said.

April represented New York’s 17th consecutive monthly gain in private-sector jobs, the longest since at least 1990, as far back as records go, the department said.

The preliminary April unemployment rate of 6.7 percent for New York is down from the 7.8 percent rate in April 2013.

In areas of the state outside of New York City, which includes all of Upstate and Long Island, the unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent in April, down from 7.1 percent in April 2013, according to the department’s data.

Educational and health services added the most jobs statewide, more than 32,000, over the last year. The trade, transportation, and utilities sector was second, adding more than 22,000 jobs.

Comments from Robert Half International
The job growth in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector “is really starting to take off,” says Robert Nealon, regional vice president with Robert Half International, Inc. (RHI) who oversees RHI’s four upstate New York offices, including the branch in Syracuse.

“Almost one-third of that growth in the trade and transportation and utility industry has been in the past six months,” Nealon says.

Nealon is based in Massachusetts and spoke with the Business Journal News Network from Buffalo on May 20.

Robert Half International (NYSE:RHI) is a Menlo Park, Calif.–based firm that specializes in the placement of skilled administrative professionals. It operates a Syracuse location at 500 Plum St.

Nealon believes firms are looking for talent with accounting skills, so staff and senior-level accountants are “very in demand right now.”

Other firms are focusing on their Internet presence, so web developers are also in “high demand” as well, he says.

“Expanding their footprint on the web and making the functionality for their customer base a lot easier,” Nealon adds.

Positions in the professional and business-services sector were third on the list, adding nearly 20,000 jobs.

The leisure and hospitality sector followed, adding 15,000 jobs.

The manufacturing sector led the way in job losses in April, declining by nearly 6,000 in the last year, according to the state Labor Department.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

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