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Clothing and footwear retailer opens in downtown Syracuse
SYRACUSE — Philadelphia–based Villa, Inc. has opened a new store in downtown Syracuse. The store, located at 317 S. Salina St., joins 34 other Villa
First Source formally opens new Rome branch office
ROME — First Source Federal Credit Union marked the grand opening of its newly built Rome branch office on March 1. The office opened Feb.
Bassett ranks among nation’s top integrated health systems
COOPERSTOWN — Being named one of the most integrated health networks in the nation means that Bassett Healthcare Network is doing something right at its network of six hospitals and dozens of clinics. But the job of integration is an ongoing one with direct impact on the organization’s efficiency and the quality of patient care
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COOPERSTOWN — Being named one of the most integrated health networks in the nation means that Bassett Healthcare Network is doing something right at its network of six hospitals and dozens of clinics.
But the job of integration is an ongoing one with direct impact on the organization’s efficiency and the quality of patient care it provides, says Jeffrey Woeppel, vice president of system integration at Bassett.
Bassett was recently ranked 48th among 100 health systems around the country on the SDI Top 100 Integrated Health Networks ranking published in Modern Healthcare magazine. The list recognizes health systems that optimize health-care delivery.
St. Johns Health System in Springfield, Mo., topped the list, which also includes Baylor Health Care System in Dallas and Scripps Health in San Diego.
“The ranking that came out did give us some affirmation that we are going in the right direction,” Woeppel says. It also shows that Bassett has made great strides with initiatives it has undertaken in recent years to improve efficiency, streamline operating costs, and improve care.
Information technology is a huge factor in integration at a health-care network, and Bassett’s launch last year of its new electronic medical record (EMR) system is an example of how Bassett is improving its integration, he says.
Bassett also uses the same platforms across its various locations for functions like patient records, accounting, and even inventory management.
Efforts such as those help Bassett perform at its best, which results in better patient care through consistent processes and practices, Woeppel says.
“It is hard proof that the work we’ve engaged in to coordinate patient care, improve access, and integrate best practices across the Bassett network is paying off to the benefit of our patients,” Bassett President and CEO William F. Streck said in a news release announcing the ranking.
The SDI 2012 ranking identifies the top 100 integrated health networks from among more than 570 non-specialty local and regional networks across the nation and evaluates them on the ability to operate as a unified organization in eight categories: integrated technology, integration, contractual capabilities, outpatient utilization, financial stability, services and access, hospital utilization, and physicians. To see the full list, visit www.bassett.org.
Bassett Healthcare Network’s system serves people living in a 5,600-square-mile region in upstate New York through six hospitals, nearly two dozen community and school-based health centers, and skilled-nursing facilities. Bassett’s hospitals include Bassett Medical Center (formerly Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital), a 180-bed acute-care teaching hospital in Cooperstown; A.O. Fox Hospital, Oneonta; O’Connor Hospital, Delhi; Tri-Town Regional Hospital, Sidney; Cobleskill Regional Hospital, Cobleskill; and Little Falls Hospital, Little Falls. Bassett reported 2010 revenue of $404.1 million, expenses of $402.9 million, and 3,761 employees according to its Form 990 on file at www.guidestar.org.
Young professionals face barriers to saving for retirement
UTICA — Young professionals hear the message early and they hear it often — start saving for retirement as soon as possible. While the message is a good one, the tough economic times of the past few years have changed the playing field in a way that doesn’t always make that the best option for
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UTICA — Young professionals hear the message early and they hear it often — start saving for retirement as soon as possible.
While the message is a good one, the tough economic times of the past few years have changed the playing field in a way that doesn’t always make that the best option for some young professionals, says Michelle Shauger, a Utica–based regional vice president with Primerica Financial Services.
A recent story on www.usatoday.com says that the amount of student loans taken out in 2011 crossed the $100 billion mark and the total loans outstanding will exceed
$1 trillion for the first time ever this year. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Department of Education report that Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards.
That scenario is the result of both traditional young students as well as older, non-traditional students returning to school, often after they were laid off during the recession, the story said.
Whoever the debt-holder is, the problem remains the same, Shauger says. People are graduating from college and entering the work force with crippling amounts of debt. The USA Today story noted that full-time undergraduate students borrowed an average of $4,963 in 2010. Multiply that times the four years it takes to achieve a bachelor’s degree and those students are graduating with close to $20,000 in debt.
“The largest issue is that debt-to-income ratio is so large, it doesn’t enable people to save in a significant way to accomplish their goals and dreams,” she says. Even if those graduates are lucky enough to land a job right away, their debt is strangling their income, she adds.
On top of that, student-loan interest rates have risen from a once favorable low rate of about 2 percent to rates in the 5 to 6 percent range, Shauger says. That means it’s taking people longer and longer to pay off this debt as they are borrowing larger amounts at a higher rate.
So how do people who’ve practically grown up hearing they need to start saving for retirement as soon as they start working manage to actually save for retirement? The answer could be to steer away from that typical “American Dream” scenario of go to college, graduate, get a job, buy a car, get married, buy a house, Shauger says.
Maybe renting is a better option over buying a house, she says. Also, consider buying a used car instead of a new one, or use public transportation. The goal, Shauger says, is to work on keeping your expenses down as much as possible to free up money to pay off that college debt. Otherwise, she says, people end up struggling to meet all their expenses, relying on credit cards to bridge the gap, and still aren’t saving any significant money towards retirement.
“People build their [financial] house all wrong,” she says. “Then they have to tear it down and start all over again.”
The message to focus on paying off debt and delay saving for retirement goes against everything people are typically told, Shauger says, but if people do it right, they can still save up plenty towards retirement.
Take for example a client who is 25 and has $1,000 in monthly debt. If he sets aside $100 a month towards retirement over the next 40 years, he will save over $637,000, Shauger says. But if that same client first spent time focusing on paying off that debt, and then once free of that debt, began putting that $1,000 a month towards retirement, he would save more than $765,000 in half the time.
Whichever option someone chooses, he/she needs to maintain that focus on paying off debt until it’s gone, Shauger says. Students also have some options before they enter college to try and offset some debt.
Prospective students need to be proactive, she says, researching college options and seeking out aid opportunities. These days, students are also encouraged to apply to many schools so that any admission packages can be used as bargaining chips with other colleges, she says.
Recent graduates should research whether or not their student loans can be forgiven — a practice that is common in some fields — or look into consolidating their debt into one loan if they can find an attractive option.
“The student loan forgiveness is typically in human-service careers where there is need,” Shauger says. Examples include teachers in inner-city schools, doctors in low-income areas, or social workers in urban areas. “Students can be proactive and research this before choosing a major and where they are going to live,” she says. “It’s never too late to look up their information and see if their loans qualify.”
“People just need to become good consumers,” Shauger says.
Employer role
Employers also have a role to play, Shauger notes. The most effective thing employers can do to help their employees get ahead on retirement planning and debt management is to provide information and education.
“Something as simple as a 45-minute lunch-and-learn opportunity could be the answer,” Shauger says. “Employers could give their employees a $10,000 a year raise, but without education they will be no better off a year later.”
Organizations that host such events are helping their employees learn and change their futures. “What the employee does with it is up to them,” she says. “It’s literally like teaching the people to fish instead of giving them a fish. And you know what happens then? They eat forever.”
Founded in 1977, Duluth, Ga.–based Primerica is a financial-services marketing company with more than 90,000 licensed representatives that provide life insurance, mutual funds, annuities, and other financial products. The company insures more than 4.3 million people and has about 2 million investment clients. Primerica trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the PRI ticker symbol.
DUMAC draws up expansion, growth plans
DeWITT –– DUMAC Business Systems, Inc. — a company that distributes point-of-sale (POS) systems, and develops inventory and corporate-reporting software — is planning and executing a series of growth initiatives. Last year, DUMAC’s annual revenue spiked 50 percent from 2010 levels, and the business-systems provider added 22 employees, according to DUMAC officials. That brought the
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DeWITT –– DUMAC Business Systems, Inc. — a company that distributes point-of-sale (POS) systems, and develops inventory and corporate-reporting software — is planning and executing a series of growth initiatives.
Last year, DUMAC’s annual revenue spiked 50 percent from 2010 levels, and the business-systems provider added 22 employees, according to DUMAC officials. That brought the 60-year-old firm’s total to 104 workers.
DUMAC has clearly come a long way from 1952, when William McCarthy and Hugh Duskee began it as a two-person startup.
The company is now owned by William’s sons, Howard McCarthy and David McCarthy, his grandson Phillip McCarthy, and Shaun O’Brien, a DUMAC employee since 1990.
DUMAC’s products and services span three different vertical markets including the independent grocery market, quick-service restaurants, and table-service restaurants.
In addition to being a dealer for POS hardware manufacturers such as Panasonic, Fujitsu, IBM, and NCR, DUMAC is also a developer of its own software. DUMAC SBOnet (Smart Back Office) is a web-based inventory and reporting software application, says Howard McCarthy, CEO and chairman of DUMAC.
SBOnet provides inventory tracking for thousands of quick-service restaurants across the country, as well as near-real-time reporting of sales, labor, and food costs. McCarthy says the software also integrates an application named “staff scheduler,” which is specially designed for labor scheduling for the quick-service clients. SBOnet is available on the Apple Inc. App Store.
He says SBOnet’s market share is growing every month.
“That’s a very rapidly growing part of our business,” McCarthy says.
In addition to developing SBOnet software and distributing hardware that runs POS systems, DUMAC also provides installation service and training to its clients.
“We train them how to use it,” says Shaun O’Brien, president and COO of DUMAC. “In a quick-service restaurant somewhere around the country, if someone purchases a new system, we would send a team of people to do the installation and then a team of people to do the training and do a stand-by for them when they go live with the system.”
McCarthy says one of the key factors behind DUMAC’s success is the quality of service it provides. He says the firm offers 24/7 support in customer service. He says the company also has a number of user-group meetings, where it meets with clients regularly and gets feedback from them.
“Our service to the customers and our support is separating us from all the other companies, which is why we’ve grown so fast,” says McCarthy.
Consumers encounter DUMAC distributed products in the check-out line at supermarkets, and the front counter at fast-food restaurants. DUMAC provides the touch-screens and computerized cash registers to quick-service restaurants nationwide such as Wendy’s, Arby’s, Popeyes, and KFC. The company also provides order-entry devices to table-service restaurants in New York State, including local eateries such as Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub & Restaurant, Lemon Grass, and The Inn Between Restaurant. Clients also include independent grocery stores from northwestern Pennsylvania to Maine. Locally, Nojaim Bros Super Market, Nichol’s Supermarket, and Struppler’s Supermarket are DUMAC customers, using its scanners, electronic scales, and credit-card terminals.
DUMAC also sells closed-circuit television systems to its clients.
McCarthy says the multi-tasking company now has clients in almost every state in the U.S., and recently started providing service to customers in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Canada, and Aruba. He says the company expects to continue expanding internationally this year.
HQ project
Last October, the fast-growing DUMAC began remodeling the inside of its headquarters, located at 19 Corporate Circle in the town of DeWitt, to accommodate the growth in staff. DUMAC also took over 6,000 square feet of vacant space in the 26,000-square-foot building it owns, and has added a museum in its lobby.
“Based on the history of the company, we have a long heritage of equipment that we worked on over the years,” says O’Brien, “and we have created a museum of sorts with all of that legacy equipment and the history of equipment that’s gone through the ages, including equipment that has been reconditioned and repaired by Will McCarthy years ago, and on up through equipment that’s been refurbished today to display in our lobby.”
The historical equipment on display includes old cash registers, credit-card terminals, scanners, and scanner scales. The museum will also showcase newer devices such as today’s cutting-edge POS systems.
O’Brien says DUMAC staff is handling the headquarters remodeling, and the team is putting finishing touches on it now. The museum will be completed prior to the company’s open house in late summer, which will be a part of DUMAC’s 60th anniversary celebration.
O’Brien says DUMAC expects continued growth this year. He couldn’t provide a specific revenue projection for 2012.
“We will be continuing to expand this year,” he says, “and we will be adding staff this year as needed.” He says the company is looking for support analysts and installation technicians, for both its headquarters in DeWitt and its branch office in Houston, TX.
O’Brien says DUMAC also plans to open its second branch office in Massachusetts this fall, and expand the company’s professional and educational services.
Upstate consumer confidence rises in February
Upstate New Yorkers signaled a greater willingness to spend for the fourth consecutive month in February, even as statewide and national consumer confidence stagnated. The overall consumer-confidence index for upstate New York climbed 2.4 points to 71.9 in February, according to a survey from the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI). Upstate residents felt more comfortable
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Upstate New Yorkers signaled a greater willingness to spend for the fourth consecutive month in February, even as statewide and national consumer confidence stagnated.
The overall consumer-confidence index for upstate New York climbed 2.4 points to 71.9 in February, according to a survey from the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI). Upstate residents felt more comfortable about their current situation than they did about the future, the survey found.
Still, both current and future confidence grew in Upstate. Current confidence increased 3 points to 76.9, and future confidence climbed 1.9 points to 68.6 in the region.
While upstate residents continued to follow a recent trend of rising confidence, statewide consumers were lukewarm in February. Consumer confidence in New York State as a whole remained unchanged since January, suspended at 74.8, according to SRI.
It is lingering just under the SRI index’s break-even point of 75. That is the point at which consumers indicate equal amounts of optimism and pessimism. Readings below 75 show that more consumers responded to the survey with negative answers than positive ones. Any results above 75 indicate more consumers gave positive answers.
“These are fascinating figures to me,” says Douglas Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director. “If we go back to January, [statewide] consumer confidence was up about 8 points. And in February, we stayed absolutely flat — no movement at all. One thing is offsetting the other.”
Current confidence rose across New York State in February, but was offset by consumers cutting back on their outlook for the future. New York State’s current confidence climbed 1.5 points to 73.5, and its future confidence dipped 0.9 points to 75.7.
The metropolitan New York City area counterbalanced Upstate’s confidence gains. New York City’s overall-confidence index went down 1.3 points to 76.9. Its current confidence ticked up 0.4 points to 71.6, but its future confidence skidded 2.4 points to 80.3.
Consumer confidence in New York State was similar to that measured nationally by the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index. Overall national consumer confidence edged up 0.3 points to 75.3 in February from 75.0 in January, according to that index. Current national confidence slipped 1.2 points to 83. Meanwhile, future national confidence inched up 1.2 points to 70.3.
A separate survey report measuring national consumer confidence, issued by The Conference Board on Feb. 28, showed U.S. confidence jumping to 70.8 in February from 61.5 in January.
New York buying plans
New Yorkers’ buying plans fell in February in five categories that SRI measures. That’s a reversal from January, when buying plans rose in each one of those five categories.
“That does not surprise me, given that the consumer-confidence index held the same,” Lonnstrom says. “People have got to feel better before they start buying, and that didn’t happen this month.”
The share of consumers who indicated they plan to buy a car or truck fell 1.4 points to 11.9 percent. The portion who said they plan to buy computers dropped 0.4 points to 15.9 percent.
Consumers’ plans to purchase furniture declined 1.9 points to 19.7 percent, and plans to buy homes eroded 0.3 points to 3.7 percent. Finally, plans to spend on major home improvements tumbled 3.1 points to 14.2 percent.
Gas and food prices
A majority of upstate New Yorkers continued to express concerns about gasoline and food prices, the survey found. However, the portion of consumers worried about those prices decreased in February — a fact that surprised Lonnstrom.
“I thought that concern would shoot up,” he says. “Gas prices have gone up 20 days in a row.”
In February, 67 percent of upstate New Yorkers said gasoline prices posed a problem, down slightly from 69 percent in January. And 69 percent expressed concerns about food prices, down from 75 percent in January. Finally, 56 percent of upstate survey respondents indicated both gasoline and food prices were a problem, which was down from 60 percent in January.
Statewide, 59 percent of residents named gasoline prices as a problem, which was even with last month. The share of residents naming food prices as a problem was 66 percent in February, lower than January’s reading of 71 percent. And 49 percent of state residents claimed both gas and food prices posed a problem, lower than January, when 51 percent cited both gas and food.
Residents may be getting used to higher food prices, Lonnstrom says. But survey results show that concern for gas prices jumped in the second half of February, he adds.
“We’re flirting with four bucks a gallon, talking about five bucks,” he says. “If that happens, that’s going to hurt consumer confidence.”
SRI conducted the survey by making random telephone calls to 804 New York State residents over the age of 18 in February. Margin of error does not apply to the consumer-confidence index results because they are derived from statistical calculations, according to SRI. However, buying plans have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 points, the institute said.
CPA firm Bowers & Co. heads north through acquisition
WATERTOWN — Accounting firm Bowers & Co. CPAs, PLLC has a new office in Watertown after acquiring a firm there. The acquisition was effective Jan. 1. The Watertown firm, Sovie & Bowie CPAs, P.C., launched in 1978 and employed eight people at the time of the acquisition. Bowers has since added two more employees. “We
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WATERTOWN — Accounting firm Bowers & Co. CPAs, PLLC has a new office in Watertown after acquiring a firm there.
The acquisition was effective Jan. 1. The Watertown firm, Sovie & Bowie CPAs, P.C., launched in 1978 and employed eight people at the time of the acquisition. Bowers has since added two more employees.
“We wanted to increase our presence in that market,” says Mike D’Avirro, co-managing partner at Syracuse–based Bowers. “We see it as a growing market.”
The firm already had some significant accounts in the Watertown area, he adds. And growth in the region driven by Fort Drum means plenty of additional opportunities for expansion.
While Fort Drum certainly boosts growth at support companies and ancillary businesses, there is also development ongoing in the area outside the base.
“There are lots of cranes in the air up there,” says Carl Austin, Bowers’ other co-managing partner. “Arsenal Street has basically been rebuilt.”
Sovie & Bowie is the fourth accounting firm Bowers has added in the last six years. The Watertown location, at 167 Polk St., is the firm’s first satellite office.
Sovie & Bowie’s clients include nonprofit and government entities, medical service corporations, and large and small privately-held businesses.
Bowers & Co. leaders had explored expanding into other markets previously, but Watertown was the best fit. Sovie & Bowie also provided a solid base to build on, Austin says.
“It’s a nice firm,” he says. “It had a nice client base and some scale to it already.”
D’Avirro says Bowers can probably double the size of the Watertown office in the next three to five years. The firm brings services like estate planning, forensic accounting, financial planning, and business valuation that should help it grow in the North Country.
A smaller firm simply doesn’t have the resources to invest in such services, D’Avirro says.
Firmwide, Bowers employs 50 people, including 16 partners. That’s up from 19 people in 2004. Its services outside traditional accounting work have helped drive that growth, along with some specific niches, Austin says.
Bowers has a national practice in the transportation sector with clients in 35 states. The firm also works frequently with family businesses, which should help it in the Watertown area, Austin notes.
The firm also serves manufacturers, retailers, professional-services firms, construction companies, community banks, real-estate firms, and convenience stores.
Austin says Bowers continues to look at more regional expansion, but the fit has to be right. Markets like Albany and Rochester already have plenty of accounting firms in them.
“You’re running into each other there,” Austin says. “That’s why it made sense to go north.”
Lockheed wins new radar contract
SALINA — The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $881 million for production of new radar systems. The AN/TPQ-53 Firefinder Radar
Seneca Data supercomputer is one of the most powerful, and cleanest, in world
CICERO — A local company is behind one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world. Cicero–based computer manufacturer Seneca Data built HokieSpeed, a supercomputer at Virginia Tech. It ranked 96th on the latest Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, released in November. A group of researchers in the U.S. and Germany compiles
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CICERO — A local company is behind one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world.
Cicero–based computer manufacturer Seneca Data built HokieSpeed, a supercomputer at Virginia Tech. It ranked 96th on the latest Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, released in November.
A group of researchers in the U.S. and Germany compiles the list twice a year. HokieSpeed came in 11th on a separate list of the world’s most energy-efficient supercomputers.
“It’s been an evolution to get to this point,” says Chuck Orcutt, manager of Seneca Data’s Nexlink product line of desktops, notebooks, servers, and storage devices. “We now have capabilities that only a few other companies in the world have.”
Seneca Data has been in the supercomputing space for the last four or five years. The company’s 2006 acquisition of Alpharetta, Ga.–based Concentric Systems, Inc. (CSI) helped launch the business.
CSI did some work in supercomputing and Seneca has since built on that base, Orcutt says.
Supercomputers use clusters of servers to perform calculations that would not be possible for a single unit, explains Mike Smith, Seneca Data vice president of engineering. Typically, the work involves large sets of data, such as the information used each year to make new batches of flu vaccine.
“The amount of data fed into those calculations would overload a single server,” Smith says. “You have to spread it across clusters.”
Typically, the computers are used in fields like finance and energy for research. Universities and government-funded national labs also make use of the systems.
Seneca Data has added three people specifically for its supercomputing business in the last two years. It also has a space dedicated to the work in a new lab it built at its headquarters.
The business is an attractive one for Seneca Data because there simply are not many companies in the U.S. capable of building these systems, Smith says. And, it strengthens the firm’s reputation.
If Seneca Data can build one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world, potential customers know the company can handle a desktop or single server too, Smith says.
Trends in supercomputing point to their increased use by smaller organizations and even private companies to help lower the cost of prototyping and research, Orcutt adds. In fact, Seneca Data is preparing to launch a new supercomputing system contained within a single chassis.
It will allow researchers to run tests before doing potentially hazardous work on a much bigger, more expensive supercomputer, Smith says. It’s better to crash the smaller, less expensive system, he notes.
The new product will also serve a customer base that needs more power than a traditional system, but not a full-on supercomputer.
In addition to its Nexlink product line, Seneca Data creates specialized products for markets including digital security, digital signage, gaming, health care, and broadcasting. The company is mainly involved in producing servers that perform tasks like running display screens in sports stadiums across the country or powering online games.
The firm is also a distributor of other information-technology products and services. An affiliated company, Revonate Manufacturing, focuses on refurbishing old equipment.
Excellus’ Vercillo expects no major CNY changes after CEO Klein retires
The leader of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Central New York region does not anticipate any overhaul of the insurer’s local operations when its CEO retires at the end of the year. “We’re a mission-driven organization,” says Dr. Arthur Vercillo, regional president for Excellus. “We feel very strongly that we should be local and collaborative. We believe
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The leader of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Central New York region does not anticipate any overhaul of the insurer’s local operations when its CEO retires at the end of the year.
“We’re a mission-driven organization,” says Dr. Arthur Vercillo, regional president for Excellus. “We feel very strongly that we should be local and collaborative. We believe in partnerships. These things are part of our DNA.”
Vercillo discussed the Central New York region’s future after Excellus announced on Feb. 28 that its CEO, David Klein, plans to retire at the end of 2012. Klein also serves as CEO of Rochester–based The Lifetime Healthcare Cos., which is the parent company of Rochester–based Excellus.
“I’m proud to have helped build, and then to have had the privilege to lead, the largest and most successful nonprofit health plan in upstate New York,” Klein said in a news release announcing his planned retirement. “As an organization we’ve remained true to our mission of providing as many people as possible with access to quality health care at an affordable price.”
Klein has been CEO of Excellus and Lifetime Healthcare since 2003. He joined Excellus’ predecessor company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the Rochester Area, in 1986. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the Rochester Area merged with other upstate New York Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensed plans to form Excellus in 1998.
Before coming to Rochester, Klein worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois as a senior sales and marketing executive. He first joined the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in 1972.
“David was instrumental in leading this corporation for more than 25 years,” Randall Clark, chairman of the board of directors for Excellus and Lifetime, said in the news release. “During that time, it went from a single health plan in Rochester with revenue of less than $400 million to a
$5.6 billion entity that is the largest nonprofit financier of health care in upstate New York.”
Vercillo says Klein pushed for health-care planning at a local level. An example of that planning is the insurer’s involvement in the Health Advancement Collaborative of Central New York (HAC-CNY), which launched Central New York’s regional health-information organization (RHIO) and now operates under the name HealtheConnections.
A RHIO manages an online health-information exchange, which gives participating medical providers access to electronic health records. Central New York’s RHIO launched in May 2010 and has connected 15 hospitals and one laboratory since then.
“Those strong qualities — the localism, the local employment — none of that is going to change,” Vercillo says. “Frankly, [Klein] would not be leaving if he did not think they were part of our culture now.”
Vercillo does not anticipate any changes in Excellus employment levels in Central New York after Klein retires. The insurer has about 1,000 employees in its Central New York region, he says.
The Lifetime Healthcare Cos. employs a total of about 6,600 people. It provides health insurance to more than 1.8 million people and sells long-term care coverage in all 50 states.
Its other affiliates include Univera Healthcare, which serves eight counties in Western New York, and Salina–based EBS-RMSCO, Inc. Other affiliates include Lifetime Home Care and Hospice and Lifetime Health Medical Group, which provide direct patient services.
Excellus and Lifetime will announce Klein’s successor in April. Vercillo declined to discuss potential candidates for the position.
“We’ve got a board that has embodied all of those principals I listed earlier,” he says. “I can’t imagine that a person would come in that would change any of that.”
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