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FAST LANE - October 2000
But while those institutions garner laurels, the health care market in general continues to churn and Central Baptist Hospital and UK Medical Center are considering dropping insurer United HealthCare from their lists of coverage plans in October unless an agreement can be reached. Over 185,000 residents of this state and southern Indiana are covered by UHC, which also maintains contracts with over 6,000 doctors in Kentucky. The HMO recently came to terms with Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green and Frankfort Regional Medical Center. Meanwhile, growing managed care company CHA Health, with almost 144,000 enrollees, has added three hospitals from the LifePoint Hospitals organization to its rolls: Bourbon Community Hospital in Paris, Georgetown Community Hospital and Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville. LifePoint was a 1999 spin-off of HCA-The Healthcare Company, comprised of 23 acute-care hospitals in non-urban areas. The Georgetown facility is still at the center of a lease negotiation process involving the failed Woodford Memorial Hospital. STATE A one-time $155 million charge against earnings – resulting in a $140 million loss in the second quarter – is not the reason behind a requested 49 percent increase in natural gas rates, according to LG&E Energy Corp. officials. The loss reflects the final costs associated with a failed venture into big-time energy trading, primarily incurred in a three-year contract with Oglethorpe Power Corp. of Georgia in the mid-1990s. Prices for natural gas have more than doubled since May. Though the number of drilling rigs has also doubled in the last year, the newly-mined fuel will not reach the marketplace until after winter. The natural gas rate increase is being sought by the local subsidiary, Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and will primarily affect customers in the Louisville area. The rate increase is pending the state Public Service Commission’s approval. LG&E has a separate 15 percent rate increase pending as well. Both decisions are expected before mid-October. Columbia Gas of Kentucky has also raised its rates by 20 percent effective Sept. 1. The PSC has forecast a rise of as much as 50 percent by mid-winter. Not all the news is negative for consumers. LG&E has been named as the best-regarded utility in the Midwest in a survey by J.D. Power and Associates, and second-best nationwide. In addition, LG&E and Kentucky Utilities are offering, through a partnership with American Power Conversion, discounted online purchasing of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) equipment to customers – a line of products increasingly in demand for computer- and network-dependent businesses and industrial equipment operators. Columbia announced its Customer CHOICE program, which will offer customers the option of buying their natural gas from other suppliers as soon as late September. Columbia will remain the delivery agent, but because of the pricing flexibility that marketers can offer, some customers may choose to buy the gas itself from another party. Such programs are already in place in 22 other states and the District of Columbia. In Frankfort, following the unexplained non-reappointment of Brenda J. Helton as chairman of the PSC, Gov. Paul Patton named as her replacement someone who’s been named to a few posts before – attorney and PSC executive director Martin J. Huelsmann. Huelsmann, whose wife Shirley chairs the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee, is a law professor at Northern Kentucky University, specializing in ethics and insurance. He has also chaired the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, been deputy secretary of the Kentucky Justice Cabinet and deputy liquidator of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. One issue that will probably occupy much of Huelsmann’s attention is the recent trend of utility deregulation and mergers (see chart on p. 16) HILLVIEW An 80-acre site in Hillview in northern Bullitt County could become the area’s prime location for shipping and materials-handling services. The site is about five miles south of Louisville International Airport and the emerging UPS 2000 complex. Two local developers, Paul Lichtefeld and David Williams, will build four warehouses totaling almost 900,000-s.f. at the Louisville Logistics Centre. The facilities will employ as many as 1,000 workers at an average salary of $25,000. Construction costs are estimated at $30 million. In addition, ProLogis, of Aurora, Colo., has confirmed it will also build and lease three additional warehouses, totaling more than 1.2 million-s.f., over the next three years, on the same site. That project could employ another 1,500 workers and cost $65 million. The city of Hillview, the county’s largest, agreed in May to install a $1.6 million sewage treatment plant to support the ProLogis developmen STATE The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved the following support measures for companies around the state:
The following are new projects receiving funding from the Bluegrass State Skills Corporation:
STATE While the venerable legal pad is still visible in the practice that gave it its name, the law firm of Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald has equipped all 170 of its lawyers and senior staff with the BlackBerry wireless e-mail system, allowing clients and colleagues alike constant access through handheld devices the size of a credit card. “More and more clients communicate with us via e-mail,” says managing partner Rick Anderson. “Having been a CEO of a business, I know that access to your lawyer can be the most important thing at that moment and rightly so. The addition of the Blackberry to an already-robust technological network is just an enhancement that permits them to communicate with us essentially constantly no matter where we are. It makes us more efficient in delivering services, because it’s a real-time system.” With six regional offices, the firm is finding the tool as handy internally as externally. “It’s certainly a lot faster to open e-mails than all those interoffice hard copy memos – the trees of the world are somewhat safer,” adds Anderson. “What technology has done to all professions is decrease the time that it takes to deliver your services. It gives comfort to us, because we know that we’re in touch.” LOUISVILLE Three highly visible projects, representing three different approaches to developing Louisville’s waterfront, have all moved – one ahead , one sideways and one from drydock into limbo. After resolving a dispute with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Waterfront Development Corporation has installed bumpers and floating docks in two locations at Waterfront Park, completing one element of the original plan. About 20 pleasure boats and two police river patrol boats will be able to tie up at the locations below Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant and in a notch in the Great Lawn. Meanwhile, Jefferson County announced it seeks bids by private operators for the two excursion boats it owns, the Belle of Louisville and Spirit of Jefferson. Financial woes dating from the deliberate sinking of the Belle have ballooned to a $100,000 operating deficit. The plan would lease operations to one or more private contractors with the county and its partner, the City of Louisville, responsible for capital improvements and major repairs. Louisville Mayor David Armstrong, who purchased and restored the Spirit while he was county judge-executive, has not commented on the proposal. The
late, sometimes-lamented Falls Fountain, inoperable for
two years, may be sold to another city, scrapped or
placed in Waterfront Park as a curiosity. The fountain,
which had a $2 million price tag and was a gift to the
city by the late Mary and Barry Bingham Sr., was
frequently Near the waterfront, Louisville’s Slugger Field may get its first commercial tenant. A local restaurateur is negotiating to open a family restaurant and microbrewery in the historic train shed that forms the front faÁade of the ball park. Gary Ulmer, president of the Louisville Riverbats and the city-owned facility, reported that a partner in the popular Judge Roy Bean’s restaurant may utilize the space. It could be a centerpiece of a developing East Main Street entertainment and residential corridor envisioned by city officials. The ballpark, adjacent to Waterfront Park, will soon be overlooked by the 26-story Waterfront Park Place condominium tower. The Riverbats have been averaging 9,400 fans per game at Slugger Field, despite so-so success on the field. The team has just moved its offices into the park from the former Cardinal Stadium, its home for 17 years. STATE The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was a longshot as it entered the starting gate because of Clinton administration opposition to some of the bill’s specifics. The administration and other bill opponents had problems with its guidelines regarding state approval of interstate wagering and ease of access to children and problem gamblers. So it was no upset when it was defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives by a 245 to 159 vote. The proposed bill exempted parimutuel betting on horse racing, dog racing and jai -alai, and therefore was backed by horse industry supporters. The current technology of interstate simulcasting and telephone-account betting (legal in 10 states, including Kentucky) accounts for 80 percent of all horse track wagering. In addition to protecting consumers from online games of chance, the federal government is also taking steps to protect consumer personal information from being disseminated among online merchants. A random survey of websites conducted by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that only eight percent carry a seal indicating their commitment to protect consumer privacy. According to USA Today, the survey also concluded that: 64 percent post a privacy policy; 55 percent say they take steps to ensure security of personal information; 50 percent give consumers a choice about how that information is used; 43 percent allow consumers to review, correct or delete information. CENTRAL
KENTUCKY
While Moores claims that the original adversity to overcome was being a woman in business 30 years ago, a more intense battle was fought more recently. “I was part of a national franchise network, and they came in and began competing with me in my own market,” she says. “It was a David and Goliath battle in federal court, and I was David and I won. Then, after a long protracted courtroom battle, I was faced with competing with that same big national corporation. But today I’m still in business and going along just fine, and they have been bought out.” LOUISVILLE Three months after it announced a management plan to take the company private, the board of ResCare, Inc. decided to postpone a buyback offer indefinitely. Chairman Ron Geary and a group of 25 officers and managers had offered to buy back publicly traded shares for $15.75 each, a significant premium above the company’s recent trading prices. The offer was underwritten by three investment banks. Recent fluctuations in share prices, plus a hostile climate for health-care companies, were cited by Geary as reasons for the decision. Despite the buy-back premium, ResCare’s stock fell to one-half and then one-third the offer price. The company failed to achieve its goal of $1 billion in revenues by 2000, although it did end 1999 with revenues of $834 million and profits of $6.3 million. ResCare officials have stressed frequently that their company has long been tainted with the investment community’s distaste for health-care companies primarily supported by Medicare financing. ResCare – which provides services for persons afflicted with brain injuries and developmental delays – receives much of its revenue from state-based Medicaid contracts, a distinction many investors seem unable or unwilling to make. MEANS
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According
to U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of
“America’s Best Hospitals,” University of
Louisville Hospital ranked 26th nationally in
rheumatology, UK’s Markey Cancer Center came in 18th
in cancer care, and UK Hospital ranked 50th in
orthopedics.
damaged by the
Ohio River’s debris and turbid water. The city pays
$20,000 a year to store the fountain.
BJM &
Associates, a staffing agency founded in 1971 by Janey
Moores, will be recognized with one of 200 Blue Chip
Enterprise awards to be given to small businesses later
this year by Mass Mutual Financial Group and the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. The awards recognize adversity
overcome in the pursuit of business opportunities. Among
the company’s divisions are Job Guidance of Kentucky
Inc., Commonwealth Employers Alliance, BJM Medical
Billing & Claims Processing and Technitron. While
total employment on-site is 25-30 people spread between
offices in Lexington, Frankfort and Georgetown, the
company sends out over 5,000 W-2 forms each year. 
Boneal
Inc., founded in 1980 by Mr. and Mrs.