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<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
THE STATE’S BUSINESS NEWS AUTHORITY.<br />
Business<br />
UPDATED DAILY: <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com<br />
Exec Q&A:<br />
Dr. Joe<br />
Thompson<br />
Th e state’s surgeon<br />
general says health<br />
care is at “a tipping<br />
point brought on by an<br />
unhealthy population<br />
and rising health care<br />
costs.” [P30]<br />
The List [P22]<br />
Largest Retirement<br />
Communities<br />
Whispers [P3]<br />
Subpoena in Hot<br />
Springs hospital deal<br />
The state Legislature’s approval<br />
of the expansion of<br />
Medicaid to the 250,000<br />
Arkansans who aren’t on it is<br />
critical, says Dr. Dan Rahn.<br />
Although the expansion<br />
will help, it won’t solve all of<br />
the financial problems of the<br />
University of <strong>Arkansas</strong> for<br />
Medical Sciences.<br />
Rahn, UAMS chancellor, on<br />
Tuesday told the <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
House Committee on Public<br />
Five Years Later<br />
The only person who has ever publicly<br />
claimed knowledge of John Glasgow’s<br />
fate is working as a prison barber<br />
and hoping for early release for two<br />
unrelated felonies. [P9]<br />
VOL. 30, NO. 4 JANUARY 28-FEBRUARY 3, 2013 $1.50<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Chancellor Dan Rahn says the University of <strong>Arkansas</strong> for Medical Sciences is continuing to explore a strategic partnership<br />
with St. Vincent Health System to trim expenses. [PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIRNIQUE]<br />
Money Woes<br />
Expanding Medicaid<br />
Critical for UAMS<br />
By Mark Friedman<br />
MFriedman@ABPG.com<br />
Health, Welfare & Labor that the<br />
projected cost of treating uninsured<br />
patients at UAMS’ hospital<br />
would rise to $66 million in<br />
2014 if Medicaid isn’t expanded.<br />
With expansion to cover<br />
Arkansans earning up to 138<br />
percent of the poverty level, that<br />
cost could be reduced to $38<br />
million — below the $42.5 million<br />
cost reported for 2010 in a<br />
study by the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Hospital<br />
Association.<br />
“We cannot sustain that<br />
trend” of rising treatment costs<br />
if Medicaid isn’t expanded,<br />
Rahn told the committee.<br />
In a recent interview with<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business, Rahn said<br />
UAMS was pushing for Medicaid<br />
expansion while trying<br />
to cope with a flurry of other<br />
potential financial emergencies:<br />
A possible $10 million in federal<br />
cuts stemming from budget<br />
reductions for Medicare and the<br />
National Institute of Health;<br />
A rising number of uninsured<br />
patients this year; and<br />
UAMS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12<br />
Vote for the best golf courses in <strong>Arkansas</strong> at <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/Golf<br />
Mentally Ill<br />
Uninsured<br />
Bog Down<br />
Treatment<br />
By Kate Knable<br />
KKnable@ABPG.com<br />
Concerns over mental health<br />
services have spiked nationally<br />
since last month’s school<br />
massacre in Connecticut, but<br />
mental health professionals in<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> say dealing with the<br />
mentally ill comes down to one<br />
thing: insurance.<br />
At any given time, about 5<br />
percent of <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ population<br />
struggles with mental illness<br />
that is too serious to allow<br />
them to manage their own care,<br />
according to Tom Grunden,<br />
executive director of the Little<br />
Rock Community Mental<br />
Health Center.<br />
Those who are insured have<br />
plenty of options, the professionals<br />
say. Those who are<br />
uninsured can’t be turned away<br />
by hospitals and publicly funded<br />
community mental health<br />
centers, but their treatment<br />
options are limited and they<br />
drain resources away from even<br />
the paying patients.<br />
Hospitals are “the safety net<br />
for society right now,” said Barry<br />
Pipkin, CEO of The BridgeWay,<br />
a private psychiatric hospital in<br />
North Little Rock.<br />
The chronically severely<br />
mentally ill are often without<br />
health insurance or Medicaid<br />
and, in crises, seek care at<br />
hospital emergency rooms or<br />
psychiatric hospitals like his,<br />
Pipkin said.<br />
MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Centers for Youth and Families Key Leaders support the goals and mission of our organization throughout the<br />
year. We are so grateful to continue our mission through the support of each one of our Key Leaders.<br />
Silver »<br />
BrONZe »<br />
Charles A. Frueauff Foundation<br />
The Frank & Emily Smith Foundation<br />
Donna & Mack McLarty<br />
Roy & Christine Sturgis Charitable<br />
& Educational Trust<br />
Alarmco<br />
ACE Glass Construction Corporation<br />
Acxiom Corporation<br />
Rebecca & Mark Allison<br />
Annunciation Greek Orthodox<br />
Church<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Blue Cross & Blue Shield<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Cardiology, P.A.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Children’s Hospital<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Humanities Council<br />
Katherine & Tracy Baltz<br />
Bank of Little Rock<br />
Bank of the Ozarks, Inc.<br />
Baptist Health<br />
Joellen & Rick Beard<br />
Ben E. Keith<br />
Peyton Bishop<br />
Blue & You Foundation for a<br />
Healthier <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Lynette & Paul Bowersock<br />
Shelley & Darek Braunecker<br />
Brave New Restaurant<br />
Susan & Austin Brightop<br />
C. B. Foundation<br />
Dr. Michael & Shelly Calhoun<br />
Capital Hotel<br />
The Carroll Mortagage Group<br />
Casa La Pace Bed & Breakfast<br />
Catholic High School for Boys<br />
Charles Cella<br />
CenterPoint Energy<br />
Merri & Robert Chandler<br />
City of Little Rock<br />
Gert Clark<br />
Wesley Clark<br />
Virginia Stuart Cobb<br />
Ellon & Rogers Cockrill<br />
Mary Lou & Bill Cravens<br />
Crow-Burlingame Co./Bumper to<br />
Bumper Auto Parts Store<br />
Datamax Micro<br />
The Dave Grundfest Co.<br />
Susan Day & Skip Clemmons<br />
Maggie & Dick Dearnley<br />
Deltic Timber<br />
Dollar General Literacy Foundation<br />
Stephanie & Howard Duty<br />
Kelly & Brad Eichler<br />
Susan Elder<br />
JoEvelyn Elston<br />
Entergy <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Eren Erdem<br />
Fast Enterprises<br />
Karen & John Flake<br />
Melanie & Jeff Fox<br />
Friday, Eldredge and Clark<br />
Charlotte & Jim Gadberry<br />
Gene and Jerry Jones Family Charity<br />
Giving Tree Fund<br />
Carolyn & Scott Gordon<br />
Ted Grace<br />
Deb & Mahdi Haddadi<br />
Carolyn & Dick Halsell<br />
Lynn Harbert<br />
Paul Hastings<br />
Collins Hemingway<br />
Cookie & Marc Higgins<br />
Hillcrest Harvest Fest<br />
Hudson Cisne & Co. LLP<br />
Lesli & John Hugg<br />
GOlD »<br />
Silver »<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business <strong>Publishing</strong> Group • Dover Dixon<br />
Horne, PLLC • GARVER • Glazer’s Distributors of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
• QualChoice<br />
Arvest Bank • Ben E. Keith • Caterpillar, Inc. • Cumulus<br />
Media Little Rock – B98.5 • Delta Dental of <strong>Arkansas</strong> •<br />
Essick Air Products • The Hatcher Agency • Maverick<br />
Transportation • Pettus Office Products • Pleasant Ridge<br />
Town Center, LLC, a Schickle Development • Regions Bank<br />
• Snell Prosthetic & Orthotic Lab • TC Print Solutions •<br />
Thomas & Thomas LLP CPAs • Verizon Wireless<br />
Donald Jack<br />
James Avery<br />
Spencer Jansen<br />
Mitch Jansonius<br />
Jim Elder Good Sport Fund<br />
Johnson, Horn & Nye PLLC<br />
Raja & Rami Kassissieh<br />
Cecilia & Drew Kelso<br />
Kenneth Edwards Fine Jewelers<br />
Kutak Rock LLP<br />
Lisa & Andy LaGrone<br />
Pat & Cor Langewis<br />
Legacy Termite and Pest<br />
Control, Inc.<br />
Ed Lynch<br />
Marion and Miriam Rose Fund<br />
The Markham Group<br />
Susan & Ken Martin<br />
Tommy May<br />
Suzanne & Richard McCarthy<br />
Jessie & Robert McLarty<br />
Toby & Chad Murry<br />
Nathan Dalton Whetstone<br />
Charitable Trust<br />
Mary Lynn & Sheffield Nelson<br />
Becky & Blake Norris<br />
Outback Steakhouse<br />
Oxford Graphics, Inc.<br />
Patricia B. and Gus Blass Foundation<br />
Don Pfeifer<br />
Helen Porter & James Dyke<br />
Dawn Prasifka & Ken Harrison<br />
Thomas Rao<br />
Riggs Benevolent Trust<br />
Lisenne D. Rockefeller<br />
The Bob Ross Family<br />
Scarlet Boutique<br />
Rebecca & Robert Schulte<br />
Scott Deaton/Deaton Group<br />
Realty<br />
Second Presbyterian Church<br />
Dr. Zarina Shah<br />
Simmons First National Bank<br />
The Smith Holloway Patton<br />
Foundation<br />
Southern Bancorp Bank<br />
Doug Stadter<br />
Barbara & Kim Stafford<br />
Stanley Jewelers Gemologist<br />
Steuri Family Endowment<br />
Alese & Doug Stroud<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Matt Suffern<br />
Terminix International<br />
Elizabeth & Van Tilbury<br />
TOM FM<br />
U.S. Bank<br />
Marc Verbos<br />
Vestcom<br />
Viking Range Corporation<br />
Virginia & Ted Bailey Family Trust<br />
Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund<br />
Whole Foods Market<br />
Bob Williams<br />
Winspire, Inc.<br />
Joyce Wood<br />
Sherry & George Worthen<br />
Karen & Domenick Yezzi<br />
Aileen & Kevin Zaffaroni<br />
To support the programs offered by Centers for Youth and Families, please call The Centers’ Foundation Office.<br />
501.666.9436
Life Support<br />
The Federal Trade Commission<br />
has issued at least one subpoena<br />
involving an investigation<br />
into the planned purchase<br />
of Mercy Hot Springs by Capella<br />
Healthcare of Franklin, Tenn.<br />
We don’t have too many<br />
details involving what the FTC<br />
is looking for by questioning<br />
health care officials.<br />
But if the FTC is subpoenaing<br />
people, it usually means it is<br />
inclined to block a sale on antitrust<br />
grounds. Capella already<br />
owns another hospital in Hot<br />
Springs, National Park Medical<br />
Center.<br />
An FTC spokesman said he<br />
couldn’t comment on the nonpublic<br />
investigation.<br />
“At this time, we don’t have<br />
any new information to share,”<br />
a Mercy spokeswoman said in<br />
an email last week. “We look<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business<br />
Whispers<br />
For daily news, register at <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/Enews<br />
forward to providing an update<br />
once there is new information.”<br />
When the proposed sale was<br />
announced in April, outrage<br />
swept through Hot Springs.<br />
It caused Eric Jackson, the<br />
general manager of Oaklawn<br />
Park in Hot Springs, to resign<br />
from Mercy’s national board<br />
of directors. “I have a strong<br />
conviction” that a faith-based,<br />
not-for-profit hospital is the best<br />
hospital for Hot Springs, Jackson<br />
said at the time.<br />
Also, Bishop Anthony B.<br />
Taylor of the Catholic Diocese of<br />
Little Rock expressed uneasiness<br />
about the deal.<br />
Taylor said in a statement<br />
in April that he was concerned<br />
about the “negative impact this<br />
purchase could have on the<br />
medical care available to the<br />
poor and on the Hot Springs<br />
community in general.”<br />
Shoppes Site Sold<br />
Did you hear that a prominent<br />
North Little Rock congregation<br />
has expanded its holdings<br />
south of Interstate 40?<br />
First Pentecostal Church of<br />
Jesus Christ now owns about<br />
90 acres across from its 1401<br />
Calvary Road campus after four<br />
transactions.<br />
We understand the church<br />
intends to develop a school<br />
campus with a supporting<br />
sports complex on the property<br />
at the southwest corner of North<br />
Hills Boulevard and I-40.<br />
First Pentecostal operates<br />
Calvary Academy, which has a<br />
members-only enrollment of<br />
about 240 students in grades<br />
PK-12 at the church.<br />
The new development would<br />
include facilities for the church’s<br />
Truth College at The Rock, a theology<br />
school with an enrollment<br />
of about 80 students.<br />
We’re told the congregation<br />
may develop a new sanctuary<br />
complex as well to replace its<br />
current landlocked location.<br />
Two parcels in the assembly<br />
process involved a conventional<br />
exchange of land for money,<br />
more than $1 million all told.<br />
The sellers were HDJ Realty<br />
LLC, led by Hal Matthews,<br />
30<br />
N<br />
40<br />
$638,000 for about 15.5 acres<br />
at the southwest corner of I-40<br />
and North Hills, and General<br />
Properties Inc., led by James P.<br />
Matthews, $420,000 for about 10<br />
acres adjoining the HDJ parcel<br />
to the south.<br />
The other two deals involved<br />
donations from Clifton and<br />
Shirley Norman, about 37.5<br />
acres adjoining the General<br />
Properties land to the west, and<br />
Doda Construction, led by David<br />
Bruning and Doug Meyer, about<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 3<br />
First<br />
Pentecostal<br />
Church<br />
Frontage Road<br />
Land Acquired for<br />
Future Church<br />
Development<br />
East 19th Street<br />
Calvary Road<br />
40<br />
North Hills Boulevard<br />
27 acres adjoining the HDJ parcel<br />
to the west.<br />
The Normans bought their<br />
property, which includes Mulligan’s<br />
Golf Range, for $1.7 million<br />
in late December. The<br />
couple purchased it from Terraforma<br />
LLC, another Bruning-<br />
Meyer entity.<br />
This puzzle of contiguous<br />
property lies along the west<br />
side of North Hills Boulevard<br />
WHISPERS CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
4 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
WHISPERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3<br />
between the I-40 frontage Road on the<br />
north and East 19th Street on the south.<br />
This land assembled by the church<br />
was once envisioned for The Shoppes at<br />
North Hills, a proposed 866,000-SF, $130<br />
million retail center.<br />
The ill-fated project, advocated by<br />
Belz-Burrow Development Group of<br />
Jonesboro and Hocker & Associates Inc.<br />
of Owensboro, Ky., became mired in<br />
years of litigation-fueled controversy.<br />
Environmentalists battled the developers<br />
over wetland issues, and other<br />
opponents joined the fray in a separate<br />
dispute over the proposed tax increment<br />
financing sought to subsidize con-<br />
struction. On the drawing board since<br />
2003, the project was to be anchored<br />
by a 120,000-SF Bass Pro Shop. The outdoor<br />
sporting goods chain shifted its<br />
gaze southward last year, paying $3 million<br />
for a 29.3-acre site in Little Rock’s<br />
Gateway Town Center development.<br />
Mitigation of wetland loss and flood<br />
storage, highway access and road<br />
improvements and other issues will no<br />
doubt be revisited.<br />
Cantrell Conundrum<br />
Did you hear that the forthcoming<br />
construction on a short stretch of<br />
Cantrell Road in Little Rock is going to<br />
displace some businesses?<br />
In case you didn’t know, the state is<br />
widening Cantrell between Mississippi<br />
Street and Perryville Road, and that<br />
means some of the shops near the right<br />
of way will be affected.<br />
One is Terry’s Finer Wines at 6700<br />
Cantrell Road, which closed last week in<br />
preparation to move to its new location, a<br />
vacant building across the street at 7011<br />
Cantrell.<br />
Robert “Ro” Arrington, the shop’s<br />
manager, said it’s not really a problem for<br />
him. The 60-year-old liquor store will be<br />
able to keep its clientele — mostly from<br />
the Heights area, Arrington said — and<br />
the state is paying for the move.<br />
Arrington said the store is slated to<br />
reopen Feb. 1.<br />
At Stephens, we understand our continued success results from how clients are treated. With this<br />
in mind, our work is done in a manner that demonstrates trust and clear thinking.<br />
For 80 years, our firm has successfully managed tax‑exempt issues and financial advisory<br />
transactions for <strong>Arkansas</strong> borrowers. And while 2012 was another good year, we understand it was<br />
possible because of the trust and confidence shown by our fellow Arkansans.<br />
We are continually impressed with the talent and dedication of the men and women who manage<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>’ municipalities, hospitals, colleges and universities, school districts, state agencies,<br />
counties, utility systems and other governmental organizations. thank you, <strong>Arkansas</strong>, for your<br />
continued confidence in our capabilities.<br />
Little rock 800‑643‑9691<br />
Fayetteville 800‑205‑8613<br />
LIttLe rock, Ar • AtLAntA, GA • bAton rouGe, LA<br />
chArLotte, nc • DALLAS, tX • FAYettevILLe, Ar<br />
JAckSon, MS • nAShvILLe, tn<br />
StephenS Inc. • MeMber nYSe, SIpc<br />
WHISPERS<br />
expertise. confidence. commitment.<br />
Building blocks of <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ future.<br />
Standing from left: Jack truemper,<br />
Michele casavechia, Dennis hunt,<br />
kevin Faught, chris Angulo,<br />
Lindsey ollar and bobbie nichols<br />
Seated from left: Michael Mcbryde,<br />
carey Smith, Jason holsclaw<br />
and Mark Mcbryde (executive<br />
vice president and Director of<br />
public Finance)<br />
StephenSpubLIcFInAnce.coM<br />
On the other hand, Ken Rash’s<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong>, a furniture store at 7214<br />
Cantrell, isn’t having such an easy<br />
time. According to Brandon Hawkins, an<br />
employee, the business will have to move<br />
but hasn’t yet found a new space.<br />
Less certain is the future of the strip<br />
of shops at the corner of Cantrell and<br />
Keightley, where the state may be building<br />
a turn lane. An employee of Al’s<br />
Tobacco in that strip said he had heard<br />
some of the businesses may need to<br />
move, but was not aware of specifics.<br />
Others, like Damgoode Pies, will just<br />
lose parking. An assistant manager for<br />
the pizza restaurant said it may have to<br />
send out a parking attendant to direct<br />
traffic, but the building should be safe.<br />
The road work doesn’t start until later<br />
this year, but the state can’t start until the<br />
businesses are moved, Arrington said.<br />
Benton County Move<br />
Bliss is no longer found only in<br />
Washington County.<br />
Northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ popular cupcake<br />
cafe is expanding its operation to<br />
include a Rogers location. Bliss Cupcake<br />
Cafe is slated to open in late February or<br />
March at 4204 W. Green Acres Road, near<br />
Promenade Boulevard.<br />
Flint and Rebekah Harris bought<br />
into the original Bliss in downtown<br />
Fayetteville in November 2011 and<br />
added a second Fayetteville location last<br />
year. Max and Kelly Moore recently joined<br />
them as business partners.<br />
Lessons Learned<br />
Angry customers flooded social<br />
media last week with complaints about<br />
AT&T’s handling of a widespread U-verse<br />
outage.<br />
A number of Facebook posters compared<br />
AT&T’s response with Entergy’s<br />
handling of the power outage after the<br />
Christmas ice storm and found the telecommunications<br />
giant lacking by comparison.<br />
Whispers asked Entergy <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
spokeswoman Julie Munsell what PR lessons<br />
the utility had learned.<br />
“This was the first major event where<br />
we [Entergy <strong>Arkansas</strong>] deployed social<br />
media,” she said. “From the very begin-<br />
ISSN: 1053-6582. USPS Number 730-650<br />
Font specs (full size as used in Page One nameplate):<br />
Vol. 30 Number 4, Jan. 28 - Feb. 3, 2013. <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
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Color specs: C82 M40 Y10 K0<br />
Business is published Rule weight: 14 pt weekly for $64.95 per year,<br />
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Alignment: fl ush right<br />
$94.95 per year out of state, 6 months in state for<br />
$39.95, 6 months out of state for $69.95 and $194.95<br />
foreign per year (including Canada) by <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business <strong>Publishing</strong> Group, 122 E. Second St., Little<br />
Rock, AR 72201, P.O. Box 3686, Little Rock, AR<br />
72203, (501) 372-1443, facsimile (501) 375-7933;<br />
Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, AR. Postmaster,<br />
send address change to <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business, P.O. Box<br />
3686, Little Rock, AR 72203. Copyright 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business Limited Partnership.<br />
Subscribe Today:<br />
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888-322-6397<br />
arkansasbusiness.com/store
Purchase Price Please<br />
$2 million.<br />
That’s the value attached to<br />
the sale of Wild River Country, the<br />
29-acre water park at 6820 Crystal<br />
Hill Road.<br />
The new owner is Aquapark<br />
Holdings LLC, led by Morton Fishman<br />
of Riviera Beach, Fla.<br />
Chris Shillcut of North Little<br />
Rock, a 22-year veteran of the water<br />
park/attraction industry, is returning<br />
home to oversee the project,<br />
including upgrades to the property.<br />
The sellers were Halcyon At-<br />
tractions Corp. of Toronto and<br />
Halcyon Attractions of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
LLC, both led by Hugh Hall. n<br />
ning of the event, we said we were going<br />
to make a significant commitment to<br />
a 24/7 response during the outage on<br />
social media, which took a significant<br />
amount of resources and effort on the<br />
part of the company.”<br />
The second strategy Entergy used was<br />
“that we would respond with whatever<br />
information we had to as many questions<br />
as possible.”<br />
Using social media allowed Entergy<br />
to converse with customers — to “listen<br />
to them and be able to respond to them”<br />
— in real time, Munsell said.<br />
Requests for neighborhood-level<br />
information “prompted an expansion of<br />
our ‘view outages’ map,” she said.<br />
Munsell did note that Entergy wasn’t<br />
able to provide detailed information during<br />
the first couple of days after the storm<br />
because of the weather but did move in<br />
that direction as soon as it was able.<br />
“We think that telling people what<br />
you know when you know it seems to<br />
be very critical to how people felt about<br />
the restoration process and how it was<br />
going.” n<br />
Correction<br />
The Dec. 31 purchase of Westquip Inc. of<br />
Oklahoma City by Hugg & Hall Equipment<br />
Co. of Little Rock, a deal valued at $12.1<br />
million, was omitted from the Jan. 21 list<br />
of the biggest deals of 2012. It should<br />
have ranked No. 34 among the 40 deals<br />
for which price tags were available. A corrected<br />
list has been posted on <strong>Arkansas</strong>-<br />
Business.com.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 5<br />
OUR NURSES ACCOMPLISHED<br />
WHAT NO ONE ELSE IN ARKANSAS<br />
AND FEW IN THE WORLD<br />
HAVE EVER ACHIEVED!<br />
To be the first and only hospital in <strong>Arkansas</strong> ever to receive Magnet® status<br />
from the American Nurses Credentialing Center is quite an honor. Worldwide,<br />
less than 5% of all hospitals have met the rigorous nursing criteria necessary to<br />
earn this prestigious designation.<br />
The Magnet Recognition Program® honors hospitals for excellence in patient<br />
outcomes, nursing practice, leadership and innovation. Everyone at St. Vincent<br />
Infirmary joins in expressing our pride in this remarkable achievement.<br />
This is a historic event for nursing and health care in <strong>Arkansas</strong>. St. Vincent<br />
nurses have clearly proven they are the leader and indisputably the best!<br />
Visit NurseCredentialing.org or StVincentHealth.com/Nurses<br />
to learn more.<br />
WHISPERS<br />
We thank all our nurses for the<br />
incredible effort required for<br />
ANCC Magnet Recognition.®<br />
The Magnet Recognition Program®, ANCC Magnet Recognition®, Magnet® names and logos are<br />
registered trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center. All rights reserved.<br />
CATHOLIC HEALTH<br />
INITI AT IV ES<br />
St.Vincent<br />
Infirmary
6 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business<br />
Telecommunications<br />
For daily news, register at <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/Enews<br />
AT&T to Pay $780 Million<br />
For Atlantic Tele-Network<br />
Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. of Beverly,<br />
Mass., a rural and niche telecommunications<br />
services provider, said Tuesday that<br />
it was selling its domestic retail wireless<br />
business, operated by subsidiary Allied<br />
Wireless Communications Corp. of Little<br />
Rock using the Alltel name, to AT&T of<br />
Dallas in an all-cash deal worth about<br />
$780 million.<br />
Allied Wireless was formed from<br />
divested Alltel assets after Alltel sold to<br />
Verizon for $28 billion in 2008. Allied<br />
has about 585,000 customers in rural<br />
areas of six states: Georgia, North<br />
Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio<br />
and Idaho. Atlantic Tele-Network said<br />
Allied generated about $350 million in<br />
revenue in the first nine months of 2012.<br />
The deal, subject to regulatory<br />
approval, is expected to close in the second<br />
half of 2013. Stephens Inc. of Little<br />
Rock advised Atlantic Tele-Network on<br />
the sale.<br />
It was unclear from the announcement<br />
what the deal would mean for<br />
Allied Wireless’ Little Rock headquarters.<br />
Atlantic Tele-Network did not discuss<br />
Little Rock in a conference call<br />
Tuesday with investors, and local officials<br />
would not comment.<br />
In September 2009, Atlantic Tele-<br />
Network announced that Frank<br />
O’Mara would run the Alltel divestiture<br />
unit as CEO of Allied Wireless<br />
Weekly<br />
Report<br />
Communications. O’Mara, former<br />
executive vice president of marketing at<br />
Alltel, spent 13 years with the Little Rock<br />
telecom before it sold to Verizon.<br />
In December 2009, Allied<br />
announced it would invest $200 million<br />
to establish its headquarters in a<br />
building formerly occupied by Acxiom<br />
Corp. on Technology Drive in west Little<br />
Rock. The company said the operation<br />
would add between 200 and 250 jobs in<br />
central <strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
Allied received state incentives for the<br />
headquarters: $5 million from the governor’s<br />
quick action closing fund for retrofitting,<br />
equipment and training; sales tax<br />
returns on eligible building equipment<br />
and machinery; and a 5 percent cash<br />
rebate on new payroll for the next five<br />
years. As of late 2010, Allied Wireless<br />
leased 75,000 SF in the 100,000-SF building.<br />
After the sale of the Alltel business,<br />
Atlantic Tele-Network said, its businesses<br />
will consist of Commnet, serving<br />
rural communities primarily in the<br />
Southwest U.S.; Sovernet, serving residential<br />
and business customers in New<br />
England; ION, serving rural communities<br />
in New York State; GT&T, serving<br />
Guyana; CellOne, serving Bermuda; and<br />
Choice, Islandcom and Mio, serving portions<br />
of the Caribbean islands.<br />
— Lance Turner<br />
Business Calendar: The Week Ahead<br />
Tuesday<br />
January 29<br />
A+ <strong>Arkansas</strong> Education<br />
Reform Rally. 9 a.m.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> State Capitol,<br />
Little Rock. Summit to follow<br />
at Doubletree Hotel. Visit<br />
APlus<strong>Arkansas</strong>.org.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Hospitality<br />
Association Central<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Chapter Awards<br />
Dinner. 6:30 p.m. Cajun’s<br />
Wharf, Little Rock. $45. (501)<br />
376-2323.<br />
Wednesday<br />
January 30<br />
Panel — The Farm Bill:<br />
What’s Next? 10 a.m.-noon.<br />
Conway County Fairgrounds,<br />
Morrilton. Free. (501) 671-2166.<br />
Disaster Preparedness &<br />
Response. 6 p.m. Clinton<br />
School of Public Service, Little<br />
Rock. Free. (501) 683-5239.<br />
Murphy Oil Corp. Fourth-<br />
Quarter 2012 Earnings.<br />
Released in afternoon.<br />
Thursday<br />
January 31<br />
Small-Business Panel: Get<br />
the Real Deal on Daily Deals.<br />
10 a.m.-noon. Community<br />
room, Fort Smith Public Library,<br />
3201 Rogers Ave. Free. (479)<br />
356-2067.<br />
Panel: Boosting Business<br />
With Great Customer<br />
Reviews. 1-3 p.m. Community<br />
room, Fort Smith Public Library.<br />
(479) 356-2067.<br />
Retail<br />
Wal-Mart Says<br />
It’s Tightening<br />
Measures on<br />
Subcontractors<br />
BENTONVILLE — Wal-Mart Stores Inc.<br />
has alerted its global suppliers that it will<br />
immediately drop them if they subcontract<br />
their work to factories that haven’t<br />
been authorized by the discounter.<br />
Wal-Mart’s stricter measure, along<br />
with other changes to its policy, comes<br />
amid increasing calls for better safety<br />
oversight after a deadly fire at a<br />
Bangladesh factory that<br />
supplied clothing to Wal-<br />
Mart and other retailers.<br />
The fire in late November<br />
killed 112 workers at a factory owned by<br />
Tazreen Fashions Ltd. Wal-Mart has said<br />
the factory wasn’t authorized to make its<br />
clothes.<br />
In a letter sent Tuesday to suppliers<br />
of its Wal-Mart stores as well as Sam’s<br />
Clubs in the U.S., Canada and the United<br />
Kingdom, the company says it will adopt<br />
a “zero tolerance” policy on subcontracting<br />
without the company’s knowledge,<br />
effective March. 1. Previously, suppliers<br />
had three chances to rectify mistakes.<br />
Wal-Mart also said it plans to publish<br />
Government<br />
Authorities say the vice chairman of<br />
the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Game & Fish Commission<br />
has been arrested on public intoxication<br />
and disorderly conduct charges.<br />
Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley<br />
said Wednesday that Rick Watkins was<br />
arrested Tuesday evening on the two<br />
misdemeanor charges and has since<br />
been released. Staley says Watkins, of<br />
Little Rock, was intoxicated and shooting<br />
a pistol in a rural part of the coun-<br />
on its corporate website a list of factories<br />
that haven’t been authorized to manufacture<br />
goods for Wal-Mart.<br />
Also, starting June 1, suppliers must<br />
have an employee stationed in countries<br />
where they subcontract to ensure compliance,<br />
rather than relying on thirdparty<br />
agents.<br />
“We want the right accountability and<br />
ownership to be in the hands of the suppliers,”<br />
Rajan Kamalanathan, Wal-Mart’s<br />
vice president of ethical sourcing, said in<br />
an interview with The Associated Press.<br />
“We are placing our orders in good faith.”<br />
Wal-Mart ranks second behind<br />
Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M in the<br />
number of clothing orders it places in<br />
Bangladesh. Before the fatal fire there,<br />
Wal-Mart had taken new steps to address<br />
the growing problem of<br />
safety, such as mandating<br />
fire safety training<br />
for all levels of factory<br />
management. Building fires have led<br />
to more than 600 garment work deaths<br />
in Bangladesh since 2005, according<br />
to research by the advocacy group<br />
International Labor Rights Forum.<br />
Kamalanathan said the company was<br />
looking to create a fund that factories can<br />
use to improve safety standards, but that<br />
is still in discussion. He also said local<br />
governments and other suppliers and<br />
retailers have to do their part in boosting<br />
work safety in factories.<br />
— The Associated Press<br />
AGFC Vice Chair Rick Watkins Arrested<br />
MORE ON THE WEB:<br />
For additional calendar items, or to submit<br />
items: <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/calendar<br />
Friday<br />
February 1<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Bar Association<br />
Webinar: Independent<br />
Contractor Agreements.<br />
Noon-1 p.m. $95-$125. Visit<br />
ArkBar.InReachCE.com.<br />
Webinar: FDCPA: An<br />
Overview of a Seemingly<br />
Simple Statute. Noon-1<br />
p.m. $95-$125. Visit ArkBar.<br />
InReachCE.com.<br />
ty. Staley says Watkins wasn’t shooting<br />
at anyone and was cooperative with<br />
authorities who were called to the scene.<br />
Commission spokesman Keith Stephens<br />
called the incident “a very serious matter”<br />
and said the agency was waiting<br />
to see how the situation unfolds before<br />
making any further statements.<br />
Watkins didn’t return a phone message<br />
left Wednesday.<br />
— The Associated Press<br />
Beebe Seeks Disaster<br />
Declaration for Storm<br />
Gov. Mike Beebe is asking President<br />
Barack Obama to declare a disaster for<br />
damage from a winter storm that struck<br />
on Christmas Day in central <strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
Beebe on Tuesday said seven <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
counties sustained an estimated $9 million<br />
in storm damage and that threefourths<br />
of that sum was incurred for<br />
storm debris removal.<br />
State and federal teams have been<br />
conducting damage assessment since<br />
the storm.<br />
The disaster declaration would enable<br />
state and local entities to recover some<br />
costs from the storm response.<br />
— The Associated Press
CENTRAL ARKANSAS<br />
Science Foundation Gives<br />
Hendrix $400,000 Grant<br />
The National Science<br />
Foundation this month<br />
awarded a $415,515 grant<br />
to Hendrix College in<br />
Conway for a project overseen<br />
by Andrea Duina, a<br />
biology professor at the<br />
college.<br />
The foundation, based<br />
in Arlington, Va., will<br />
fund the grant over three years. The<br />
grant is funding a research project on<br />
yeast cells. The research should provide<br />
a better understanding of the basic<br />
molecular processes that control how<br />
cells use genes to produce proteins,<br />
Duina said. Yeast cells are similar to<br />
human cells.<br />
“We are trying to understand how<br />
specific proteins are involved in this<br />
process,” Duina said. The new scientific<br />
research “can be used to understand cell<br />
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS<br />
Retail Space<br />
Vacancy Rate Falls<br />
The total vacancy rate for the<br />
central <strong>Arkansas</strong> commercial retail<br />
real estate market fell to 7.5 percent<br />
in the fourth quarter of 2012,<br />
compared with 7.7 percent during<br />
the third quarter and 8.6 percent<br />
Net Absorption (SF)<br />
biology in general, including<br />
human biology.”<br />
The first $157,723 of<br />
the grant is guaranteed<br />
to Duina’s project. The<br />
NSF will fund the rest of<br />
the grant, depending on<br />
the progress of the project<br />
and money availability.<br />
The funding will pay for, among<br />
other things, supplies and equipment,<br />
travel to scientific conferences, publishing<br />
and salaries for students’ summer<br />
lab work.<br />
Twelve undergraduate students will<br />
work on the project in Duina’s laboratory,<br />
and up to 50 others will conduct<br />
related experiments during one or two<br />
advanced cell biology courses taught by<br />
Duina.<br />
Duina previously received a total of<br />
during fourth-quarter 2011.<br />
“The year-end market trends<br />
report reflects five consecutive<br />
quarters of positive absorption,<br />
totaling over 220,000 SF of new<br />
retail occupancy,” said Jeff Yates<br />
of Irwin Partners. “This absorption<br />
coincides with reported lease rates<br />
rising 3 percent over the same<br />
period.”<br />
Historical Vacancy & Net Absorption<br />
Source:<br />
140,000<br />
120,000<br />
100,000<br />
9%<br />
80,000<br />
60,000<br />
40,000<br />
20,000<br />
8%<br />
0 7%<br />
2011 Q4 2012 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 Q3 2012 Q4<br />
THEY SAID IT<br />
Vacancy Rate (%)<br />
WEEKLY REPORT<br />
Andrea Duina, Hendrix College, associate professor<br />
of biology. [SUBMITTED PHOTO]<br />
$843,743 in NSF grant funding while at<br />
Hendrix.<br />
— Kate Knable<br />
ABF Global Adds South America to Coverage<br />
ABF Global Supply Chain<br />
Services has added South<br />
America to its coverage area.<br />
Argentina, Brazil, Chile,<br />
Columbia, Peru and Uruguay<br />
are now included in ABF<br />
Global’s transport portfolio.<br />
Services provided include<br />
single contact for full-container-load<br />
and expedited less-than-container-load.<br />
Source: Central <strong>Arkansas</strong> Commercial Data Exchange<br />
ABF, part of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Best Corp., which is<br />
headquartered in Fort<br />
Smith, has added South<br />
America to its international<br />
operation along<br />
with Europe and Asia.<br />
“With an established<br />
presence in Europe,<br />
China, India and Southeast Asia countries,<br />
South America is a natural exten-<br />
sion of our global coverage,” said Carlos<br />
Martinez-Tomatis, ABF GSCS division<br />
vice president.<br />
“ABF Global now covers nearly 90 percent<br />
of the total ocean international market<br />
to and from the United States.<br />
“Our goal is to reach 96 percent of<br />
the total import/export market, which<br />
we anticipate achieving before the end<br />
of 2013. ”<br />
— Chris Bahn<br />
“Some properties that were reporting<br />
significant vacancies at the beginning<br />
of 2012, such as The Promenade at<br />
Chenal and Shackleford Crossings,<br />
saw significant increases in occupancy<br />
during the year.”<br />
Vacancy Rate (%)<br />
— Jeff Yates, partner, Irwin Partners<br />
Vacancy Rate by Quarter<br />
10%<br />
8%<br />
6%<br />
8.6% 8.3% 7.9% 7.7% 7.5%<br />
2011 2012 2012 2012 2012<br />
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 7<br />
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8 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP<br />
WEEKLY REPORT<br />
Legislature Enters Week 2 With Guns Blazing<br />
By Mark Carter<br />
MCarter@ABPG.com<br />
The 89th General Assembly entered<br />
week two with guns blazing. Well, with<br />
gun bills, anyway.<br />
Sen. Bryan King’s bill to allow concealed-carry<br />
permit holders to “carry”<br />
in churches that OK<br />
the practice advanced<br />
out of committee, as<br />
did a resolution urging<br />
the federal government<br />
not to mess<br />
with the Second<br />
Amendment.<br />
King, a Republican<br />
from Green Forest,<br />
Bryan King<br />
advanced his Senate Bill 71 out of the<br />
Senate Judiciary Committee, where it<br />
awaits a full Senate vote this week.<br />
The measure, which Gov. Mike<br />
Beebe indicated he’d sign, would take<br />
churches off the list of places where<br />
concealed handguns are prohibited.<br />
Churches would be given the choice to<br />
allow guns or not, and would determine<br />
who could carry them.<br />
An amendment requiring churches<br />
that allow guns to carry more insurance<br />
was defeated.<br />
Meanwhile, House Bill 1035 by<br />
Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, would<br />
allow trained faculty and staff to carry<br />
on college campuses in the state. It<br />
awaits a vote in the House Education<br />
Committee.<br />
A non-binding resolution by Rep.<br />
Richard Womack, R-Arkadelphia,<br />
would urge the federal government<br />
not to infringe on Second Amendment<br />
rights. It unanimously passed out of the<br />
House State Agencies & Governmental<br />
Affairs Committee with a full House<br />
vote expected this week.<br />
If passed, the resolution would be<br />
distributed to President Barack Obama,<br />
congressional leaders and other state<br />
legislatures. Though his signature is<br />
not required, Beebe told The Associated<br />
Press last week that he supports the<br />
measure.<br />
Elsewhere, Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little<br />
Rock filed the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Interdistrict<br />
Public School Choice Act of 2013 (Senate<br />
Bill 114). The veteran Democratic lawmaker,<br />
who served three terms in the<br />
House and is in her third Senate term,<br />
Presented by<br />
wants to replace the state’s school<br />
choice law governing student transfers<br />
between districts. Her bill would<br />
allow transfers so long as a move didn’t<br />
impact desegregation.<br />
A bill filed in the session’s opening<br />
week could compete with Elliott’s measure<br />
for votes. Sen. Johnny Key’s Senate<br />
Bill 65 amends existing law to allow students<br />
one transfer per school year. The<br />
Mountain Home Republican could run<br />
the bill through the Senate Education<br />
Committee this week.<br />
Speaking of schools, Sen. David<br />
Burnett, D-Osceola, filed a bill last<br />
week that would create a capital grant<br />
program for open enrollment charter<br />
schools that would be administered by<br />
the state Department of Education.<br />
Democratic Rep. Butch Wilkins of<br />
Bono filed legislation last week severely<br />
limiting the circumstances under<br />
which <strong>Arkansas</strong> insurance companies<br />
could pay for abortions outside of a<br />
separate rider. Wilkins’ House Bill 1100<br />
would provide exceptions for rape,<br />
incest and the safety of the mother,<br />
something past legislation didn’t do.<br />
In 2011, a measure not including such<br />
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 25TH ANNUAL<br />
ARKANSAS BUSINESS OF THE YEAR FINALISTS<br />
Business of the Year<br />
– Category I<br />
•American Data Network<br />
•Buffalo Outdoor Center<br />
•Community Bankers<br />
Merchant Services, Inc.<br />
•Haag Brown Commercial<br />
Real Estate and Development<br />
•PC Assistance<br />
Business of the Year<br />
– Category II<br />
•All-Clean USA<br />
•Kaufman Lumber Co.<br />
•PrivacyStar<br />
•US Compounding<br />
•Winter Moving & Storage, Inc.<br />
Business of the Year<br />
– Category III<br />
•<strong>Arkansas</strong> Surgical Hospital<br />
• Arnold & Blevins Electric Co.<br />
•Jan-Pro of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
•Tankersley Food Service, Inc.<br />
•TME, Inc.<br />
Nonprofit Executive of the Year<br />
presented by AT&T<br />
•Matt Dozier, EAST Inc.<br />
•Brian Itzkowitz, Goodwill<br />
Industries of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
exceptions passed in the Senate but<br />
failed to advance out of House committee.<br />
The bill likely will be heard in the<br />
House Public Health, Welfare & Labor<br />
Committee this week.<br />
Under Sen. Keith Ingram’s Senate<br />
Bill 108, filed last week and applying<br />
to state income tax, businesses could<br />
“extend the period for which a net operating<br />
loss could be carried forward<br />
to 10 years or until the loss has been<br />
exhausted or absorbed by the taxable<br />
income of a succeeding year, whichever<br />
is greater.”<br />
The West Memphis Democrat could<br />
run the bill through Senate Revenue &<br />
Tax this week.<br />
Also last week, the House approved<br />
a budget proposal that keeps salaries<br />
flat for the state’s elected officials in<br />
the executive, legislative and judicial<br />
branches. The measure leaves the door<br />
open for pay increases for state employees.<br />
Check out all of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business’ legislative coverage at<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/89th-General-<br />
Assembly. n<br />
•Christie Jordan, Food Bank<br />
of Northeast <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
•Christina Littlejohn, <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Symphony Orchestra<br />
•Peggy McCall, Miracle League<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Nonprofit Organization of the Year<br />
presented by AT&T<br />
•Bethlehem House, Inc.<br />
•Cystic Fibrosis Foundation<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Chapter<br />
•Economics <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
•Museum of Discovery<br />
•Our House<br />
Business Executive of the Year<br />
•Sam Alley, VCC<br />
•Don Cavenaugh, Cavenaugh<br />
Auto Group<br />
•Kevin Lamb, Advanced Tissue<br />
•Brett Overman, All-Clean USA<br />
•Jerry Spears, B&B Solutions<br />
ARCF Outstanding<br />
Philanthropic Awards<br />
• City Plumbing, Heating &<br />
Electric, Inc.<br />
• Medic One Ambulance<br />
• Lockheed Martin<br />
• Jonesboro City Water & Light<br />
special recognition
The last time Jan. 28 fell on<br />
a Monday, the chief financial<br />
officer of one of the state’s largest<br />
construction companies left<br />
home early in the morning and<br />
vanished.<br />
Five years later, the only<br />
person who has ever publicly<br />
claimed knowledge of John<br />
Glasgow’s fate is working as a<br />
prison barber and hoping for<br />
early release for two unrelated<br />
felonies.<br />
Glasgow, 45 at the time he<br />
went missing, was CFO of CDI<br />
Contractors LLC of Little Rock,<br />
which was then half-owned<br />
and is now wholly owned by<br />
Dillard’s Inc. He was legally<br />
declared dead almost two years<br />
ago, and his widow hopes to<br />
find out what happened to him<br />
but isn’t holding her breath.<br />
“I have just resigned myself<br />
that I may never know. I’ve<br />
turned it over to the universe<br />
and moved forward,” Melinda<br />
Glasgow said last week.<br />
She has thrown herself into<br />
her work for the city of Little<br />
Rock — first as recycling coordinator<br />
and then, after a promotion<br />
at the end of November, as<br />
sustainability officer — which<br />
feels like the work she was<br />
meant to do.<br />
She still lives in the house<br />
in the Hillcrest neighborhood<br />
that she shared with John, and<br />
she remains close to his seven<br />
siblings.<br />
As the initial shock of her<br />
husband’s disappearance wore<br />
off, Melinda Glasgow said she<br />
tried to make the kinds of decisions<br />
that John would have<br />
wanted her to make.<br />
“I didn’t want to make bad<br />
decisions because I was dealt<br />
this unbelievable blow,” she<br />
said. “He was smart and practical-minded.<br />
It would have been<br />
easy for me to spin out of control,<br />
so I’ve done a lot of ‘what<br />
would John do?’”<br />
About three and a half years<br />
after John vanished, in mid-<br />
2011, a twice-convicted felon<br />
named Jonathan Brawner told<br />
his lawyer and the Little Rock<br />
Police Department that he knew<br />
where Glasgow’s body was buried.<br />
He said he had been recruit-<br />
ed by “thugs from Malvern” to<br />
whom he owed money to help<br />
bury Glasgow in a bean field<br />
near England in Lonoke County.<br />
That development would not<br />
become public until January<br />
2012, when reporter Lauren<br />
Trager with KARK-TV, Channel<br />
4, broke the story.<br />
Trager’s scoop was immediately<br />
followed up by other<br />
new organizations, including<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business. That<br />
renewed attention to the case<br />
just before the fourth anniversary<br />
was hard, Melinda Glasgow<br />
said, “because of law enforcement<br />
being involved and more<br />
publicity” — but also because it<br />
came to naught.<br />
The bean field Brawner<br />
pinpointed as the burial site<br />
yielded no remains, despite<br />
time-consuming and expensive<br />
searches using sophisticated<br />
imaging equipment. And<br />
Melinda doesn’t know exactly<br />
what to think of Brawner’s tale,<br />
but she suspects there was some<br />
truth in it.<br />
“I’m not so sure he didn’t<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 9<br />
Glasgow’s Disappearance Still Unexplained<br />
By Gwen Moritz<br />
GMoritz@ABPG.com<br />
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GLASGOW CONTINUED ON PAGE 10<br />
Glasgow enjoyed travel, including family ski trips and visits to Scotland,<br />
Ireland and the Galapagos Islands. [PROVIDED PHOTO]<br />
Experience the commitment ®
10 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
GLASGOW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9<br />
know something, but it was<br />
hard to sort fact from fiction<br />
with him,” she said.<br />
Brawner’s Status<br />
When Brawner first started<br />
talking about his knowledge of<br />
the Glasgow case, he had been<br />
paroled after<br />
serving 202<br />
days, most<br />
of it in prison<br />
boot camp,<br />
for his role in<br />
the attempted<br />
Jon<br />
Brawner<br />
kidnapping<br />
of a Conway<br />
County busi-<br />
nessman named Jim Daven on<br />
July 31, 2009.<br />
Brawner pleaded guilty to<br />
robbery and was sentenced to<br />
20 years with 10 years of it suspended.<br />
The Conway County<br />
Sheriff’s Department’s investigation<br />
concluded that he enlisted<br />
two co-workers from Cudd<br />
Energy Services in Conway<br />
to kidnap Daven, owner of a<br />
commodities brokerage where<br />
Brawner had worked, with<br />
the intention of forcing him<br />
to transfer millions of dollars<br />
GLASGOW<br />
John Glasgow’s family worked hard to find the missing CFO, including offering a reward. [PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIRNIQUE]<br />
from client accounts to offshore<br />
accounts set up by Brawner.<br />
One of Brawner’s henchmen,<br />
J.C. Chapman, was fatally<br />
shot by Daven’s stepson during<br />
the attempted kidnapping. The<br />
other, David Newkirk, is serving<br />
a 20-year sentence for attempted<br />
capital murder and attempted<br />
kidnapping and isn’t eligible<br />
for parole for seven more years.<br />
In October 2010, four months<br />
after being paroled, Brawner<br />
was arrested for stalking his exwife,<br />
who testified that he had<br />
told her about helping to bury<br />
a body. After being convicted,<br />
Brawner started trying to use<br />
his claimed knowledge of the<br />
Glasgow case to improve his<br />
situation.<br />
So far, it hasn’t worked.<br />
“He maintains even today<br />
that he has information” concerning<br />
the Glasgow case,<br />
Brawner’s attorney, Frank<br />
Shaw of Conway, told <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business last week. Brawner<br />
passed an <strong>Arkansas</strong> State Police<br />
polygraph exam concerning<br />
the location he identified, Shaw<br />
said, but after the archeological<br />
search of the about 2 acres<br />
of bean field came up empty,<br />
“some in law enforcement<br />
believe him and some are skeptical.”<br />
No immunity or plea bargains<br />
were offered to Brawner<br />
in connection with the Glasgow<br />
case, Shaw said, “and that<br />
stalled things.”<br />
Brawner was sentenced to 10<br />
years for the stalking conviction,<br />
which was a violation of<br />
his parole and the terms of his<br />
suspended sentence on the robbery<br />
conviction for the Daven<br />
kidnapping attempt. The stalking<br />
conviction is under appeal,<br />
but in December, Brawner was<br />
returned briefly to Conway<br />
County, where he came away<br />
with an additional sentence of<br />
96 months.<br />
“He’s serving his sentence<br />
and being very patient, but he<br />
wants out as soon as possible<br />
— like everyone else in prison,”<br />
said Shaw, who said anything<br />
else he knows about the<br />
Glasgow case is protected by<br />
attorney-client privilege.<br />
The <strong>Arkansas</strong> Department<br />
of Correction website shows<br />
Brawner’s parole eligibility date<br />
as March 20, but department<br />
spokeswoman Shea Wilson<br />
said a delay in getting paperwork<br />
on the additional sentence<br />
out of Conway County<br />
had kept the department from<br />
updating Brawner’s status.<br />
Exactly when he might be eligible<br />
for parole was uncertain,<br />
Wilson said.<br />
In the meantime, Brawner<br />
has had no disciplinary violations<br />
during his incarceration.<br />
His work assignment is as a barber<br />
for other inmates. n
Blytheville Hospital Closing<br />
A Section of Its Cancer Center<br />
The Great River Medical Center in<br />
Blytheville will stop offering radiation<br />
treatments in its cancer center by the end<br />
of January.<br />
Chemotherapy treatments still will<br />
be offered at the center by an oncologist,<br />
but not the radiation treatments, which<br />
were operated by Methodist Healthcare<br />
and the West Clinic in Memphis, said<br />
John Logan, chairman of the board of<br />
the Mississippi Hospital Association.<br />
Mississippi County owns the hospital<br />
building and leases the space.<br />
About six months ago, Methodist and<br />
the West Clinic announced that “they<br />
determined they didn’t want to continue<br />
the radiation part in Blytheville,” Logan<br />
said. Logan said he didn’t know why<br />
Methodist and the West Clinic wanted<br />
to stop the service. He referred questions<br />
to hospital administrator Ralph Beaty,<br />
who wasn’t immediately unavailable for<br />
comment.<br />
The hospital committee searched for<br />
another health care provider to take over<br />
the lease of the space, but couldn’t find one.<br />
Logan said that he didn’t know how<br />
many patients would be affected by<br />
the closure, but now they will have to<br />
drive about an hour away to Memphis or<br />
Jonesboro for treatment.<br />
Logan said the county might lease the<br />
space left vacant by Methodist and West<br />
Clinic to a doctor.<br />
— Mark Friedman<br />
HealthSouth, St. Bernards<br />
Partner on Rehab Services<br />
St. Bernards Healthcare of Jonesboro<br />
and HealthSouth Corp. of Birmingham,<br />
Ala., announced Wednesday that they<br />
have agreed to partner on inpatient rehabilitation<br />
services.<br />
The partnership will take place at<br />
the 67-bed HealthSouth Rehabilitation<br />
Hospital of Jonesboro, according to a<br />
joint news release. The cost of the partnership<br />
wasn’t disclosed, but it will be<br />
an equal partnership, Rebecca Rasberry,<br />
a spokeswoman for St. Bernards, said in<br />
an email to <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business.<br />
The transaction will need approval<br />
from state and federal regulatory agencies,<br />
but it is expected to close by the end<br />
of the quarter.<br />
“We believe that by combining the<br />
resources and efforts of both organizations,<br />
we will be able to offer exceptional<br />
rehabilitative services to patients within<br />
this region,” Chris B. Barber, president<br />
and CEO of St. Bernards Healthcare, said<br />
in the news release.<br />
Under health care reform, hospitals<br />
and doctors will have to demonstrate<br />
lower costs while providing high-quality<br />
care, which will be key metrics in governmental<br />
and commercial reimbursements.<br />
“Future health care models are going<br />
to require providers to work very closely<br />
together, providing seamless, coordinated<br />
transitions of care,” Rasberry said. “It<br />
just made sense for both organizations to<br />
partner in this venture.”<br />
— Mark Friedman<br />
White County Medical Center<br />
Sells River Oaks Village<br />
River Oaks Village, which had<br />
been owned and managed by White<br />
County Medical Center, was sold Dec.<br />
3 to Providence Assisted Living LLC of<br />
Clarksdale, Miss., administrator Lisa<br />
Jackson said last week.<br />
Providence already had four facilities<br />
in Mississippi and operates an inhome<br />
care division called Providence<br />
Companion Care.<br />
River Oaks is located near the WCMC<br />
Health Care Notes<br />
campus. It comprises 47 independent living<br />
and 40 assisted living apartments. The<br />
nonrefundable entrance fee is $500, and<br />
thereafter residents pay monthly rent.<br />
— Gwen Moritz<br />
Magnolia Medical Center<br />
Building Fitness Park<br />
Magnolia Regional Medical Center<br />
broke ground last week on a fitness park<br />
on the hospital’s property.<br />
According to CEO Margaret West, the<br />
hospital’s current location was originally<br />
the location of Magnolia’s city park.<br />
“There is a section of the park still left<br />
on our campus,” West said. “We’ve been<br />
SAVE<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 11<br />
talking for years about how nice it would<br />
be to have a walking park in there.”<br />
West said the hospital raised about<br />
$111,000 during the last year to go toward<br />
the park.<br />
The actual cost of the park will be<br />
closer to $60,000, West said, but the<br />
remainder of the money raised may go<br />
toward upgrades like lighting.<br />
West said the park will feature a quarter-mile<br />
track with intermittent “fitness<br />
stations” containing advice for workouts.<br />
The park is slated to be completed by<br />
spring. Terracon of Little Rock designed,<br />
it, and Perritt & Vickers Inc. of Magnolia<br />
is building it.<br />
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12 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
UAMS: Looks<br />
to cut costs,<br />
raise revenue<br />
or both<br />
Continued From Page One<br />
A decrease in net state revenue.<br />
“The trends that we’re seeing<br />
are the increased costs associated<br />
with uninsured care,”<br />
Rahn said. “We’re going to have<br />
to seek new revenue streams,<br />
reduce expenses or both.”<br />
For the fiscal year that ended<br />
June 30, the UAMS campus<br />
reported an operating loss of<br />
$63.3 million and a net loss of<br />
$7.9 million, even after state<br />
appropriations, gifts and investment<br />
income. That compared<br />
with an operating loss of $29.4<br />
million and net income of $42.23<br />
million the previous year.<br />
Most of the loss in fiscal 2012,<br />
though, was tied to an accounting<br />
charge involving the booking<br />
of sick leave benefits to<br />
UAMS employees.<br />
“There were a number of<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
The average number of visits per month to UAMS’ ER has jumped from 4,500<br />
in fiscal 2011 to more than 5,000 this fiscal year. [PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIRNIQUE]<br />
things that worked against us,”<br />
Rahn said of fiscal 2012.<br />
UAMS’ hospital alone reported<br />
a loss of $568,712 on total<br />
patient revenue of $1.4 billion.<br />
Through the first six months<br />
of the current fiscal year,<br />
UAMS’ hospital is “fundamentally<br />
breaking even,” Rahn<br />
said. He declined to say what<br />
the numbers were because he<br />
hasn’t yet presented them to the<br />
University of <strong>Arkansas</strong> Board of<br />
Trustees.<br />
“But breaking even is not<br />
good enough,” he said. “We’re<br />
kind of operating on the edge.”<br />
He said UAMS needs prof-<br />
2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business Hall of Fame<br />
its from the hospital to support<br />
its mission of improving health<br />
and health care in the state.<br />
Rahn is banking on a number<br />
of cost-saving moves and<br />
increases in revenue that will<br />
help the UAMS campus, including<br />
forming a partnership with<br />
St. Vincent Health System that<br />
could save both systems money.<br />
Under national health care<br />
reform, hospitals and doctors<br />
will have to demonstrate lower<br />
costs while providing highquality<br />
care, which will be key<br />
metrics in governmental and<br />
commercial reimbursements.<br />
“We’re really beginning the<br />
process here that’s the first<br />
real fundamental redesign of<br />
health care since Medicare and<br />
Medicaid came into existence<br />
46 years ago,” Rahn said.<br />
Health Care Reform<br />
One of the top issues Rahn is<br />
supporting is the expansion of<br />
Medicaid for the working poor,<br />
which will add about 250,000<br />
Arkansans to the joint federalstate<br />
program.<br />
Approving the expansion<br />
will require a 75 percent supermajority<br />
vote in both the<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> House and Senate.<br />
“We’ve got to get everybody<br />
into the [insurance] system,”<br />
Rahn said. “We have an unsustainable<br />
volume of uninsured<br />
care.”<br />
House Public Health Committee<br />
Chairman Rep. John<br />
Burris, R-Harrison, told Ar-<br />
kansas Business last week many<br />
unanswered questions remain<br />
surrounding Medicaid expansion,<br />
including what kind of<br />
latitude the state will have in<br />
implementing the expansion.<br />
“Right now it doesn’t look<br />
like we’ve got a lot of flexibility,<br />
and I think that makes the decision<br />
more difficult,” Burris said.<br />
In 2009, we had to make a decision. Our IT<br />
needs were being evaluated and we wanted to<br />
explore our options. We were recommended to<br />
PC Assistance and were told they were able to<br />
provide the level of services that we needed at a<br />
cost that didn’t break our budget. We were told<br />
by others that PC Assistance was priced too low<br />
to handle our needs – the others were clearly<br />
wrong! With a large number of servers and<br />
desktops, as well as numerous departments<br />
within our city, we anticipated a significant<br />
expense but have found that PC Assistance has<br />
been able to provide us with a level of service<br />
higher than anticipated at a fraction of our<br />
expected cost.<br />
It is clear that we have made the right decision.<br />
A vote might come in February,<br />
he said. Failure to approve<br />
the expansion, whose<br />
cost will be covered by the federal<br />
government for three years<br />
starting in 2014, would be a<br />
financial blow to UAMS Medical<br />
Center and other hospitals<br />
around the state, hospital officials<br />
have said.<br />
In fiscal 2012, charity care<br />
and bad debt for the entire<br />
UAMS campus rose 15.2 percent<br />
to $202.1 million.<br />
The percentage of UAMS<br />
patients who don’t have insurance<br />
is about 12 percent.<br />
Meanwhile, UAMS is seeing<br />
more patients in its emergency<br />
room. The average number of<br />
visits per month has jumped<br />
from 4,500 in fiscal 2011 to 4,750<br />
in fiscal 2012 to more than 5,000<br />
in the first half of fiscal 2013,<br />
Rahn said.<br />
“It’s critically important to<br />
the future of the health system<br />
and the health of the population”<br />
that Medicaid be expanded,<br />
Rahn said.<br />
It is unclear what impact<br />
health care reform, which will<br />
require people to have health<br />
insurance by Jan. 1 or face a<br />
penalty, will have on UAMS.<br />
Rahn said he doesn’t know<br />
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how many of the estimated 500,000<br />
uninsured Arkansans will be covered<br />
come Jan. 1. Even if with insurance, it’s<br />
unknown if they will seek treatment at<br />
UAMS or go somewhere else for care, he<br />
said.<br />
One way UAMS is looking to cut<br />
expenses is by partnering.<br />
UAMS and St. Vincent announced in<br />
August that they had started talks to see<br />
if there was a way the state-owned UAMS<br />
Medical Center could work with Catholic<br />
Health Initiatives’ St. Vincent to improve<br />
health care while reducing costs.<br />
They hired consultants from Deloitte<br />
LLP of New York at a cost of at least $1<br />
million to examine areas where the two<br />
could partner.<br />
Peter Banko, the CEO of St. Vincent,<br />
told <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business recently that<br />
Deloitte’s study should be finished by<br />
the middle of February.<br />
Meanwhile, doctors from both hospitals<br />
are meeting to discuss areas where<br />
a partnership might be formed, Banko<br />
said. The hospitals agreed to an April 1<br />
deadline to decide if they want to move<br />
forward with partnership talks, he said.<br />
Financial Incentives<br />
Starting in October, health care providers<br />
could start seeing a financial<br />
reward for keeping a lid on health care<br />
costs.<br />
Under the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Payment Im-<br />
provement Initiative, health care providers<br />
who come in below the target price<br />
set by Medicaid and other payers for<br />
some episodes of care will get to share in<br />
the savings, said Rhonda Hill, director<br />
of health care finance at the <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Center for Health Improvement.<br />
The APII will look at the average price<br />
of care over a 12-month period to determine<br />
if the provider hit the goal. A provider<br />
that doesn’t could be on the hook<br />
for the difference, Hill said.<br />
For UAMS, however, hitting the targets<br />
could be a challenge, Rahn said.<br />
Not only does UAMS have a comprehensive,<br />
acute-care hospital, but it also<br />
teaches medical students, making the<br />
cost of care higher, Rahn said.<br />
“We just need to work through how<br />
we deal with that,” he said, adding that<br />
nothing has been settled.<br />
The <strong>Arkansas</strong> Department of Human<br />
Services still is developing its appeals<br />
process involving episodes of care,<br />
spokeswoman Amy Webb said.<br />
On the national scene, many UAMS<br />
revenue streams are at risk, according to<br />
its fiscal 2012 audit.<br />
One of the biggest potential blows to<br />
UAMS is the funding it receives from the<br />
National Institute of Health of Bethesda,<br />
Md., which accounted for $75 million in<br />
the fiscal year that ended June 30.<br />
“It could mean a loss of a percentage<br />
of that” as a result of the uncertainty surrounding<br />
the budget in Congress, Rahn<br />
said.<br />
The “sequester” cuts required by the<br />
Budget Control Act of 2011 were projected<br />
to cost UAMS $12 million a year,<br />
but the “fiscal cliff” deal in Congress left<br />
those reductions up in the air.<br />
Rahn said he isn’t sure what will happen<br />
to the NIH budget or the federal<br />
Medicare health insurance program for<br />
people 65 and older. But he doesn’t think<br />
the dollars will be going up.<br />
“We expect once a budget compromise<br />
is reached, it will involve reductions<br />
in spending,” Rahn said.<br />
State money, accounting for 9 percent<br />
of UAMS’ budget, also<br />
isn’t going as far. State<br />
funds increased slightly<br />
to $114.8 million in fiscal<br />
2012, but UAMS had<br />
to pay more out of that<br />
money for Medicaid<br />
Dan<br />
Rahn<br />
match payments. The<br />
amount paid for Medicaid<br />
match increased<br />
from $57.4 million in fiscal 2010 to $72.1<br />
million in fiscal 2012.<br />
“A portion of our [state] funds gets<br />
used for matching of federal dollars for<br />
uninsured in what is called disproportionate<br />
share payments,” Rahn said.<br />
Under the disproportionate share<br />
funding formula, <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ median<br />
household income is compared with<br />
the national median. Since the state<br />
has made progress toward reaching the<br />
national average, UAMS’ match climbed<br />
from 25 percent to 30 percent, Rahn said.<br />
“So as long as we maintain positive<br />
income growth in the state relative to<br />
the nation, we’re going to continue to<br />
see decrease in the federal match,” Rahn<br />
said.<br />
While economic development in the<br />
state is desirable, Rahn said, it takes a<br />
bite out of the campus’ revenue.<br />
“It’s just one more thing that we’re<br />
having to deal with,” he said.<br />
To offset the funding cuts, UAMS is<br />
looking for more sources of revenue.<br />
One is in cancer treatment. In June,<br />
it completed its $9.5 million purchase<br />
of nearly all assets that the Central<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Radiation Therapy Institute<br />
used on UAMS’ campus. UAMS also<br />
terminated CARTI’s lease agreement on<br />
the campus. In July, UAMS opened the<br />
UAMS Radiation Oncology Center, and<br />
that’s expected to generate $10 million<br />
in net patient service revenue in the current<br />
fiscal year.<br />
Setting up its treatment center required<br />
UAMS to buy two main pieces of<br />
equipment for $7 million, but the center<br />
should be profitable in the current fiscal<br />
year, he said.<br />
Another revenue source will come<br />
from dental services. At the end of the<br />
month, UAMS will open the UAMS Oral<br />
Health Clinic. The center is working<br />
toward accreditation for postgraduate<br />
residency programs in advanced general<br />
dentistry and oral surgery.<br />
The program seeks to have students<br />
in dental schools outside of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
provide care in the clinic by next year.<br />
A full dental school at UAMS still is<br />
about eight to 10 years away, Rahn said.<br />
That is, of course, if the money is<br />
available for the project, he said. n<br />
UAMS<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 13<br />
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14 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
Congress delayed automatic spending<br />
cuts that included pushing back a<br />
2 percent Medicare payment reduction<br />
until March 1.<br />
That move to avoid the “fiscal cliff”<br />
postponed across-the-board budget cuts<br />
demanded under the sequestration component<br />
of the 2011 Budget Control Act,<br />
and it gave another temporary reprieve<br />
to doctors.<br />
But it has done little to ease the uncer-<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Medicare Cut Threatens to Cost Hospitals $407M<br />
By George Waldon<br />
George@ABPG.com<br />
Paul<br />
Cunningham<br />
tainty of how much<br />
financial pain health<br />
care providers, particularly<br />
hospitals, will have<br />
to endure in the budget<br />
process. <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
hospitals were bracing<br />
for $42.6 million in lost<br />
revenue during 2013<br />
alone from the 2 per-<br />
cent Medicare cut. Over 10 years, lost<br />
revenue from the deficit-reducing gambit<br />
was projected to top $407 million for<br />
the state’s roster of hospitals.<br />
“Aggregately, <strong>Arkansas</strong> hospitals<br />
stand to lose $2 billion over a 10-year<br />
period in Medicare cuts, and that applies<br />
pretty much to hospitals across the<br />
board,” said Paul Cunningham, executive<br />
vice president of the <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Hospital Association. “For <strong>Arkansas</strong>, that<br />
is a lot, and it will try many hospitals.”<br />
More than a third of the hospitals in<br />
the state already were running in the<br />
red, according to an annual checkup by<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business in October. Of the 91<br />
hospitals in <strong>Arkansas</strong>, 33 reported losses<br />
in their most recent annual reports.<br />
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While politicians wrangle over health<br />
care reimbursements, hospital administrators<br />
are forced to move forward with<br />
budgets bolstered by contingency plans<br />
aplenty.<br />
Larry Morse, CEO at Johnson County<br />
Regional Medical Center<br />
in Clarksville, headed<br />
into 2013 with a fiscal<br />
battle plan prepared for<br />
the worst scenarios and<br />
hoping for the best.<br />
“We had put in place<br />
a plan to reduce our<br />
expenses by approximately<br />
$500,000,” said<br />
Morse. “That plan in-<br />
Larry<br />
Morse<br />
cluded a reduction in matches to retirement<br />
plans and adjustments to a litany<br />
of items we pay for.”<br />
Examples of the cost-cutting laundry<br />
list included lowering premiums paid<br />
for weekend work by staff, adjusting the<br />
physician staff call coverage, reducing<br />
managerial salaries, reducing payments<br />
for subsidized services and cutting anesthesia<br />
services costs.<br />
“As of today, it looks like we won’t have<br />
to implement all of those cuts, but we’re<br />
still cautious,” Morse said. “Our goal<br />
was, No. 1, to affect the fewest number of<br />
people, which was a challenge.<br />
“Aggregately, <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
hospitals stand to lose<br />
$2 billion over a 10-year<br />
period in Medicare cuts,<br />
and that applies pretty<br />
much to hospitals<br />
across the board. For<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>, that is a lot,<br />
and it will try many<br />
hospitals.”<br />
[PAUL CUNNINGHAM, EXECU-<br />
TIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF<br />
THE ARKANSAS HOSPITAL<br />
ASSOCIATION]<br />
“We have placed a priority on keeping<br />
staff employed and second, not to<br />
cause financial harm to our lowest-paid<br />
employees. About 28 percent of our staff<br />
is paid under $9 an hour.<br />
“At some point, if we continue to get<br />
cuts, we’re going to have to look at other<br />
issues.”<br />
Johnson County Regional Medical<br />
Center is among four <strong>Arkansas</strong> hospitals<br />
that received a budgetary reprieve<br />
thanks to an 11th-hour deal to extend the<br />
Medicare Dependent Hospital Program.<br />
Congress allowed MDH to expire<br />
on Sept. 30, but then the program was<br />
revived with funding of $100 million as
part of the year-end fiscal cliff avoidance<br />
package.<br />
“We were certainly facing a challenge<br />
up until that,” Morse said. “We were<br />
looking at a reimbursement loss of about<br />
$750,000, which represented our profit<br />
for all of 2012. That would’ve moved us<br />
into the red.”<br />
Launched in 1990, MDH was established<br />
to aid small rural hospitals. In<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>, Baptist Health Medical Center<br />
in Stuttgart, Hot Spring County Medical<br />
Center in Malvern and NEA Baptist<br />
Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro also<br />
participate in the program.<br />
The one-year extension of MDH<br />
put $461,000 back in the 2013 budget<br />
for Johnson County Regional Medical<br />
Center.<br />
Morse estimates the looming Medicaid<br />
cut will hit hospital revenue somewhere<br />
under $200,000 year.<br />
“For our hospital, it’s a significant<br />
amount of money, but we thought we<br />
Impact of Medicare Payment Reductions<br />
Facing <strong>Arkansas</strong> Hospitals as a Result<br />
of the Affordable Care Act and Other Congressional Action<br />
Estimated Medicare fee-for-service payment reductions to hospitals and post-acute<br />
care providers based on recent payment changes authorized by Congress and regulatory<br />
payment changes adopted (2013-2022)<br />
Medicare Payment Rate Reductions 10-Year Impact 2013<br />
Inpatient (operating and capital) ($925,146,700) ($28,301,600)<br />
Outpatient ($293,702,300) ($3,577,000)<br />
Inpatient rehabilitation facility ($97,265,000) ($1,185,200)<br />
(hospital-based and free-standing)<br />
Inpatient psychiatric facility ($40,610,300) ($511,600)<br />
(hospital-based and free-standing)<br />
Skilled nursing facility/swing bed (hospital-based) ($5,180,000) ($80,600)<br />
Home health agency (hospital-based) ($80,083,400) ($1,157,600)<br />
Long-term care hospital (free-standing) ($29,598,800) ($366,700)<br />
Quality-Based Payment Changes ($180,474,600) ($7,577,400)<br />
DSH Payment Reductions<br />
Medicare DSH - inpatient ($385,131,100)<br />
Medicaid DSH - inpatient<br />
ACA Total negative impact ($2,037,192,200) ($38,512,300)<br />
BCA 2 percent sequester ($407,258,700) ($42,677,800)<br />
Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act<br />
Bad Debt Payment Cuts ($17,354,600) ($1,017,800)<br />
Total ($2,461,805,500) ($82,207,900)<br />
This analysis shows the negative impact to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments taking<br />
into consideration the various and significant payment policy changes authorized by<br />
the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, the effect of the 2.0% across-the-board reduction<br />
to payments authorized by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 (sequestration), and the<br />
reduction in bad debt payments authorized by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation<br />
Act of 2012. The analysis also accounts for the known regulatory payment changes adopted<br />
by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for payment years 2013 and<br />
beyond. This analysis does not capture ACA update factor cuts or regulatory coding adjustment<br />
cuts implemented prior to 2013 that carry forward additional negative impacts in the<br />
budget window analyzed.<br />
Source: <strong>Arkansas</strong> Hospital Association.<br />
could handle the additional 2 percent<br />
Medicare cut,” he said.<br />
“What we weren’t prepared for was<br />
the major changes in payment rates for<br />
insured patients. That’s projected to<br />
reduce revenue by $350,000.”<br />
While hospital revenue is getting<br />
squeezed from a number of directions,<br />
physicians gained another year of special<br />
dispensation from substantial cuts<br />
in Medicare reimbursement.<br />
On paper, the accumulative<br />
cut amounted<br />
to somewhere around<br />
29 percent, according to<br />
David Wroten, execu-<br />
David<br />
Wroten<br />
tive vice president of the<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Medical Society.<br />
“As part of the bill<br />
that was passed to avoid<br />
the fiscal cliff, Congress put off physician<br />
fee cuts for another year,” Wroten said.<br />
“It’s status quo for 2013.” n<br />
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<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 15<br />
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18 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
Mental Health:<br />
Cost is a problem<br />
when treating<br />
mental illness<br />
Continued From Page One<br />
Out of the 20-25 patients who come in<br />
daily to be assessed for treatment at The<br />
BridgeWay, two or three fit that chronic,<br />
severe category, he said.<br />
“Many of those patients are not paid<br />
for and they have many needs. … They<br />
require a lot of our medical care, a lot<br />
of our special care,” he said. “At a small<br />
hospital such as ours, it does put a burden<br />
on our resources.”<br />
The BridgeWay can stabilize a patient<br />
in an emergency, but the chronically<br />
mentally ill typically need much more<br />
care than that. More than half of the people<br />
The BridgeWay treats for mental illness<br />
also struggle with substance abuse,<br />
so people often leave the hospital’s acute<br />
care only to return to unhealthy lifestyle<br />
patterns outside the hospital’s walls,<br />
Pipkin said.<br />
Other long-term needs, such as for<br />
help finding work or housing, play into<br />
the problem, he said.<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
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“Sometimes you see a cycle of patients who, if we did have resources for them, they could avoid hospitalization and could function better,” said<br />
Barry Pipkin, CEO of The BridgeWay. [PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIRNIQUE]<br />
“Those patients are the neediest<br />
patients, and they’re long-term care<br />
patients. Sometimes those patients,<br />
in addition to their mental illness and<br />
addictive disease, have developmental<br />
issues. … They’re a very complicated<br />
patient who requires a lot of care,” Pipkin<br />
said. “There’s outpatient services out<br />
there, but these folks need more than<br />
that. If you don’t have a job, who’s going<br />
to feed you? Who’s going to shelter you?<br />
Those go beyond outpatient needs.”<br />
A homeless shelter isn’t equipped to<br />
deal with severe mental and physical<br />
We make a difference by<br />
“expanding to meet the<br />
needs of the community.”<br />
Since Conway Regional was founded in 1938, our<br />
county’s population has more than quadrupled. To meet<br />
this growing demand and build a foundation for future<br />
growth, we have completed a $32 million addition. It<br />
includes eight larger, up-to-date obstetrics rooms and a<br />
new surgery department with eight operating rooms and<br />
pre- and post-op areas. We’re committed to meeting the<br />
demands of our growing community and the healthcare<br />
needs of those we serve.<br />
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health issues, Pipkin said.<br />
CEO Tom Petrizzo of Ozark Guidance<br />
in Springdale said his organization seeks<br />
out grants and other ways to subsidize<br />
the care the organization provides at no<br />
cost to the uninsured. Ozark Guidance<br />
is among the state’s 13 state-contracted<br />
Making better healthcare a reality.
community mental health centers.<br />
Because Ozark Guidance receives<br />
about $2.7 million per year in state and<br />
federal funding, the organization is<br />
required to treat people with mental illness<br />
regardless of their ability to pay.<br />
But that uncompensated care cost<br />
the nonprofit about $4 million in 2012,<br />
Petrizzo said. Ozark Guidance is primarily<br />
an outpatient behavioral health<br />
center, but it does offer some residential<br />
treatment.<br />
Last year, almost 5,200 of Ozark’s<br />
11,000 patients were on Medicaid,<br />
Petrizzo said.<br />
About 1,700 more would be eligible<br />
for Medicaid coverage under the proposed<br />
Medicaid expansion to people<br />
with incomes of up to 138 percent of the<br />
federal poverty line.<br />
“The main thing that would be helpful<br />
to us … would be the Medicaid extension,<br />
where states have the ability to<br />
increase the income eligibility level,”<br />
Petrizzo said.<br />
“It would reduce our uncompensated<br />
care burden, we figure, by 20-25 percent.<br />
… There’s a certain limit to how much<br />
you can do with uncompensated care. If<br />
a person has Medicaid, it’s easier to provide<br />
care because it’s a payment source.”<br />
More Problems<br />
Treating people who are chronically<br />
mentally ill and don’t have insurance<br />
comes with an array of problems, said<br />
Tom Grunden, executive director of the<br />
Little Rock Community Mental Health<br />
Center.<br />
For one, emergency room and inpatient<br />
treatment are expensive, Grunden<br />
said.<br />
Further, such services pull people<br />
out of their support systems of family<br />
and friends and don’t build sustainable,<br />
ongoing treatment outside of a facility,<br />
he said.<br />
“Mental illness is recurring,” but<br />
patients come, receive intervention,<br />
then disappear, even though preventive<br />
care is cheaper,” Grunden said. “Thus,<br />
Mental Health Checklist<br />
MENTAL HEALTH<br />
[providers] don’t know when symptoms<br />
recur.”<br />
Grunden, along with executive directors<br />
of other <strong>Arkansas</strong> community mental<br />
health centers, serves on the board of<br />
the nonprofit Mental Health Council of<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
The Mental Health Council of<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> is pushing for a different model.<br />
They adovcate one that would keep<br />
clients more consistently out of inpatient<br />
treatment and, with the help of case<br />
managers, help them learn to manage<br />
their own mental health care consistently<br />
over time.<br />
Then, “as people grow stable, the<br />
Symptoms that someone needs to be evaluated for mental health treatment, as<br />
explained by Lee Christenson, CEO of Springwoods Behavioral Health in Fayetteville:<br />
w Depression is interfering with the person’s quality of life, relationships and work;<br />
w A psychotic break is impairing someone’s good judgment in caring for himself;<br />
w He is abusing alcohol or drugs; and/or<br />
w He is suicidal or talking of harming others.<br />
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<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 19<br />
focus is on prevention, not acute treatment,”<br />
Grunden said.<br />
Money Means Options<br />
Due to state and federal mental health<br />
parity laws, people who are insured typically<br />
don’t have trouble finding treatment,<br />
providers said.<br />
“I think the issue is: Do you have<br />
insurance?” Grunden said. “If not, you<br />
have a hill to climb.”<br />
Petrizzo echoed that idea.<br />
Community mental health providers<br />
tend to struggle to find psychiatrists to<br />
hire because there’s more money to be<br />
made in private practice, Petrizzo said.<br />
Not enough psychiatrists means longer<br />
waits for outpatient treatment, he<br />
said. “There’s a shortage there to be able<br />
to serve those folks,” he said.<br />
Medical schools aren’t producing<br />
enough psychiatrists to meet demand,<br />
Petrizzo said, and most psychiatrists<br />
aren’t interested in working for community<br />
health providers.<br />
Therefore, the sector where there are<br />
more doctors, and where mainly paying<br />
clients are served, is private practice.<br />
Private practitioners can limit the charity<br />
care they offer.<br />
So, what’s it like if you have money,<br />
insurance or both?<br />
“You’ve got lots of choices,” Petrizzo<br />
said. “There’s all kinds of private practitioners.”<br />
n<br />
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20 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
Imagine Imagine...<br />
Imagine Imagine... ...<br />
...<br />
…a health care<br />
system where<br />
patients<br />
get the right<br />
care at the right<br />
time, every time. Where<br />
providers have the tools<br />
and resources to deliver that<br />
care. And patients and their<br />
families understand their role in<br />
maintaining their own health.<br />
Imagination is the first stop on<br />
the road to change — the kind of<br />
change that goes beyond data<br />
collection and medical review. It’s<br />
more than quality improvement.<br />
It begins in the heart of each health<br />
care facility — the culture of the care<br />
environment and the dedication of each<br />
staff member, from clinical to clerical.<br />
The <strong>Arkansas</strong> Foundation for Medical<br />
Care is working with health care<br />
providers across the state to make the<br />
most of the talent, commitment and<br />
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share the vision of what health care in<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> can be. Together, we’ll get there.<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Tools and strategies for quality improvement…<br />
We don’t provide health care. We help make it better.<br />
Northwest Medical Center-Springdale is undergoing a $12 million renovation that will give the<br />
landmark facility a like-new sheen.<br />
Springdale Hospital Hopes<br />
$12M Facelift Boosts Brand<br />
By Chris Bahn<br />
CBahn@ABPG.com<br />
Springdale is not getting a new hospital,<br />
but it is getting a hospital that will<br />
look new.<br />
Northwest Health System’s Springdale<br />
facility will remain at the same location<br />
at the southeast corner of Thompson<br />
Avenue and Maple Street it has occupied<br />
for six decades.<br />
The hospital is getting a facelift that<br />
administrators hope will improve perception<br />
with some local residents.<br />
Portions of a $12 million renovation<br />
and expansion, like additional parking,<br />
improved waiting room and lobby areas,<br />
are already complete. All phases of the<br />
project, which adds 30,000 SF and close<br />
to doubles available exam rooms, will be<br />
finished by June.<br />
Chief Operating Officer Michael<br />
Stewart sees the improvements as an<br />
opportunity to advance the hospital’s<br />
brand in northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
Think of it as improved curb appeal<br />
for the hospital.<br />
“I’ve had business leaders tell me they<br />
heard we’re getting a new hospital in<br />
Springdale,” Stewart said. “No, there’s<br />
been a hospital in Springdale for 60<br />
years, but this increases our visibility<br />
and awareness in the community.”<br />
Increased visibility and awareness<br />
are important with so many health care<br />
options in the area. Northwest Health is<br />
one of three medical systems in north-<br />
west <strong>Arkansas</strong>, and Stewart points<br />
out there are four other hospitals in<br />
Washington and Benton counties.<br />
Choices are plentiful, but in the future<br />
Stewart wants to be the first choice for<br />
locals.<br />
Making Northwest Health System’s<br />
Springdale hospital a preferred choice<br />
to the city’s 70,000 residents and then in<br />
the surrounding area is among the primary<br />
goals Stewart set when he took over<br />
as COO a year ago. Stewart estimates<br />
— “back of the napkin figures,” he calls<br />
them — that the hospital currently has a<br />
50 percent market share, but he’d like to<br />
see that grow to 85 percent.<br />
While he admits that is a big goal,<br />
Stewart said it gives the staff of 900-plus<br />
employees something to work toward<br />
each day.<br />
Using a sports analogy to describe<br />
his approach to managing the hospital,<br />
Stewart likens himself to a new coach<br />
taking over a football program with<br />
three wins and 10 losses on a 13-game<br />
schedule.<br />
He calls 2012 a seven-win, six-loss<br />
season and says he hopes to take another<br />
leap — in services offered, quality of service<br />
and market share — this year.<br />
“We are still the dominant market<br />
share for Springdale, but we have significant<br />
opportunities left,” Stewart said. “I<br />
think there’s plenty of business for everybody<br />
to have their fair share.”<br />
Springdale’s hospital has a rich history<br />
in the area, employees there note. It<br />
was the site of the area’s first open heart<br />
surgery. It was the only local hospital<br />
to provide 3D mammography. Other<br />
facilities in the area followed Springdale<br />
when it came to chest pain accreditation.<br />
Among what Stewart calls the distinctive<br />
product lines offered at the hospital<br />
are psychiatric and geriatric care. The<br />
hospital is looking to expand its pediatrics.<br />
Stewart has added 15 doctors to<br />
the staff since he began overseeing the<br />
hospital last year.<br />
Local awareness of those services<br />
should increase through the improvements<br />
being made.<br />
While the hospital has had three significant<br />
renovation projects since 2006,<br />
this could be the most meaningful from<br />
a perception standpoint, Stewart said.<br />
“Sometimes people equate quality of<br />
care with the façade,” Stewart said. “We<br />
feel like we do a decent job of taking<br />
care of the patients and by having a new<br />
façade, people will give us the benefit of<br />
the doubt on that.” n
Omar Carrillo has seen the<br />
work EMS crews do through his<br />
job as a firefighter in Rogers.<br />
He understands the demands<br />
placed on first responders and<br />
knows nothing can replace onthe-job-training<br />
when dealing<br />
with emergencies.<br />
Nor t hwest A rkansas<br />
Community College is getting<br />
closer to replicating the experience,<br />
however. Among the<br />
features of the Bentonville college’s<br />
new $14.2 million Center<br />
for Health Professions building<br />
is lab space set up to simulate<br />
being in the back of an ambulance.<br />
It’s valuable experience<br />
for students like Carrillo.<br />
“It’s not completely realistic,<br />
but this is one step closer right<br />
here. The closer you can get to<br />
realistic training, the better off<br />
you are,” said the 24-year-old<br />
Carrillo, who is seeking certification<br />
through the paramedic<br />
program at NWACC. “It’s pretty<br />
impressive.”<br />
NWACC officials think there<br />
is much to like about the 83,000-<br />
SF center, which opened this<br />
semester. Not only is there<br />
an ambulance simulator, the<br />
three-story facility is home to<br />
11 labs, including an emergency<br />
room and intensive care unit.<br />
Washington Regional<br />
Medical Center of Fayetteville<br />
donated $250,000 to help with<br />
the cost of a nursing simulation<br />
lab. Nursing students can practice<br />
on mannequins that offer<br />
100 different scenarios they<br />
might face when treating a real<br />
patient.<br />
Steve Percival, vice president<br />
of human resources at<br />
Washington Regional, said<br />
NWACC has produced quality<br />
health care workers but should<br />
improve training due to the new<br />
center. He likened the lab experience<br />
to future pilots learning<br />
from a flight simulator.<br />
“The more realistic you can<br />
make the learning experience,<br />
the less of the knowledge gap<br />
you’ll have when it comes to<br />
walking into a patient room,”<br />
Percival said. “You don’t learn<br />
how to fly from a book. Who<br />
would fly with a pilot whose<br />
only experience is reading? This<br />
really is no different.”<br />
Training for students in<br />
nursing, respiratory therapy,<br />
physical therapist assistant,<br />
paramedic, emergency medical<br />
technician, fire science, certified<br />
nurse assistant and patient<br />
care assistant programs is much<br />
more realistic. And students are<br />
able to work in a collaborative<br />
work environment.<br />
For example, first responders<br />
in training can work with<br />
paramedic and EMT students,<br />
like Carrillo, on how they might<br />
handle a simulated crash.<br />
They’ll then practice how they<br />
would handle the transfer of a<br />
patient to the hospital where<br />
nursing students are on hand to<br />
care for the victim.<br />
“It will better prepare our<br />
students for the world they’ll<br />
see when they leave Northwest<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Community College,”<br />
Mary Ross, dean of health<br />
professions at NWACC, said.<br />
“They’ll know what it’s like to<br />
work as part of a team. There are<br />
a multitude of situations we can<br />
put our students in through the<br />
simulations. We can make sure<br />
the first encounter they have<br />
with an ICU setting or the scene<br />
of an accident is not with a real<br />
patient.”<br />
Another benefit of the new<br />
center is it offers the ability<br />
to grow health professions at<br />
NWACC. When construction<br />
began two years ago 1,100 students<br />
were enrolled in courses<br />
related to health care. Today<br />
that number has grown to<br />
1,600.<br />
Crafton Tull of Oklahoma<br />
City designed the building and<br />
Nabholz Construction Services<br />
of Conway built it. An unfinished<br />
part of the building leaves<br />
room to grow, Ross said. The<br />
school is evaluating new programs<br />
and courses to offer as<br />
it works toward 2,000 students,<br />
he said.<br />
Ross said NWACC’s physical<br />
therapy assistant program has<br />
for the last 13 years produced a<br />
100 percent pass rate for students<br />
seeking certification in that area.<br />
Now the center provides room to<br />
expand that program beyond the<br />
14 students currently enrolled.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 21<br />
New $14.2M Center Trains Health Pros<br />
By Chris Bahn<br />
CBahn@ABPG.com<br />
SPOTLIGHT: The Future of Health Care in <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Students at Northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong> Community College in Bentonville have 11 new labs to simulate emergency room and other scenarios in the newly opened<br />
Center for Health Professions. [PHOTO BY ROB HANLON]<br />
“It will better prepare our students for the world they’ll see when they<br />
leave Northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong> Community College. They’ll know what it’s<br />
like to work as part of a team. There are a multitude of situations we<br />
can put our students in through the simulations. We can make sure<br />
the first encounter they have with an ICU setting or the scene of an<br />
accident is not with a real patient.”<br />
[MARY ROSS, DEAN OF HEALTH PROFESSIONS AT NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE]<br />
“We want to provide the community<br />
with a health care worker<br />
that is in demand, regardless<br />
of what the demand is,” Ross<br />
said. “We have the programs<br />
we do now because those were<br />
the needs in the community.<br />
If those dynamics change, we<br />
want to be positioned so that<br />
we can rapidly respond to the<br />
needs of the community.”<br />
NWACC President Becky<br />
Paneitz, who plans to retire at<br />
the end of June, told those gathered<br />
for a Jan. 18 grand opening<br />
ceremony that an estimated<br />
95 percent of program students<br />
remain in northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
after graduation.<br />
That should be good news<br />
for the future of health care in<br />
the area. With five hospitals in<br />
Benton and Washington counties,<br />
there are jobs to fill.<br />
“We are thrilled at the many<br />
opportunities this new center<br />
will provide our current students<br />
and generations of students<br />
to come,” Paneitz said.<br />
“Ultimately, the new center will<br />
enhance our ability to educate<br />
and prepare those seeking a<br />
career in the health professions.<br />
That’s a positive development<br />
for our students and for the<br />
patients who will be served by<br />
these well-trained professionals.<br />
Ultimately, it’s good for our<br />
whole community.” n
22 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
Ranked by residential units<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3<br />
4<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9<br />
10<br />
11<br />
12<br />
13<br />
13<br />
15<br />
16<br />
17<br />
18<br />
19<br />
19<br />
Facility<br />
Address<br />
Phone<br />
Parkway Village<br />
14300 Chenal Pkwy.<br />
Little Rock 72211<br />
(501) 202-1626<br />
Audubon Pointe<br />
100 Audubon Drive<br />
Maumelle 72113<br />
(501) 851-1821<br />
Concordia Retirement Center<br />
1 Concordia Drive<br />
Bella Vista 72714<br />
(479) 855-3714<br />
Presbyterian Village<br />
510 N. Brookside Drive<br />
Little Rock 72205<br />
(501) 225-1615<br />
Emeritus at Pleasant Hills<br />
800 Napa Valley Drive<br />
Little Rock 72211<br />
(501) 225-9405<br />
Country Club Village<br />
1925 Malvern Ave.<br />
Hot Springs 71901<br />
(501) 624-6435; (501) 881-4318<br />
Nantucket Apartments<br />
611 E. Nantucket Drive<br />
Fayetteville 72701<br />
(479) 442-4132<br />
Woodland Heights<br />
8700 Riley Drive<br />
Little Rock 72205<br />
(501) 224-4242<br />
Albert Pike Hotel<br />
701 Scott St.<br />
Little Rock 72201<br />
(501) 372-5211<br />
Gardens at Arkanshire<br />
5000 Arkanshire Circle<br />
Springdale 72764<br />
(479) 750-1131<br />
Fox Ridge Senior Living-Bryant<br />
4216 Fox Ridge Drive<br />
Bryant 72022<br />
(501) 847-3400<br />
Apple Blossom<br />
2501 N. 22nd St.<br />
Rogers 72756<br />
(479) 616-1791<br />
Butterfield Place<br />
8420 Phoenix Ave.<br />
Fort Smith 72903<br />
(479) 484-5200; (479) 668-0545<br />
Harding Place<br />
801 S. Benton Ave.<br />
Searcy 72143<br />
(501) 305-3100<br />
South Wind Heights Retirement<br />
2305 Bernard St.<br />
Jonesboro 72401<br />
(870) 932-9288<br />
Good Samaritan Society-Hot Springs<br />
Village<br />
121 Cortez Road<br />
Hot Springs 71909<br />
(501) 922-2000<br />
Andover Place<br />
2601 Andover Court<br />
Little Rock 72227<br />
(501) 224-0441<br />
Innisfree Senior Living Community<br />
300 Innisfree Circle<br />
Rogers 72758<br />
(479) 636-7363<br />
Buffington Towers Apartments<br />
224 E. 7th St.<br />
Little Rock 72202<br />
(501) 372-6434<br />
Sebastian County Retirement Center<br />
115 Fort St.<br />
Barling 72923<br />
(479) 452-4949<br />
The List<br />
Retirement Communities<br />
No. Living<br />
Units<br />
Administrator<br />
Website Description<br />
338B Marsha Cunningham<br />
www.ParkwayVillageAR.com<br />
203 Shane Lowery<br />
www.AudubonPointe.com<br />
187 Jeff Tonack<br />
www.ConcordiaRetirement.com<br />
183 Dan Yancy<br />
www.PresbyVillage.com<br />
Amenities include a dining hall, convenience store, fitness center, swimming pool, beauty/<br />
barber shop, chapel and library.<br />
Subsidized by HUD and designed for disabled persons and people age 62 and older;<br />
Amenities a game room, salon and transportation for shopping only. Security is provided.<br />
Mix of townhouses and apartments; provides 24-hour security, one meal per day, an<br />
emergency call system, a wellness clinic, transportation, housekeeping, home maintenance<br />
and lawn care.<br />
Continuing-care retirement facility for adults 62 and older that offers dental care, local<br />
transportation, an exercise room, housekeeping, a 24-hour emergency call system.<br />
175 www.Emeritus.com Senior apartments on three floors, with studio, one-bedroom, one-bedroom handicap, and<br />
two-bedroom apartments available in our main building. We also have one- and twobedroom<br />
cottages.<br />
166 Jim Gothard<br />
www.SunshineRetirementLiving.com<br />
Complex features cottages and apartments, all with kitchens. There is no lease or buy-in<br />
required. The monthly fee includes meals, maid service, cable, activities, linen service, an<br />
exercise room, transportation and a library.<br />
148 www.PPM-INC.us Exclusively for persons age 55 and older; features community center equipped with kitchen,<br />
craft room, laundry room and post office. All utilities are paid except cable, telephone and<br />
electric.<br />
145 Christy Tucker<br />
www.WoodlandHeightsLLC.com<br />
Offers studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments; gated community; weekly housekeeping<br />
service; scheduled transportation to doctors and shopping; 24-hour security.<br />
131 Amanda Cunningham Efficiency, studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments with kitchen facilities.<br />
130 www.HolidayTouch.com Apartments for monthly rental with no buy-in fees or leases. Garden homes with all major<br />
appliances are also available.<br />
122 Dollie Braslavsky<br />
www.FoxRidgeLiving.net<br />
The monthly fee includes meals, housekeeping and linen service, transportation, activities,<br />
etc.<br />
117 www.HolidayTouch.com Services include live-in managers, meals, a travel program.<br />
115 www.HolidayTouch.com Features independent apartment living, meals, transportation, housekeeping, etc.<br />
115 Karen Churchill<br />
www.HardingPlace.org<br />
Owned by Harding University, monthly rentals, maintenance, 24-hour staff and<br />
transportation.<br />
114 www.HolidayTouch.com No lease is required and amenities include meals, scheduled transportation, weekly<br />
housekeeping, linen service, free laundry facilities and social activities.<br />
112 Cheryl Jackson<br />
www.Good-Sam.com<br />
111 Lynn Murdock<br />
Lisa Murdock<br />
www.HolidayTouch.com<br />
110 Shane Cluck<br />
Pam Wood<br />
www.InnisfreeSeniorLiving.com<br />
104 Sherry Hale Independent living community<br />
Operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, the campus features<br />
variously-sized apartments as well as twin homes.<br />
This apartment community's monthly rental fee also includes three meals daily, weekly<br />
housekeeping, transportation, scheduled activities and beauty/barber shops. Managers live<br />
on the premises, and an intercom is in each apartment.<br />
Offers independent and assisted living apartments and cottages with full kitchens. Services<br />
include Lifeline, meals, housekeeping, transportation, and personal care assistance. No<br />
buy-in or endowment required.<br />
104C Sharon Putman Two-building residential facility that includes apartments and double-occupancy rooms.<br />
Phase I accepts mentally ill patients, while Phase II is primarily for elderly residents.<br />
Sources: the facilities and their websites; "Living in <strong>Arkansas</strong>"; RetirementHomes.com 1 Denotes independent and assisted living facilities 2<br />
Maximum residency in rooms and apartments<br />
Researched by Roxanne Jones and Gwen<br />
Moritz
Sherwood Convenience Store<br />
Rings Up $2.8M Transaction<br />
A Kum & Go convenience store in<br />
Sherwood tipped the scales at $2.8 million.<br />
Arc KGSWDAR001 LLC of Jenkintown,<br />
Pa., bought the 3400 E. Kiehl Ave. project<br />
from KG Store 150 LLC of Des Moines,<br />
Iowa.<br />
The 1.96-acre location was assembled<br />
in two March 2012 buys totaling<br />
$650,000. The sellers are Ernest Sam<br />
Lantrip, $400,000, and Marvin and<br />
Carletta Overton, $250,000.<br />
Dollar Acquisition<br />
A Dollar General store in Jacksonville<br />
changed hands in a $1.07 million transaction.<br />
Yolo Holdings LLC, led by Daniel<br />
Quaranto of Lynnbrook, N.Y., purchased<br />
the 22405 Highway 107 project. The seller<br />
is PB General Holdings (Macon) LLC, led<br />
by Scott Proctor.<br />
The deal is financed with a five-year<br />
loan of $700,000 from Arvest Bank of<br />
Fayetteville.<br />
The 1.22-acre development previously<br />
was tied to a March 2012 mortgage<br />
of $768,000 held by Summit Bank of<br />
Arkadelphia.<br />
3500+<br />
ClieNTs<br />
The location was bought for $138,000<br />
10 months ago from the James Potter<br />
Living Trust.<br />
Sherwood Sale<br />
A 4,896-SF office-warehouse building<br />
in Sherwood is under new ownership<br />
after a $425,000 deal.<br />
Fourth Street LLC, led by Stuart<br />
Hankins, acquired the 1515 E. Kiehl<br />
Ave. property from Emanuel and Patsy<br />
Bates.<br />
The 0.54-acre location was purchased<br />
for $76,000 in December 1996 from<br />
Donald and Howard Norton.<br />
Riverbend Residence<br />
A 3,685-SF home in the Riverbend<br />
neighborhood of Little Rock sold for<br />
$750,000.<br />
Ginanne Long bought the residence in<br />
the Riverdale area from Constance and<br />
William Bowen.<br />
The Bowens acquired the property for<br />
$1.15 million in April 2006.<br />
The seller was The Mitchell Family<br />
Revocable Trust, led by Maurice and<br />
Elizabeth Mitchell.<br />
experience direction<br />
Real Deals<br />
George Waldon<br />
George@ABPG.com<br />
Bailey Financing<br />
Four apartment projects in Pulaski<br />
County were used to secure an $18.3 million<br />
funding agreement.<br />
Bailey Properties LLC, led by John<br />
Bailey, obtained the financial package<br />
from Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C.<br />
The apartments encompass three<br />
west Little Rock properties: the 256-unit<br />
Waterford project at 701 Green Mountain<br />
Drive, 80-unit Bowman Heights proj-<br />
Little Rock // 501.372.1040 Fort Smith // 479.452.1040 Rogers // 479.845.0270 bkd.com<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 23<br />
ect at 420 Markham Mesa Place and<br />
52-unit Markham Oaks project at 8118 W.<br />
Markham St. The fourth project is the<br />
170-unit Indian Hills Apartments complex<br />
at 2011 Aztec Drive in North Little<br />
Rock.<br />
The properties previously were linked<br />
with a June 2002 mortgage of $7.5 million,<br />
a February 2006 mortgage of $6.5<br />
million, a March 2008 mortgage of $1.7<br />
million and a July 2009 mortgage of<br />
$1.2 million all held by Regions Bank of<br />
Birmingham, Ala.<br />
The 13.1-acre Waterford development<br />
was purchased for $6.8 million in April<br />
1993 from BRW Real Estate Operating Co.<br />
Ltd. of Dallas.<br />
The 8.8-acre Indian Hills development<br />
was bought for $4.2 million in June<br />
1997 from Love Apartment Communities<br />
of St. Louis.<br />
The 3.87-acre Bowman Heights development<br />
was acquired for $1.36 million<br />
in July 1994 from RCDC, led by Dr. C.D.<br />
Williams and Anna Williams and David<br />
and Kay Jones.<br />
The 1.4-acre Markham Oaks development<br />
was purchased for $1 million in<br />
December 1996 from Wayne and Margy<br />
Carlson.<br />
The Waterford and Bowman Heights<br />
projects also are backed with a $7.5<br />
million bond issue through the Pulaski<br />
County Public Facilities Board.<br />
This 30-year financing replaces an<br />
August 2005 PCPFB bond issue of<br />
$6.4 million. n<br />
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24 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
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Harding University’s<br />
American Studies Institute<br />
Distinguished Lecture Series<br />
presents<br />
stephen moore<br />
“How America Can Get Its Mojo Back”<br />
Stephen Moore joined The Wall Street Journal in 2005 as a<br />
member of the editorial board and senior economics<br />
writer. He splits his time between Washington, D.C.,<br />
and New York, focusing on economic issues including<br />
budget, tax and monetary policy. Over the years,<br />
Moore has served as a senior economist on the Congressional<br />
Joint Economic Committee, as a budget<br />
expert for the Heritage Foundation, and as a senior<br />
economics fellow at the Cato Institute. He was a<br />
consultant to the National Economic Commission<br />
in l987 and research director for President Reagan’s<br />
Commission on Privatization. Moore’s most recent<br />
book is Return to Prosperity: How America Can<br />
Regain Its Economic Superpower Status. Open seating<br />
— no tickets necessary.<br />
February 7, 2013<br />
7:30 p.m. | Benson Auditorium<br />
Co-sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation<br />
HARDING UNIVERSITY<br />
AMERICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE<br />
Neal Moore<br />
Goes Solo<br />
Neal Moore, a founding partner of Little<br />
Rock ad agency The Communications<br />
Group, is venturing out on his own with a<br />
company called NealMooreCreative.<br />
Moore, 59, is continuing to work with<br />
The Communications Group as a consultant,<br />
but is offering public relations,<br />
advertising, voice-over and marketing<br />
services through his own business.<br />
“I’m excited about it,” Moore said.<br />
“There does come a time in your life<br />
when you kind of want to have flexibility.”<br />
Moore was creative director for The<br />
Communications Group more than 25<br />
years. The Communication Group’s<br />
ownership transition should take three<br />
years, Moore said.<br />
Dane Cowling, another of the agency’s<br />
founding principals, is interim<br />
director of creative services for The<br />
Communications Group.<br />
New Publisher at The Courier<br />
The Saline Courier of Benton has named<br />
Steve Boggs publisher.<br />
During the first week in January,<br />
. Boggs replaced Terri Leifeste as publish-<br />
er of the daily newspaper.<br />
Boggs came to The Courier from a<br />
job in Neosho, Mo., where he served as<br />
group publisher of five GateHouse Media<br />
newspapers in Missouri and Kansas.<br />
Boggs is a native of Leflore, Okla., and<br />
Fall Arbitron Numbers<br />
Fall Fall<br />
Station Format Owner 2012 2011 Change<br />
KSSN-FM (KSSN 96 FM) Country Clear Channel 10.0 9.6 +0.4<br />
KMJX-FM (105.1 The Wolf) Classic Country Clear Channel 7.5 7.4 +0.1<br />
KLAL-FM (Alice 107.7) Contemporary Hit Music Cumulus Media 6.2 5.6 +0.6<br />
KABZ-FM (103.7 The Buzz) Talk/Personality Signal Media 5.9 5.5 +0.4<br />
KKPT-FM (The Point 94.1 FM) Classic Rock Signal Media 5.9 5.6 +0.3<br />
KURB-FM (B98.5) Adult Contemporary Cumulus Media 5.3 3.8 +1.5<br />
KIPR-FM (Power 92) Urban Contemporary Cumulus Media 4.8 6.3 -1.5<br />
KDJE-FM (The Edge 100.3) Rock Clear Channel 4.5 4.4 +0.1<br />
KARN-FM (News Radio 102.9) News/Talk Cumulus Media 3.7 3.7 0<br />
KHLR-FM (Heartbeat 106.6) Rhythm & Blues/Oldies Signal Media 3.7 3.4 +0.3<br />
KHKN-FM (94.9 Tom-FM) Adult Hits Clear Channel Media 3.1 4.3 -1.2<br />
KHTE-FM (kHits 96.5)* Pop Contemporary Hits Capital City 1.7 0.7 +1<br />
Broadcasting<br />
KKSP-FM (Fresh Talk 93.3)** News/Talk Capital City 0.6 0.7 -0.1<br />
Broadcasting<br />
KCNY-FM (Y 107.1) Country Crain Media Group 0.6 0.9 -0.3<br />
KOLL-FM (La Zeta 106.3) Spanish Vega Broadcasting N/A 0.9 N/A<br />
KARN-AM (The Sports Animal) Sports Cumulus Media N/A 0.6 N/A<br />
KAAY-AM (1090 AM) Religious/Southern Gospel Cumulus Media N/A 0 N/A<br />
*KHTE switched to news and talk programming this month. The fall ratings period was Sept. 13-<br />
Dec. 5.<br />
**KKSP switched to an all-sports format this month.<br />
Source: Arbitron<br />
Outtakes<br />
Kate Knable<br />
KKnable@ABPG.com<br />
has nearly 30 years of newspaper experience.<br />
Fall Arbitron Results<br />
The fall radio ratings from media and<br />
marketing firm Arbitron of Columbia,<br />
Md., were released this month for the<br />
Little Rock metropolitan area, which<br />
includes Faulkner, Lonoke, Pulaski and<br />
Saline counties.<br />
The metro area has a population of<br />
578,800 people.<br />
Arbitron aggregated the radio listening<br />
habits of 1,681 people in the Little<br />
Rock metro who were surveyed during<br />
the ratings period of Sept. 13-Dec. 5.<br />
Radio stations that do not subscribe to<br />
the Arbitron ratings are not included in<br />
the share data Arbitron releases publicly.<br />
The Outtakes chart contains the average<br />
quarter-hour share data of listeners<br />
12 and older, 6 a.m.-midnight Monday<br />
through Sunday. Each share point equals<br />
1 percent of total radio listening in the<br />
market. n
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<strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com’s most popular stories for the week ending Jan. 24:<br />
Rick<br />
Watkins<br />
1. Update: AT&T U-Verse Blames Server for ‘Limited’ Outage<br />
Thousands of customers across southern U.S. without internet, cable.<br />
2. Game & Fish Vice Chair Rick Watkins Arrested in Lonoke County<br />
Accused of being intoxicated, fi ring pistol. Term ends in 2014.<br />
3. Bass Pro Shop Site in Little Rock Rings Up $3 Million Transaction<br />
Store slated to anchor 29-acre Gateway Town Center near Otter Creek.<br />
4. Atlantic Tele-Network to Sell Alltel Business to AT&T for $780M<br />
Unclear what deal means for Allied Wireless’ Little Rock headquarters.<br />
The 89th General Assembly<br />
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Reform Spurs<br />
QualChoice’s<br />
New Products<br />
QualChoice of Little Rock will begin<br />
offering dental, vision and short-term<br />
gap health insurance this spring, which<br />
is one of several changes it’s making in<br />
response to national health care reform.<br />
President and CEO Michael Stock said<br />
QualChoice is adding the lines because<br />
profits are limited under its large group<br />
and small and individual health insurance<br />
lines.<br />
Under the Affordable Care Act, also<br />
known as Obamacare, health insurance<br />
companies must spend at least 85<br />
percent of the premium they collect on<br />
health care for customers in large group<br />
policies and 80 percent on small group<br />
and individual policies. (A small group<br />
policy is up to 100 employees.) If the<br />
health insurance company spends less<br />
on health care costs under those plans,<br />
the difference could be refunded to policyholders.<br />
Stock said it’s difficult to operate<br />
under the medical loss ratios because of<br />
the limit placed on how much money can<br />
be kept to cover administrative expenses.<br />
Before the law took effect in 2011, if<br />
the large group line suffered a loss, then<br />
the profits from the small group line<br />
could subsidize those. But not anymore.<br />
“Every product has to be profitable<br />
and hit the loss ratios,” Stock said.<br />
To add more revenue, QualChoice<br />
started selling Medicare supplemental<br />
insurance coverage and life insurance<br />
products in 2011.<br />
To trim administrative expenses, in<br />
the summer of 2011 QualChoice reduced<br />
the amount of commission it paid on<br />
first-year sales for individual lines from<br />
15 percent to 8 percent.<br />
Company revenue for the first three<br />
quarters of 2012 was $110.5 million, a<br />
slight decline from $110.9 million<br />
for the same period in 2011, according<br />
to its filing with the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Insurance<br />
Department.<br />
However, it reported a loss of $3.3<br />
million, compared to a $22,589 profit<br />
Michael Stock, president and CEO of<br />
QualChoice.<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 25<br />
Health Care<br />
Mark Friedman<br />
MFriedman@APBG.com<br />
for the same period in 2011. And by<br />
the end of 2011, QualChoice had a loss<br />
of $4.6 million. The company had a 2010<br />
profit of $2 million.<br />
Stock said “a lot of the loss” in 2011<br />
was tied to the implementation costs<br />
associated with health care reform. The<br />
company also had high-cost claims that<br />
year.<br />
The 2012 loss through Sept. 30<br />
stemmed from “high claimants,” Stock<br />
said, with one claim over $2 million.<br />
In the coming months, QualChoice is<br />
expected to officially announce its participation<br />
in the state health insurance<br />
exchange.<br />
In October, the exchange is expected<br />
to start enrolling individuals and<br />
employees of small businesses for policies<br />
that go into place Jan. 1.<br />
It’s estimated that more than 200,000<br />
Arkansans will be buying insurance<br />
through the exchange, and some of those<br />
will certainly buy from QualChoice.<br />
“Any business likes new customers,”<br />
Stock said.<br />
But, he said, there are still a lot of<br />
unknowns about the exchange, including<br />
what it will cost policyholders and<br />
the insurance companies.<br />
“The question is, what’s the price have<br />
to be to offer coverage to those people?<br />
And what’s the cost of providing care<br />
to them going to be? And can you do it<br />
profitably?”<br />
Stock said he also is unsure what the<br />
demand for health care services will be<br />
for those who currently don’t have insurance.<br />
“Are there diabetics that haven’t been<br />
managed?” he said. “Those could be<br />
high-cost patients.”<br />
The health care reform law prohibits<br />
insurance companies from turning<br />
people down for coverage based on preexisting<br />
conditions.<br />
Stock said he thinks the price of a<br />
health insurance policy in the exchange<br />
will be higher than traditional coverage<br />
today.<br />
Still, the federal government will provide<br />
a subsidy to the policyholders to<br />
buy the insurance in the exchange. The<br />
amount of the subsidy will be based on<br />
the policyholder’s income.<br />
One of the goals of health care reform<br />
is to lower health care costs, but Stock<br />
said he hasn’t seen prices fall since the<br />
health reform law was passed in 2010. n
26 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
The<br />
Ethics<br />
Floor<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
A<br />
question from one of our office<br />
wits (we’re blessed with several):<br />
If we can’t legislate morality,<br />
can we at least legislate common<br />
sense?<br />
The remark referred to Rick Watkins,<br />
a state Game & Fish commissioner<br />
charged with public intoxication and<br />
disorderly conduct, but a number of<br />
other state officials could be included.<br />
We’ll mention just two: State Sen.<br />
Jeremy Hutchinson of gator-attack and<br />
campaign-fund-violation renown and<br />
State Treasurer Martha Shoffner, flouter<br />
of legislative subpoenas and target of<br />
a criminal investigation over her handling<br />
of state money.<br />
In addition to the lack of judgment<br />
exhibited by these three, they share<br />
another distinction: Each is the subject<br />
of spectacularly unflattering photos<br />
that have appeared in the media.<br />
Which, we think, brings us to the<br />
subject of ethics legislation and, in a<br />
Associate Publisher Chip Taulbee<br />
Editor Gwen Moritz<br />
Art Director Wayne DePriest<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
Managing Editor Jan Cottingham<br />
Interactive Editor Lance Turner<br />
Senior Editors Chris Bahn, Mark Friedman,<br />
George Waldon<br />
Assistant Editors Luke Jones, Kate Knable<br />
Editorial Intern Jennifer Ellis<br />
Managing Editor, Business & Sports<br />
Special Pubs Todd Traub<br />
In<strong>Arkansas</strong>.com Editor Lauren James<br />
Assistant Interactive Editor<br />
Tre Baker<br />
Innovate <strong>Arkansas</strong> Editor<br />
Mark Carter<br />
Online Calendar Editor Blair Tidwell<br />
Researcher Roxanne Jones<br />
Multimedia Producer Trent Ogle<br />
SALES & MARKETING<br />
Vice President of Business Sales<br />
Bonnie Jacoby<br />
Senior Account Executives<br />
Rosemary Bruton, Rebecca Patton<br />
Account Executives<br />
Greg Churan, Neil Gray,<br />
Carrie Sublett<br />
Advertising Coordinators<br />
Bekah Caraway,<br />
Kristen Heldenbrand, Alissa Mathews<br />
Marketing Manager Allyson Pittman<br />
Marketing Coordinator<br />
Bethany Johnson<br />
Director of Marketing<br />
Jake Sligh<br />
Marketing Assistant Denise Brockinton<br />
Advertising Assistant Stacy Levy<br />
STAFF DIRECTORY<br />
SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS<br />
Editor, Little Rock Soirée Jennifer C. Pyron<br />
Managing Editor, Little Rock Soirée<br />
Amanda Hoelzeman<br />
Editor, Little Rock Family Heather Bennett<br />
Consumer Publications Editor Lindsay Irvin<br />
Consumer Publications Assistant Editor<br />
Sam Smith<br />
Database Administrator<br />
Alex Graham<br />
Sales Manager, Little Rock Soirée<br />
Graham Cobb<br />
Senior Account Executives<br />
Tasha Amos, Betsy Tilley<br />
Account Executives<br />
Haley Dearman, Luci Deere,<br />
Katie Fortenberry Peek, Michelle Foshee,<br />
Brandy Hubener, Jamie Mabry<br />
DESIGN<br />
Production Manager Tona Jolly<br />
Senior Art Director Irene Forbes<br />
Art Directors<br />
John Atkinson, Dean Wheeler, Waynette Traub<br />
Advertising Art Directors<br />
Marcus Boyce, Erin Lang<br />
<strong>Digital</strong> Operations Specialist<br />
Rebekah Eveland<br />
CIRCULATION<br />
Circulation Manager Dana Meyer<br />
Circulation Coordinator Cara Gieringer<br />
FLEX360<br />
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT<br />
Director Brent Birch<br />
Interactive Creative Director Mike Ortega<br />
Senior Web Designer Lance Corder<br />
Senior Web Developers<br />
Chris Earls, Jonathan Peoples<br />
Interactive Traffic Manager Zack Hill<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business<br />
Views<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business’ Opinion Page<br />
broader sense, the effort to establish an<br />
ethics “floor,” a bare minimum of ethical<br />
conduct below which, we hope, public<br />
servants do not sink.<br />
Here’s the take-away: We think solid<br />
ethics legislation is grand and solid ethics<br />
even grander.<br />
Two recent efforts in <strong>Arkansas</strong> come<br />
to mind. The first is a proposed initiated<br />
act that would limit donations to candidates<br />
from corporations and unions and<br />
bar legislators and constitutional officers<br />
from receiving lobbyists’ gifts. The<br />
second is a campaign reform bill to bar<br />
“multiple campaign contributions from<br />
corporate entities controlled by the same<br />
majority owner.”<br />
Although neither of these efforts<br />
directly addresses the problem of tacky<br />
behavior by public servants (in other<br />
words, we still might see headlines like<br />
“Wildlife official drunk, ranting, report<br />
states”), they’re steps in the right direction.<br />
n<br />
ADMINISTRATION<br />
Accounting Manager Hal Lammey<br />
Accounting Assistant Kim Clark<br />
Human Resources Bill Page<br />
Executive Assistant Christine Harris<br />
<strong>Digital</strong> Media Assistant Mary McLachclan<br />
Chairman & CEO<br />
Olivia Myers Farrell<br />
Chief Operating Officer<br />
Chuck Ballard<br />
Chief Information Officer<br />
Brent Birch<br />
Consumer Publications Publisher<br />
Rachel Bradbury<br />
Business & Sports Publications Publisher<br />
Chip Taulbee<br />
Interactive Editor<br />
Lance Turner<br />
122 E. Second St., Little Rock, AR 72201<br />
(501) 372-1443 Fax: (501) 375-7933<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com ● abpg.com<br />
© Copyright 2013<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business Limited Partnership<br />
De-Comforting<br />
and<br />
Re-Comforting<br />
Following our spate of winter<br />
weather, power outages and flu<br />
outbreaks, it seems an appropriate<br />
time to discuss discomfort.<br />
Much of marketing and sales success<br />
comes down to a company’s ability to<br />
create the right type of discomfort — and<br />
then comfort — among customers and<br />
prospects.<br />
Advertising has for decades provided<br />
vivid examples of “you shouldn’t live<br />
with this any longer.” I mean, who knew<br />
“ring around the collar” was such an<br />
issue until the makers of Wisk detergent<br />
pointed it out?<br />
Marketing messages are commonly<br />
designed to make you dissatisfied with<br />
what you make, how you look, whom<br />
(or whether) you date or how you spend<br />
your time. Those classic ads also manage<br />
to pair the message of “your status quo<br />
isn’t good enough” with a ready solution<br />
that will move you to a higher state of<br />
confidence and comfort. Check out the<br />
old Wisk TV ads on YouTube; just by buying<br />
and pouring the product on shirts<br />
you could make a seemingly intractable<br />
problem go away!<br />
You can learn from the sequence.<br />
First comes a process of unearthing a<br />
problem with today’s common situation<br />
or approach, often with an emotional<br />
hook (let’s call that “de-comforting”).<br />
Next is the path toward resolution, with<br />
the sponsor/marketer emerging as the<br />
logical and trustworthy partner for getting<br />
there (“re-comforting”).<br />
This sequence of de-comforting then<br />
re-comforting is easy to recognize yet<br />
difficult to pull off. I have seen several<br />
patterns emerge over the years when<br />
working with<br />
executive, mar-<br />
keting, product,<br />
service and sales<br />
teams.<br />
Some teams<br />
veer off course<br />
with their messages<br />
and tactics during<br />
the de-comforting<br />
stage. They<br />
carry the assumptions that prospects<br />
are largely ignorant, need “educating” or<br />
otherwise don’t get it. These teams feel<br />
more agitation with the status quo than<br />
do their prospective customers.<br />
Many teams unfortunately take a pass<br />
on the de-comforting step; they wait for<br />
the discomfort to come to them. They<br />
consider themselves primed and ready for<br />
the re-comforting stage (perhaps in the<br />
form of a customer request or RFP). But<br />
by that time the terms of discomfort have<br />
likely been established by someone else.<br />
While some teams fail to de-comfort<br />
effectively, others miss the mark on<br />
On Marketing<br />
Jim Karrh<br />
JimKarrh@AOL.com<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business welcomes Letters to the Editors.<br />
Letters must be signed and writers must include their<br />
hometowns and contact information so we can confi rm<br />
their identity. Letters are subject to editing for clarity,<br />
length, spelling and punctuation.<br />
Letters may be mailed to Editor Gwen Moritz, <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business, 122 E. Second St., Little Rock, AR 72201; faxed<br />
to (501) 375-7933; or e-mailed to GMoritz@ABPG.com.<br />
re-comforting. Sure, their messages are<br />
designed to establish trust and credibility<br />
— but the messages are too often so<br />
company- or feature-focused as to lose<br />
the connection to the original problem<br />
with the customer’s status quo.<br />
Your team will be effective by pushing<br />
discomfort in the right way and to the<br />
right degree, showing a practical path for<br />
correcting the problem, then making the<br />
case for why you — and not some other<br />
alternative — are the person or company<br />
to get them there.<br />
What are some good practices to follow<br />
in de-comforting?<br />
w Don’t attack a customer’s past decisions.<br />
w Don’t slam competitors or talk about<br />
yourself too much; focus on the customer’s<br />
reality.<br />
w Make sure that customers know they<br />
aren’t the only ones in this non-ideal<br />
status quo. After all, if they believe the<br />
problem is uniquely theirs, then they<br />
might assume they’re a lost cause.<br />
w Do point out the common problems<br />
in the status quo for them and peer organizations,<br />
or how common approaches<br />
diverge from practices you know would<br />
work better.<br />
w Do your homework and ask questions<br />
so that you understand the pain<br />
points of the flawed status quo. Don’t just<br />
ask prospects what their pain points are.<br />
w Don’t start proposing solutions<br />
(which is part of re-comforting) before<br />
you have explored<br />
and understood<br />
the de-comforting.<br />
Effective recomfortingpractices<br />
include:<br />
w Create with<br />
your customer or<br />
prospect a shared<br />
vision of what<br />
“problem resolution”<br />
or that “better tomorrow” looks<br />
like.<br />
w Talk about your differentiators and<br />
expertise.<br />
w Use stories and examples that feel<br />
relevant to the customer. Some companies<br />
put together case studies in a way<br />
that unfortunately fails to connect.<br />
Is your company equally adept at decomforting<br />
and re-comforting? n<br />
Jim Karrh of Little Rock is a marketing<br />
consultant, researcher, speaker and<br />
author. Visit JimKarrh.com or email him<br />
at Jim@JimKarrh.com.
Internet Vital to<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>’ Growth<br />
The Internet is a catalyst for job creation<br />
and an amazing accelerator<br />
for innovation. The Internet not<br />
only drives economic growth across the<br />
globe, but also increases the success of<br />
small businesses and job creators across<br />
the U.S. As our nation continues its economic<br />
recovery, <strong>Arkansas</strong> has a vested<br />
interest in protecting the Internet and its<br />
ability to bolster economic growth.<br />
Washington is often locked in partisan<br />
gridlock that is heavy on rhetoric but light<br />
on solutions. Congress can reach bipartisan<br />
solutions by supporting policies that<br />
promote a free and innovative Internet. We<br />
urge all lawmakers at every level of government<br />
— from mayors to state representatives<br />
to our federal representatives in<br />
Washington — to press for pro-Internet<br />
legislation that rewards entrepreneurs who<br />
create jobs right here in <strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
Elected officials from <strong>Arkansas</strong> have<br />
already taken action. When Congress<br />
attempted to censor the Internet through<br />
two misguided bills, the <strong>Arkansas</strong> congressional<br />
delegation fought back. These bills<br />
spurred an expansive grassroots movement,<br />
illustrating the importance of an<br />
innovative, free and decentralized Internet.<br />
And again, later that same year, when<br />
the United Nations attempted to expand<br />
its authority over the Internet, U.S. delegates,<br />
backed by support from <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
leaders and many international allies,<br />
protested by walking out of treaty talks.<br />
Sens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman<br />
have supported Internet freedom. Now,<br />
all of the members of the <strong>Arkansas</strong> congressional<br />
delegation must continue<br />
this fight to protect the Internet ecosystem.<br />
We appreciate the efforts of the<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> delegation and encourage all<br />
policymakers to continue working in a<br />
bipartisan manner to protect Internet<br />
freedom and promote local economic<br />
development.<br />
Internet jobs are no longer found<br />
solely in Silicon Valley; they are on<br />
Main Street America, in every state. The<br />
Internet is a critical tool for economic<br />
success as it creates jobs in <strong>Arkansas</strong>,<br />
inspires entrepreneurs of tomorrow and<br />
promotes <strong>Arkansas</strong> small businesses.<br />
It helps retailers like Gearhead, Nativ<br />
and Country Outfitters expand their<br />
businesses to markets across the country.<br />
It also helps working moms and students<br />
achieve success. For instance, a<br />
central <strong>Arkansas</strong> mother of three sells<br />
multi-med therapy skin care products<br />
across the state as an independent consultant<br />
with Rodan & Fields, an entirely<br />
e-commerce-based national direct<br />
sales company. Dental student William<br />
Wilson pays his school tuition by using<br />
profits from Ruf Nek, his dog collar<br />
startup business in northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
The Internet affects many of <strong>Arkansas</strong>’<br />
economic sectors. Thanks to increased<br />
online ad campaigns and help from the<br />
online community, <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ tourism<br />
industry is booming. The state’s tourism<br />
website earned a No. 1 market share<br />
among neighboring states with website<br />
visits of more than 4.7 million last year,<br />
positioning it in the top 10 among tourism<br />
websites nationwide.<br />
The Internet also contributes to the<br />
education sector by increasing access to<br />
education and enabling the University<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ global campus with online<br />
• Nightly Dining Prepared By<br />
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Guest Column<br />
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News@InternetAssociation.org<br />
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anyone in the world to experience.<br />
• Small Pets Welcome<br />
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& Whirlpool<br />
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& Activities/Fitness Director<br />
• Close To Four Of <strong>Arkansas</strong>’<br />
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VIEWS<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 27<br />
Internet policy must be a priority for<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>. We believe that to continue<br />
to protect Arkansans — your jobs, your<br />
businesses, your Internet — we must<br />
pave the way for a free and innovative<br />
Internet. We must not stifle the Internet’s<br />
potential; rather, we must help accelerate<br />
its growth for America’s future. n<br />
Michael Beckerman is president and<br />
CEO of the Internet Association, a trade<br />
organization based in Washington, D.C.,<br />
that represents the interests of the leading<br />
Internet companies, including Amazon.<br />
com, AOL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook,<br />
Google, IAC, LinkedIn and Monster<br />
Worldwide. He can be reached at News@<br />
InternetAssociation.org.
28 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
ENTRY DEADLINE FEBRUARY 8<br />
Real Estate<br />
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INSPECTION / OPEN HOUSE:<br />
Sunday, February 3 and Sunday, February 10<br />
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Movers+ Shakers<br />
CONSTRUCTION<br />
Justin Wisdom has been promoted to<br />
vice president of business<br />
development<br />
at SSi Design-Build<br />
Constructors in Fort<br />
Smith. Prior to his promotion,<br />
Wisdom served<br />
as senior project man-<br />
Justin<br />
Wisdom<br />
Texas A&M University.<br />
ager. He has a bachelor’s<br />
degree in business<br />
administration from<br />
EDUCATION<br />
Lalit Verma, head of the Department<br />
of Biological & Agricultural<br />
Engineering at<br />
the University of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
at Fayetteville,<br />
has been elected president<br />
of the American<br />
Society of Agricultural<br />
Lalit<br />
Verma<br />
& Biological Engineers.<br />
Verma served as the<br />
head of the department<br />
of biological engineering at Louisiana<br />
State University before relocating to<br />
the University of <strong>Arkansas</strong> in 2000. He<br />
has gained international recognition<br />
through his research in post-harvest<br />
engineering and technology.<br />
Michael Hunter Schwartz has been<br />
named the new dean<br />
of the William H. Bowen<br />
School of Law at the<br />
University of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
at Little Rock. In addition<br />
to serving as<br />
associate dean for fac-<br />
Michael Hunter<br />
Schwartz<br />
ulty and academic<br />
development at the<br />
Washburn University<br />
School of Law in Topeka, Kan., he was<br />
also employed as a professor of law in<br />
Charleston, S.C., and earned his doctorate<br />
from the University of California<br />
Hastings College of Law. Schwartz will<br />
succeed Paula Casey, who was named<br />
interim dean upon John DiPippa’s resignation<br />
as dean in July 2012.<br />
Risa Dickson has been named the<br />
provost and vice president<br />
of academic<br />
affairs at Henderson<br />
State University in<br />
Arkadelphia. She will<br />
join Henderson in July<br />
after fulfilling her final<br />
Risa<br />
Dickson<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business<br />
Submit news items to <strong>Arkansas</strong>Business.com/Movers<br />
duties as associate provost<br />
for academic personnel<br />
at California<br />
State University in San Bernardino,<br />
where she was associate dean of the<br />
College of Arts & Letters from 2004-06.<br />
FINANCIAL SERVICES<br />
Rodney Abston has been promoted<br />
to senior vice president with Regions<br />
Bank in Little Rock. Abston has been<br />
with the company for six years and has<br />
held various positions, including commercial<br />
and industrial relationship<br />
manager and credit process manager.<br />
His recent clients include public, institutional<br />
and nonprofit organizations.<br />
Tammy Whitley has<br />
been named vice president<br />
and mortgage<br />
market manager of<br />
Bank of the Ozarks in<br />
Benton. Whitley has<br />
22 years of financial<br />
Tammy<br />
Whitley<br />
Andrew<br />
Brock<br />
experience and owned<br />
Union Equity Mortgage<br />
from 2001-08.<br />
Andrew Brock has<br />
been promoted to<br />
president of Citizens<br />
State Bank of Bald<br />
Knob by Chairman and<br />
CEO Larry Kerchner.<br />
Previously a lending<br />
manager and marketing<br />
director, Brock, who<br />
joined the bank in 2004,<br />
was also elected to the company’s board<br />
of directors as of Oct. 4.<br />
Jason Culpepper of<br />
Sherwood has been<br />
promoted to city president<br />
for Conway by<br />
Regions Bank. He has<br />
been with the company<br />
for five years and<br />
Jason<br />
Culpepper<br />
2007-12.<br />
previously served as a<br />
business banking relationship<br />
manager from<br />
HEALTH CARE<br />
Dr. John A. Baldridge, an endocrinologist<br />
and associate professor<br />
at the University<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong> for Medical<br />
Sciences in Little Rock,<br />
has joined the hospital’s<br />
Weight Loss &<br />
Metabolic Program as<br />
John<br />
Baldridge<br />
medical director. After<br />
completing his residency<br />
at UAMS, Baldridge<br />
also practiced medicine at Baptist<br />
Hospital and the Geriatric Research<br />
Education Clinical Center, which is<br />
part of the Central <strong>Arkansas</strong> Veterans<br />
Healthcare System.<br />
Rita<br />
Price<br />
Super Mover<br />
A closer look behind a prominent promotion<br />
This Week: Martha Miller, director of the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Department of Heritage<br />
Background: Martha<br />
Miller attended<br />
Lyon College and the<br />
University of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
at Little Rock. She<br />
also graduated in 1978<br />
with a law degree<br />
from the UALR William<br />
H. Bowen School<br />
of Law.<br />
Experience: In<br />
addition to being a<br />
lobbyist and selfemployed<br />
attorney,<br />
Miller has served as a<br />
board member of the<br />
Little Rock Interfaith<br />
Hospitality Network,<br />
Audubon <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
and Lyon College. She<br />
previously held the<br />
position of deputy<br />
director of the Department<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Heritage Museums,<br />
which oversees many<br />
of the state’s cultural<br />
and artistic institutions.<br />
New Position: Miller<br />
will replace former<br />
ADH Director Cathie<br />
Matthews, who served for 15 years before<br />
retiring last year. “Martha is a lifelong Arkansan<br />
who has strong experience within the<br />
department and with state government,”<br />
MANUFACTURING<br />
Rita Price has been hired as the human<br />
resource manager for<br />
Schulze & Burch Biscuit<br />
Co., a food production<br />
company in Searcy.<br />
Price, a native Arkansan<br />
with more than 20<br />
years of experience<br />
in HR, was previously<br />
employed by National<br />
Wallcovering/Colour &<br />
Design, Molex and Heifer International<br />
and is a member of the Society for<br />
Human Resources Management.<br />
MEDIA/MARKETING<br />
Angele Forrest, a public relations coordinator<br />
for IberiaBank<br />
in Little Rock, has<br />
been named president<br />
of the <strong>Arkansas</strong> chapter<br />
of the International<br />
Association of Business<br />
Communicators for<br />
Angele<br />
Forrest<br />
2013. Before joining<br />
IberiaBank in 2010,<br />
Forrest served as a mar-<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Business January 28, 2013 29<br />
Miller previously served as the deputy director of the Department<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong> Heritage Museums. [PROVIDED PHOTO]<br />
Gov. Mike Beebe said in a press release.<br />
“Promoting her from her position as deputy<br />
director was an easy and sensible decision in<br />
light of Cathie Matthews’ retirement.” n<br />
keting director at Transamerica Worksite<br />
Marketing and oversaw completion of<br />
the World of the Pharaohs exhibit at the<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Arts Center.<br />
REAL ESTATE<br />
Travis Roe has joined the Rogers<br />
branch of national realty<br />
chain Crye-Leike. Roe<br />
has been a licensed real<br />
estate agent in northwest<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> since<br />
2005 and works to assist<br />
residents in Benton and<br />
Travis<br />
Roe<br />
Washington counties.<br />
In addition to his realty<br />
career, Roe was also the<br />
co-owner of Northwest <strong>Arkansas</strong> Lawns,<br />
a landscaping company in Springdale. n<br />
Movers and Shakers<br />
Have a new employee or one recently<br />
promoted? Recently elected to a board<br />
of directors? Include it in the Movers &<br />
Shakers section. Contact Gwen Moritz at<br />
GMoritz@ABPG.com or (501) 372-1443.
30 January 28, 2013 <strong>Arkansas</strong> Business<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
Business<br />
Exec Q&A<br />
To submit questions or interview suggestions, email GMoritz@ABPG.com<br />
Dr. Joe Thompson is responsible for developing health policy, research<br />
activities and programs that promote better health and health care in<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>.<br />
What can Arkansans do to be<br />
healthier? First, we all need to<br />
recognize our personal responsibility<br />
for doing what we can to stay<br />
healthy and not needing health care.<br />
But inevitably we will need health<br />
care, and we need a system that<br />
both delivers high-quality care and<br />
is aff ordable for all. Currently, one of<br />
every four working-age Arkansans<br />
does not have health insurance. At<br />
the same time, more than 50 percent<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong> adults are living with at<br />
least one chronic disease like cancer,<br />
diabetes or heart disease. As a result,<br />
more than 16 percent of Arkansans<br />
have reported that they could not see<br />
a doctor due to cost.<br />
Is Obamacare just a step on the<br />
road toward a single-payer sys-<br />
tem? It does expand government’s<br />
role by subsidizing low-income<br />
workers to buy private insurance and<br />
giving states the opportunity to use<br />
federal funds to help support the<br />
poor through Medicaid, but its intent<br />
is not for a single-payer system.<br />
While improving insurance coverage<br />
and access to care will save an<br />
estimated 2,300 lives per year and<br />
have economic benefi ts for our state,<br />
the act does fall short on containing<br />
the cost of health care throughout<br />
the system. Luckily, we started the<br />
Payment Improvement Initiative<br />
before the ACA, and with businesses<br />
and insurance companies we are on<br />
the way to creating a more effi cient<br />
and aff ordable health care system.<br />
We need to take advantage of what<br />
is off ered through the federal health<br />
Definitely Delta Dental<br />
At Delta Dental, dental and vision benefits are not a sideline<br />
to our business – they are our specialty.<br />
That’s why more than 2,900 <strong>Arkansas</strong> companies choose us to be<br />
their benefits provider.<br />
Delta Dental also offers affordable dental and vision<br />
insurance for individuals and families.<br />
Call or visit our website to learn more about how Delta Dental<br />
can take care of all your dental and vision needs.<br />
Delta Dental of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
www.DeltaDentalAR.com<br />
1-800-814-3451<br />
This Week: Dr. Joe Thompson<br />
Surgeon general for the state of <strong>Arkansas</strong><br />
care law and at the same time work<br />
to minimize the risks it contains.<br />
What is your vision for the Payment<br />
Improvement Initiative?<br />
We are replacing a system in which<br />
fi nancial incentives lead to visits and<br />
procedures with one that centers<br />
on the patients’ needs, eliminates<br />
waste and achieves higher quality.<br />
For example, one in four seniors<br />
hospitalized for congestive heart<br />
failure is readmitted within 30 days.<br />
When the providers reach out to<br />
help provide appropriate follow-up<br />
care after discharge, the likelihood<br />
of such hospital readmissions can be<br />
dramatically reduced.<br />
Has gun violence become a<br />
public health issue, especially<br />
with regards to mental health?<br />
I think we need to take a look at<br />
the root causes of gun violence and<br />
develop evidence-based solutions<br />
much in the way we address other<br />
preventable threats to public health<br />
like tobacco and obesity. We have<br />
made progress in that mental health<br />
services are now being covered in<br />
most health insurance policies, but<br />
that is just a start.<br />
INSURING HEALTHY SMILES<br />
YEARS<br />
Bio: Joe Thompson<br />
Bio: Besides serving as surgeon<br />
general, general, Joe Thompson is also<br />
director of the <strong>Arkansas</strong> Centerter<br />
for for Health Improvement,<br />
professor of medicine and<br />
public health at the University<br />
of <strong>Arkansas</strong> for Medical<br />
Sciences in Little Rock and<br />
a general pediatrician.<br />
Education: Thompson<br />
earned his medical degree<br />
from UAMS and a master’s<br />
degree in public health<br />
from the University of North<br />
Carolina in Chapel Hill.<br />
How long can the country continue<br />
with the current health<br />
care model? Our health care<br />
system is at a tipping point brought<br />
on by an unhealthy population and<br />
rising health care costs. Unless we<br />
improve the health of our citizens<br />
and create more cost effi ciency<br />
within the health care system, we are<br />
facing a tsunami of medical treat-<br />
ment needs that we simply won’t be<br />
able to aff ord. The good news is that<br />
people recognize the problems. We<br />
are fortunate here in <strong>Arkansas</strong> that<br />
policymakers and many others are<br />
willing to work together on eff ective<br />
solutions. We are working toward<br />
a comprehensive rebuilding of our<br />
health care system that could well be<br />
a model for the nation. n
TALK ABOUT GOOD!<br />
That’s the business we’re in at<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Community Foundation.<br />
We help Arkansans do good in<br />
their communities. And we help<br />
professional advisors like you —<br />
attorneys, CPAs, trust officers and<br />
financial planners — provide good<br />
advice about charitable giving.<br />
You understand your clients’<br />
charitable goals. We have the<br />
tools and resources to make the<br />
philanthropic process simple,<br />
flexible and efficient. We can help<br />
your clients establish endowments<br />
that provide a permanent source<br />
of funding for the causes they<br />
care about without setting up a<br />
separate private foundation.<br />
THANKS FOR<br />
OPENING DOORS!<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong> Community Foundation<br />
thanks professional advisors who<br />
have opened the doors to<br />
philanthropy for their clients<br />
during 2012.<br />
C. Brantly Buck<br />
Charles T. Coleman<br />
Randall Drake<br />
Karen Garrett<br />
Tina Green<br />
Ronald Hope<br />
Wayne A. Jones<br />
Mike Munnerlyn<br />
Andy Peeler<br />
Jennifer Pierce<br />
J. Merek Rowe<br />
Michael Schaufele<br />
Tom Womack<br />
Good Advice<br />
1400 West Markham, Suite 206 | Little Rock, <strong>Arkansas</strong> 72201 | 501-372-1116 | arcf@arcf.org
“Improving <strong>Arkansas</strong>’ health is key<br />
to building a strong economy.”<br />
baptist-health.com<br />
— Russ Harrington, Baptist Health President and CEO<br />
As the leading <strong>Arkansas</strong>-based, locally owned, not-<br />
for-profit, faith-based healthcare organization, we<br />
understand the critical link between healthy Arkansans<br />
and the well-being of our economy.<br />
We are committed to improving the health of our state<br />
and giving back to the communities we serve. As the<br />
third-largest private employer, we support our state’s<br />
economic health by providing more than 7,800 top-<br />
quality jobs, educating more registered nurses through<br />
our Baptist Health Schools than any other institution in<br />
the state and touching more than 1 million lives annually.<br />
Baptist Health will continue our strong contribution to<br />
<strong>Arkansas</strong>’ economy by investing in our hospitals and<br />
our workforce to ensure our patients receive long-term<br />
access to the highest quality of care.<br />
Our mission is about healing people and improving the<br />
health of the communities we serve. Keeping both -- the<br />
individuals and the neighborhoods where they live --<br />
healthy is our greatest privilege.