COVINGTON — Scott Cromer says he loves his job with the city of Covington, so when given the chance to pen the slogan for the citys strategic plan, he didnt hesitate.
I thought it was an honor to be able to be a part of it, he said of the solicitation from human resources to create a rallying cry for employees based on the mission of the plan that was adopted by the City Council earlier this year and outlines the citys short- and long-term goals.
Cromers slogan — Preserving our past, improving our present, planning our future — was selected from about 70 entries by a team of managers. According to Human Resources Director Ronnie Cowan, the slogan best represented the overall intent of what our mission and vision was for the city and the strategic plan.
Cromer has worked for the city for eight years, starting out as a purchasing clerk. He was promoted to purchasing coordinator a year ago, a position that puts him in charge of overseeing all purchases made by city departments and handling bids and contracts, as well as making sure the warehouse is stocked with needed materials. Cromer said his top priority is maximizing taxpayer dollars. He also tries to keep purchases local whenever possible.
I really enjoy what I do. I work with a great group of people. Weve got a good management team in place. A lot of the employees enjoy their jobs. This is a place I enjoy coming to work every day, said Cromer, a Conyers resident.
He is one of our best city employees, Cowan said. Hes done a good job in our warehouse and purchasing area and he represents I think the best of all of our city employees.
Small business advocates had been pushing a group purchasing initiative for much of the past decade, arguing that employers with fewer than 50 workers are disadvantaged in a health insurance market that favors big businesses with more buying clout. Larger enterprises often pay less because they are self-insured, meaning they manage the risk of their employee pools themselves and rely on insurance carriers to process claims.
All of this is to make sure small businesses and their employees and families are no worse off than large businesses and their employees and families, said Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, whose 3,400 members range from jewelers and convenience stores to restaurants and hardware stores. What our members are asking for is a reduction in rates. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.
It took a slumping economy, and years of double-digit premium increases, before the Legislature opened the door to the group purchasing cooperatives in the summer of 2010. The law allows the formation of up to six cooperatives that collectively can have as many as 85,000 members, roughly 10 percent of the states small group market that covers small employers and individuals.
Though they cant be self-insured, the cooperatives can negotiate with the health plans, which are required by law to offer discounts from what small employers would pay on their own. Regulators are also encouraging health plans to design new products that offer further discounts if members lose weight, quit smoking, and agree to undergo wellness assessments.
We want there to be more comprehensive wellness products in the marketplace, Murphy said yesterday. Over time, thats where the savings will be.
State health insurers initially opposed the cooperatives, warning they could repeat the practices of association health plans from an earlier era. Those plans were outlawed in the 1990s after some associations sought to sign up businesses with younger and healthier workers, resulting in higher premiums for nonassociation buyers that purchased their insurance independently. Yesterday, insurers said they are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new cooperatives.
Our members look forward to working with these cooperatives to offer products that provide small businesses with affordable options, said Eric Linzer, senior vice president at the industry trade group, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. At the same time, it will be important that the state ensure that these purchasing pools do not operate in a manner that benefits some small businesses at the expense of others.
If health plans design new products that are approved by the insurance division, the cooperatives could begin marketing them to their members later this winter or spring. It was not clear yesterday if the products could be ready before April 1, historically the most common renewal date for insurance plans in the small group market.
Tom ORourke, president of the Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, said health insurance costs have become the top issue in recent years for small employers that find it too expensive to hire workers and expand their businesses.
The association is made up of 75 chambers across the state that together represent thousands of businesses with tens of thousands of employees.
Theres a lot of excitement about this, ORourke said. Because of the number of members well be able to bring to the table, well have more strength and leverage.
Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE. Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.
Dunkin Brands Inc. has signed a long-term agreement with National DCP, a franchisee-owned purchasing cooperative, making it the exclusive supply chain provider for all Dunkin Donuts locations in the continental United States.
The agreement took effect Jan. 1, upon the merger of four regional franchisee-owned cooperatives into National DCP.
Dunkin Brands, Dunkin Donuts parent company, said the agreement would help pave the way for the Canton, Mass.-based chains continued expansion. The company plans to double the number of US Dunkin Donuts units to 14,000 over the next 20 years.
Dunkin Brands said the agreement would streamline its distribution system and provide significant future cost-efficiencies for the franchise community, as well as greater consistency, including uniform pricing for existing and future franchisees.
The company said it planned to phase in uniform product costs over three years, beginning in 2012.
This is a huge step forward toward our goal of continuing to drive store-level profitability in newer markets and accelerating the expansion of Dunkin Donuts across the US, Dunkin Brands chief financial officer Neil Moses said.
Dunkin Donuts has used franchisee-owned distribution centers since the 1970s. The cost of supplies typically has varied depending on distribution requirements, such as the concentration of restaurants in a particular area.
National DCP will be the sole procurer and distributor for Dunkin Donuts outlets in the continental United States, provided it meets certain performance-based requirements.
Investment firm William Blair amp; Company expects food costs for Dunkin Donuts restaurants in the western United States to fall by 2 percent once the agreement is completely phased in by 2015. Dunkin Brands northeastern stronghold also would benefit, but not as much, it added.
Dunkin Brands currently franchises 10,000 Dunkin Donuts units worldwide, as well as about 6,000 Baskin-Robbins units.
Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.
On Friday, Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN)s Director, Michael Appling Jr., made a $106,206 buy of MAIN, purchasing 5,000 shares at a cost of $21.24 a piece. Main Street Capital Corporation is trading up about 0.9% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, the Director bought MAIN on 4 other occasions during the past year, for a total cost of $198,000 at an average of $18.56 per share. In the past year, 1 other insider purchased MAIN, purchasing $87,236 shares at a cost of $17.45 a piece.
And also on Friday, Director Larry D. Thompson bought $29,792 worth of Washington Post Co. (WPO), buying 76 shares at a cost of $392.00 a piece. This purchase marks the first one filed by Thompson in the past year. In the past year, 1 other insider bought WPO, purchasing $1.04M shares for a cost of $345.27 a piece. Washington Post Co. is trading off about 1.3% on the day Wednesday. Bargain hunters can grab WPO at a price even lower than Thompson did, with shares changing hands as low as $373.17 at last check today which is 4.8% below Thompsons purchase price.
Core Talent recruitment agency respond to the latest results from research conducted by the Charted Institute of Purchasing and Supply, suggesting job vacancies have risen 33% within the procurement sector.
Economists are predicting a mixed bag for Georgia’s business sector in 2012, despite a brighter outlook for the national economy. Manufacturing order volume, for example, fell in the second half of 2011 after a strong start, according to the Georgia Purchasing Managers Index. (Photo: Jeanne Bonner)
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(NYSE: KBR) has been awarded a job order contract by The Cooperative Purchasing Network to provide construction management services for public entities throughout Texas, according to a release.
The contract is for one year, but offers six option years for renewal. The terms of the contract were not disclosed.
KBR will provide a range of construction management services that will vary in size and will include facilities repair, renovations and new constructions for all public entities throughout the state. Work on the contract is expected to begin immediately.
Asian Currencies Gain as Manufacturing Data Suggests Resilience January 03, 2012, 4:51 AM EST
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By Fion Li and Jiyeun Lee
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Asian currencies rose, led by Malaysia’s ringgit, after economic data showed two of the region’s largest economies were proving resilient to slowing global growth, boosting demand for emerging-market assets.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of stocks rallied 0.9 percent after a purchasing managers’ index in India had the highest reading in six months in December and a similar gauge in China rose last month. Financial markets in China and Thailand are closed for holidays today.
“Asian manufacturing data and stock market gains are supporting some risk appetite,” said Byeon Ji Young, a Seoul- based currency analyst at Woori Futures Co. “Still, this sentiment won’t last long as investors are concerned over Europe’s debt.”
The ringgit strengthened 0.5 percent to 3.1525 per dollar as of 10:41 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. South Korea’s won advanced 0.5 percent to 1,150.60, Singapore’s dollar rose 0.4 percent to S$1.2926 and the Philippine peso gained 0.3 percent to 43.810.
The Indian purchasing managers’ index climbed to 54.2 from 51 in November, HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. In China, the index was at 50.3 from 49 the month before, the Beijing-based logistics federation said in a statement on Jan. 1. A reading of more than 50 indicates expansion.
Offshore Yuan Surges
Malaysia’s ringgit reached a one-week high on speculation global funds will add to their holdings of the nation’s assets. The value of local-currency debt held by overseas investors was at 169.1 billion ringgit ($54 billion) in November, Bank Negara Malaysia said on its website last week. That’s a 40 percent increase since the end of 2010.
“With the Asian economies showing improvement, global investors will want to place their funds in this region,” said Akira Banno, a treasury adviser at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur.
China’s yuan strengthened 0.4 percent to 6.2940 per dollar in offshore trading in Hong Kong as a non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 56 in December from 49.7 in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
Singapore’s dollar gained even as a government report today showed the country’s economy shrank an annualized 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from the previous three months. The median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 5 percent contraction. The economy grew 4.8 percent in 2011 and may expand 1 percent to 3 percent this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Dec. 31.
Indonesia Growth Concern
“As the economic woes in developed economies continue to unfold, small and open economies such as Singapore are probably most at risk,” economists led by David Carbon, head of economic and currency research at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Singapore, wrote in a note to clients today. “Overall, growth in Asia this year will be slower, led by a soft landing in China.”
Indonesia’s rupiah dropped the most in three months after data yesterday showed exports rose 8.3 percent in November from a year earlier, the least since September 2009. The currency weakened 1.1 percent to 9,178 per dollar, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s dollar climbed 0.1 percent to NT$30.289 per dollar and Vietnam’s dong was little changed at 21,033.
– With assistance from Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur. Editors: Andrew Janes, Anil Varma
Editors note: This article by Tony Mira, president and CEO of Anesthesia Business Consultants, an anesthesia amp; pain management billing and practice management services company, originally appeared in Anesthesia Business Consultants eAlerts, a free electronic newsletter. Sign-up to receive this newsletter by clicking here.
Medicares Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program for hospitals, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, took off upon the release of final regulations on April 29, 2011. VBP marks the start of true pay-for-performance, as opposed to pay-for-reporting, at the hospital level. The intent is to pay for better value, patient outcomes and innovations, and not simply to reward volume of services. As we enter 2012, we are halfway through the first performance period. Anesthesiologists should begin analyzing and planning how they might partner with their hospitals in achieving the scores necessary to earn VBP incentives.
INLAND EMPIRE ? The manufacturing sector of the region?s economy is no longer growing.
The monthly purchasing manager?s index released Wednesday has been in the doldrums for four consecutive months. Two of the six key indicators were contracting during December while commodity prices were increasing. Two others were unchanged while the pace of supplier deliveries quickened.
The Institute of Applied Research at Cal State San Bernardino found one-third of the purchasing managers questioned think the economy will weaken the first-quarter of the year. However, more than half believe it will remain the same. (INT)
