Insurance Service Firm Grows Presence in Valley

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Despite the region’s trained work force, employers with extensive call center operations have increasingly fled for the South and Midwest where business costs are lower.

But specialty health insurance services firm One Call Medical Inc. is one company bucking the trend and more.

The growing Parsippany, N.J., company is not only keeping its West Coast customer service operations in the San Fernando Valley, but over the weekend moved into a 17,000-square-foot facility in West Hills that is nearly twice as big as the one it had in Woodland Hills. The company also began recruiting its first wave of trainees for a program intended to increase its 100-person work force to 170 over the next year or so.

“California is a very big part of our market,” said Chief Executive Kent Spafford, who was in town last week for the relocation. “We can afford to stay here because we run a very efficient operation with a very experienced staff. And, of course, we’ve been able to take advantage of the depressed real estate market.”

One Call Medical began 15 years ago as a third-party provider of medical imaging testing and scheduling services, primarily to workers’ compensation carriers that didn’t want the expense of setting up their own provider networks across the country. When a patient needs testing, One Call finds the closest imaging center, makes the appointment, handles billing and payment, and then bills the insurer.

In recent years, One Call has expanded into the general health care market, particularly third-party administrators for self-insured employers. Also being targeted are discount health care programs used by individuals who either have no insurance or are enrolled in high-deductible plans and want to cut out-of-pocket costs.

The company, which has other call centers in New Jersey and Atlanta, handled 560,000 MRIs alone in 2008, about 2 percent of all such procedures in the United States.

Local business boosters, who have worried about the increasing number of empty storefronts and office buildings in the Valley since the recession hit, are delighted by the expansion.

“Given all the people who have been losing their jobs here, the fact that a company not only wants to stay here but expand is a real boost for our community,” said Jack Dawson, president of the Canoga Park/West Hills Chamber of Commerce.


Implant Maker Lightens Up

In the hotly competitive cochlear implant market, engineers at Advanced Bionics have mostly focused on improving the technology of its high-tech hearing aids for the profoundly deaf.

Now, after listening to customer feedback, the Valencia medical device company is showing its softer side with kid-safe accessories and stuffed teaching animals.

Cochlear implants, often called bionic ears, combine an external earpiece and computer processor with a surgically implanted device that electrically stimulates auditory nerves. The result is a sense of sound, as opposed to a hearing aid that merely amplifies it.

For an adult, the apparatus is somewhat like a large personal digital assistant and Bluetooth headset, but it can be more of a challenge for a toddler. Parents have previously tried several methods to keep the device from going astray, but now can choose from various ear covers, safety cords and harnesses in the new Bionic Ears for Kids kit.

The company also includes a stuffed toy monkey in the kit. The animal, dubbed Melody, is outfitted with her own implants and helps therapists teach youngsters how to handle them.

Jeff Greiner , Advanced Bionics co-chief executive, said that the kit could help his company take market share away from two larger competitors in Australia and Austria. The company, founded and partly owned by billionaire entrepreneur Al Mann, now has a 20 percent market share.

Noting that parents are often just as interested in how a device looks on their children as how well it works, Greiner said: “We as engineers have to change and keep those concerns in mind in order to compete effectively.”


Market Opportunity

PC Mall Inc., known for selling computers and other technology to homeowners and businesses, plans to target the health care industry.

The Torrance company said last week that its PC Mall Gov subsidiary has launched a health care division that will provide information technology design and related services to hospital systems, medical offices and other health care providers.

PC Mall’s leadership sees opportunities in the pending health care reform program, particularly since President Obama has promoted the use of electronic medical records to enable more efficient and cost-effective care.

“Regardless of how the legislation currently being discussed in Congress impacts the health care system, we believe there will be a significant emphasis on health care IT spending over the next several years,” said Daniel Schneider, who will head the newly formed division, in the announcement.

Schneider has been vice president of marketing solutions and was chief technology officer at a PC Mall acquisition.


Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.

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