FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com
February 24, 2014 | VOL. 50, No. 8
STATE AND HOSPITALS BATTLE OVER MONEY
FCBJ this week THE LOTTERY
A national drawing for coveted visas enters the application phase … 3 M&A CHECKUP
Businesses are more inclined to sell part of themselves than the whole outfit … 8
DueLing anaLYses roiL the LeDgers
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
BY JENNIFER BISSELL
Short- and long-term planning earn Andi Gray’s attention … 11
jbissell@westfairinc.com
O
The response: “Cause for optimism in manufacturing.” And with the passion he obviously possesses for making things, Lisk, an engineer who takes notes on graph paper, offered a “Eureka!” response: “You got it!” Regionally, as three manufacturers attested in a University of Bridgeport forum co-sponsored by the Fairfield County Business Journal and WSHU Public Radio, you can make it here, but you have to be
fficials at the Connecticut Hospital Association say state budgeting policies will force hospitals to increase their rates by $1 billion in 2015 to make up for a loss of revenue and a provider tax. On top of the $235 million hospital provider tax already in place, which hospitals must pay, officials say some $710 million will be lost in missing Medicaid reimbursements if state funding persists at current levels next year. Like any other business, hospitals will need to increase their prices to make up the difference, said Stephen Frayne, CHA’s senior vice president of health policy. But to state Budget Director Benjamin Barnes, the idea is unconscionable. “I don’t know how they could make that argument with a straight face,” Barnes said. “I don’t believe it.” Given what he called the industry’s wide profit margins and already inflated prices, Barnes said he believes hospitals should and will absorb the costs. After absorbing some $500 million in unfunded Medicaid costs in 2012, hospitals still made a $700 million net profit, he said. Net income at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, for instance, was $85 million in 2012 after absorbing Medicaid losses,
» Made here, page 6
» Money, page 6
WOLF IS AT THE DOOR
The SEC now focuses on small-time infractions, knowing they lead to bigger trouble (and to the big screen) … 12
MEDIA PARTNER
Manufacturer Kenneth Lisk and University of Bridgeport School of Business Dean Lloyd Gibson.
MADE HERE MANUFACTURING FINDS ITS MOJO IN A TECH WORLD
BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com
KENNETH LISK, president of Lacey Precision Engineered Products in Bridgeport turned the tables on a reporter waiting to ask him a question recently. Lisk had just finished a hundred-person, packed-house manufacturing roundtable at the University of Bridgeport. “What did you just get out of it?” he asked.
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A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE Dana Jevarjian beside the fire at Delamar greenwich harbor.
NEWS NOON @
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