Progress

April 8, 2010

Medical review firm to move 100 jobs into W-B

Nanticoke native touts spots at Federal Review Services LLC averaging $60,000.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
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WILKES-BARRE – A new medical review company will locate in the downtown and create up to 100 jobs paying an average of $60,000 a year, its vice president said Wednesday.

Nanticoke native Bill O’Malley disclosed his plans a few days after the announcement of a major plant closing and the pending layoff of 139 factory workers from the CertainTeed Corp. in Mountain Top.

Whether any of them or others who have lost jobs as a result of the economic crisis still gripping the country fit the needs of Federal Review Services LLC could be determined in the upcoming employment fairs the company has scheduled.

The privately held company has openings for clerical and administrative positions, but is also seeking people with specialized skills such as certified coders, nurses, physical therapists, doctors, information technology and computer network specialists.

“We can take the people that are underemployed or structurally unemployed and put them back into positions that can provide a better quality of life,” said O’Malley. That meant family-sustaining wages and benefits, holidays off and no swing shifts. The jobs will offer the employees an alternative to the traditional, clinical venue of hospital or medical centers.

He told the gathering of government, business and economic development officials in the vacant eighth-floor offices in the Frontier building on Public Square that soon would be home to the company that there are people with the needed skills to draw from in the area.

“We searched over different areas of the country but did not find the qualified pool of talented health care professionals that we have in the area,” said O’Malley.

Some of them had worked for HealthNow, a New York-based Medicare claims processing company that had an operation in the Kanjorski Center in Nanticoke. HealthNow left the building in 2005. A company owned by O’Malley managed the building owned by the Nanticoke General Municipal Authority.

“They’re not present anywhere else in the country, so we have a leg up on just about every other organization that wants to try to get into this field. And the availability of these people, these quality, skilled people, make that happen,” he said.

The passage last month of the health care reform law also worked in the company’s favor.

“We do complex medical reviews for both public and private entities. And if you’ve been aware or watched the new health care reforms that have come down the pike, there’s been an increased concentration in the need for these claims to be paid properly,” said O’Malley.

The 42-year-old businessman, his wife, Jean, who does the accounting for the company, and others associated with Federal Review have clients lined up and contracts and proposals in the works to attract more business. O’Malley said he sold other businesses to provide the capital for the startup.

They looked elsewhere, but chose Northeastern Pennsylvania not only for the skilled medical and health care work force, but also because of the benefits and assistance provided. The company will be moved into its new headquarters by May 10.

The building is located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone that provides tax abatements. The Governor’s Action Team and the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry cooperated to secure a $342,000 funding package. It consists of a $100,000 opportunity grant, $192,000 in job-creation tax credits and $50,000 in job-training assistance.

“Federal Review could have decided to go anywhere in the country to do this work,” said Todd Vonderheid, president and chief executive of the chamber. “It’s a story of hometown boys and girls who have done very well and who’ve decided to make a significant investment and take additional risk in their lives, in their home and their communities.”

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.

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