Valley billing firm plans cuts

A company that handles billing and collections for anesthesiologists will lay off 63 employees at its Spokane Valley office by the end of June.

Anesthesiologists Associated Inc. will keep only a small local presence, said Senior Vice President Craig Van Valkenburg, with a few employees working from home.

He said a few employees will be moved to AAI’s Beaverton, Ore., headquarters as part of a consolidation triggered by a recent merger with MiraMed Global Services, a Michigan-based company. About 100 work in Beaverton, where AAI was founded in 1960.

Employees were notified of the layoffs in late November to provide as much lead time as possible for job-hunting or retraining, Van Valkenburg said.

All but one or two of those who left the company have retired or found new positions, he said, and AAI is working with the Washington Employment Security Department and work-force training agencies to place severed workers. Salaries varied from about $18,000 to $40,000 per year, he said.

Van Valkenburg said AAI, with clients in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana, was strong regionally but did not have the capital and technology to expand. MiraMed has those resources, he said.

MiraMed also has a subsidiary in India that will inherit some of the work done in Spokane Valley, he said.

AAI has been in Spokane since 2001, when it acquired Fruci Financial Services.