State Business Advocacy Group Launches Health Insurance Program

The single most powerful political foe of employer-mandated health insurance in Washington is getting into the health insurance business.

The Association of Washington Business (AWB) lobby is launching what it describes as “a health insurance program run by business for business.”

Officials of the state’s oldest and largest business advocacy group - comprised of 3,500 member-firms employing 600,000-plus workers - said the action is in response to the need of small businesses for affordable, quality care.

“AWB HealthChoice is a major breakthrough for small businesses that were unable to afford coverage in the past,” said Dick Davis, board chair of AWB and chief executive of Spokane-based Pentzer Corp. “Our plan puts small businesses on the same footing as larger ones.”

Similar programs elsewhere in the country save member businesses 5 to 15 percent, he said.

Nine out of 10 doctors in this state are participating in AWB HealthChoice- sanctioned plans, according to AWB. Point-of-service options are also available, making any doctor in Washington state available.

Statewide health plans selected by AWB HealthChoice are: Providence Health Plans; Virginia Mason-Group Health Alliance Inc.; Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska, including its HMO affiliate Health Plus; and Health First Partners.

Each of the four health plans will offer three benefit levels, providing employees with a combined total 12 different plan options. Each employee within a company may select a different plan option under AWB HealthChoice.

To be eligible, employers must pay at least half of the lowest-cost plan, regardless of the option the employee chooses. For a company to participate, three-fourths of eligible employees must enroll. Those covered by another health plan or enrolled in the state’s subsidized Basic Health Plan are not counted as eligible. Businesses must also be a member of AWB to be eligible for AWB HealthChoice.

Visitor Information Center to debut

A new Downtown Spokane Visitor Information Center will be unveiled May 8 by the Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau. An 11 a.m. ceremony at Main and Browne will mark national observance of Tourism Day.

However, the facility will be baptized Bloomsday, May 5, when volunteers render services to race participants.

But the official public open house won’t come until May 11. The public is invited 1 to 5 p.m.

Spacious new quarters, high visibility, easy access, on-site parking, short-term on-street parking, and convenience make this an attractive addition to downtown, and should give businesses a good boost. For years, the visitor center has been located with the bureau’s headquarters inside the Chronicle Building at 926 W. Sprague Ave., invisible to locals and inaccessible to travelers.

“It’s so much more than I thought it could be,” bureau President Hartly Kruger said of the new center. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see our tourist contacts go from 12,000 annually at present to 40,000 or 50,000 in a very short time.”

That translates into millions more visitor dollars. A Washington State University study found one-fifth of travelers who stopped at a visitor center stayed extra days in the community, spending at hotels, stores, restaurants, theaters, and recreation spots.

Mountain bikes might help ski hills

“Ski resorts on the skids,” read a recent Spokesman-Review banner headline, followed by a lengthy tale of weather-related woes. What could take up slack at area slopes where a dearth of skiers has shut down Silver Mountain resort, raised rumors of others for sale, and inflicted money miseries on all?

Budding recreational entrepreneur William T. Hardin has an idea - mountain biking. Not motorbikes. Pedal bikes.

Mountain bikers ride year round. Some resorts in other areas cater to all-season bikers, who use studded tires for snow.

Hardin, a newspaper employee who operates a moonlight bike-mechanic business, is also cranking up a tour-guide service for recreational mountain bikers.

“I’ve mapped out about 40 different rides - everything from two-hour jaunts to full-weekend packages,” he says. “I’m now scouting bed and breakfast stop-overs.

“It’s a rapidly growing family activity,” he says, “that is a world apart from the mental image many have of the occasional rogue rider who roars around endangering others and shredding the environment.”

In the process of researching the market for a tour-guide service, Hardin talked with many in the industry and sport. “Their No. 1 interest,” he reports, “is to have a broad-based meeting among ski hill operators, bike shop owners, the U.S. Forest Service, and recreational bikers.” In other words, a summit.

The number for Hardin’s business, the Bike Mechanic, is (509) 276-9765.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review