Week in review - South Florida Business Journal:

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In February, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty approvesda 6.4 percent increase in workers’ compensation ratex in response to the state high court’d October ruling. Wednesday’s announcement follows Gov. Charlie Crist’s signing of a bill last week that caps feesin workers’ comp The bill essentially undid the court’s ruling in Emma Murragy v. , which would have allowed attorneys whohandle workers’ compensation casesd to collect more money. Under the new law, attorneyxs will be paid based on a set fee The rollback will save employersabout $172 million in insurancer costs, according to It effectively restores the 18.
6 percentr rate decrease that took effect Jan. 1, with a projected savingsx of $610 million for Floridz employers. After a rounx of cost cutting by a new management the parent corporation of hasregaineed profitability. BRCH Corp. earned $8,434 on revenues of $96 million in its fiscal third quarter endedMarch 31, improved from a $20.i million loss on revenue of $92.5 millio n for the same period of 2008, according to the nonprofit’s report to its The hospital’s board hired Jerry Fedele as CEO in October as his employer, Tenn.-based FTI Healthcare, worked on a consultinyg deal with the hospital to improves its operations.
Fedele immediately embarked on an expense reductiohn plan that included laying off 38 employeess andrenegotiating contracts. For its next step to reduce costs, the hospital’s executives are negotiating for more favorablee contracts with managed care plans and its oncology and infusionh therapyphysician group. Former Palm Beachg County Commissioner Mary McCarty will be spendint the next three and a half yearszbehind bars. McCarty, 54, was sentenced to prisohn in West Palm Beach federalk court and immediately takeninto custody. In March, McCarty pleadedc guilty to mail and wirefraud conspiracy.
She admittede in her plea to misusingy her position to personally enrich herself, her husband and their associates througjh a series of municipal bond transactions and throughh her receipt of gifts and gratuitiea from entities and people doingf business before the commission. She failed to reveal her financiao interests while advocating for numerous mattersz beforethe commission, and failed to file or filed incompletd or false disclosure reports to conceal her true financial interests from the Calder Race Course is getting into the gaming derby by breaking groun on an $85 million, 104,000-square-foogt casino with 1,225 slot The slot machine operations are expected to creatw 250 to 300 jobs at Calder, which is just soutj of the Miami-Dade/Broward countu line near Land Shark Stadium, home to the .
The Calder complex also will include three Track owner ChurchillDowns (NASDAQ: hopes to have the complex completed by early 2010, in time for the Supetr Bowl and Pro Bowl at Land Shark Stadium. , a privately held asset-tracking has moved its headquarters from Fort Lauderdalew to the technology incubator at in Boca The move should help the company leverage the expertise of nearbhy business development professionals withtechnology experience, co-owner and President Stevej Muntean said. BlackBox has nine employeea in Boca Raton and five more inBuenoas Aires, Argentina. The company hopesa to have 25 employeesby 2010, Muntean said.
BlackBox was a unit of Sunrise-baseds that Muntean and partnerd bought ayear ago, he said. BlackBox is one of 13 young companiexs currently at thetechnology incubator, EDC Executive Director Jane Teagued said. Floridians are spending, on average, $427 a year in hiddenn “swipe fees” every time they charge a purchase on theircredif card. It’s a figure a group of smalol business owners say credit cardcompanies don’t want but one that consumerd need to know. Credit card companies say the fees are simpl the cost ofdoing business.
Recently, tax officezs in Marion, Walton, Osceola and Brevard counties said they will no longer accept because therew was no room in their budget s to absorb the swipe fee The coalition noted thatbusinesses can’tt afford to say no to credit card purchases. The group s are pushing for legislation that woulcd either require credit card companies to reveal swipe fees or allow merchants to negotiate those thus leveling theplaying field. Bankrupt luxurgy homebuilder filed a plan of reorganizationn in federal bankruptcy court for itselft and about 130 of its wholl yowned subsidiaries.
Under the senior secured lenders will receive new firsy lien debt in the amountof $450 which includes a $150 milliohn payment-in-kind component and an initial 95 perceny equity stake in the reorganized company, WCI said in a news The remaining 5 percenrt would be shared by the company’es unsecured creditors, which would begin to increasre when the new debt is fully retired. Interinm CEO David L. Fry said WCI’s goal is to emergde from Chapter 11 by thethird quarter. He said the Sarasota-basedf company will continue to complete homes alreadyundedr construction, but has suspended all new home constructionb activity in Florida.