NEWS IN BRIEF

Agency sets hearing on QualChoice deal

Catholic Health Initiatives has submitted to the Arkansas Insurance Department an application seeking to take control of QualChoice, the state’s second-largest health insurer, and the agency will hold a public hearing at 1 p.m. April 29 in its first-floor hearing room at 1200 W. Third St.

Denver-based Catholic Health is the parent of Little Rock-based St. Vincent Health System, which operates hospitals in Little Rock and Hot Springs.

St. Vincent has been a shareholder in QualChoice since it was established in the mid-1990s by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences during a period when creation of managed-care networks was seen as a way to control rising health-care costs, said R.T. Fendley, senior associate hospital director for UAMS Medical Center.

The other shareholders are Arkansas Children’s Hospital; Tenet HealthSystem Medical Inc.; a national hospital chain, and TriZeto, a software company that is the majority shareholder.

  • Jack Weatherly

Sunday retail sales OK’d for LR brewery

The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control agency has granted a permit amendment to allow Refined Ale Brewery at 2221 S.

Cedar St. in Little Rock to sell its product on Sunday from noon till 5 p.m. for off-premises consumption, agency Director Michael Langley said Thursday.

Windell Gray said he opened the brewery in 2009 and has been operating a wholesale business, selling primarily to Fresh Market outlets.

The agency’s board approved the amendment Wednesday. Police Chief Stuart Thomas had objected because of traffic concerns on the one-way street, Langley said.

  • Jack Weatherly

11 stocks advance as index gains 1.55

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, increased 1.55 to 333.18 Thursday.

“U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after upbeat earnings reports from General Electric and Morgan Stanley,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. “The S&P 500 had its best week since July, rising 2.7 percent. The Arkansas Index moved higher as 11 stocks advanced and six declined.”

Shares of USA Truck rose 4 percent on three times its average volume and traded at a 52-week high. P.A.M. Transportation Services gained 2.3 percent in heavy trading.

Dillard’s fell 2.2 percent on average volume. Windstream fell 1.3 percent but hit a 52-week high during the session.

Total volume of the index was 23 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 25 on 04/18/2014

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