FORT SMITH - A Florida-based hospital-management company announced Thursday that it will more than double its workers in Fort Smith to create a regional service center that will employ up to 500 people.
Health Management Associates Inc. owns and operates 71 hospitals in midsize communities in 15 states, many in the Southeastern U.S., according to company officials. In the Fort Smith area, Health Management operates Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and Summit Medical Center in Van Buren.
The Naples, Fla.-based company has had a service center in Fort Smith for years, said Shannon White, Health Management’s regional executive director, at a Thursday news conference. The company added about 75 jobs there in 2012and currently has about 215 employees at three locations in Fort Smith and one in Van Buren. The expansion into a single location will add up to another 300 jobs.
Health Management estimates the average pay for new workers will be around $15 per hour. Total payroll and benefits at the regional service center should top $21 million annually, company officials said.
The expanded regional service center will handle billing, customer service, hospital appointment scheduling, collections and insurance certification for 27 hospitals in five states, White said.
Health Management plans to open a 90,000-squarefoot office at the Phoenix Expo Trade and Event Center at 4600 Towson Ave. in Fort Smith to house the operation, White said. The planned opening is July.
Health Management As-sociates Inc.’s expansion is “very welcome news to Fort Smith,” Mayor Sandy Sanders said at the news conference. “This nationally recognized company is bringing over 500 excellent new jobs which will have a very positive impact for our city.”
The announcement was made at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and attracted members of the Arkansas EconomicDevelopment Commission.
In a statement, chamber President Tim Allen called the expansion an example of Health Management’s commitment to the city, which has lost several employers in recent years, including a Whirlpool manufacturing plant.
Whirlpool closed in June , resulting in the loss of about 800 jobs. At its peak in August 2005, the plant employed as many as 4,600 workers. Employment at the plant dropped the next year when the company opened a plant in Mexico and by 2009, the Fort Smith plant’s work forcehad shrunk to fewer than 1,500.
“Fort Smith has had its fair share of setbacks over the last couple of years, but I believe our best days are yet to come,” Allen said,
The publicly traded company chose to grow in Fort Smith because of its “dedicated and viable work force. We can build and recruit and retain” the company’s needed staff, White said.
With the company’s decision to enlarge the office into a regional center, it will serve hospitals in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texasand Washington, she said. Service to two more states is expected to be added soon.
White and other company officials said they expect the Fort Smith office will expand further in the future.
Health Management operates about 11,100 licensed hospital beds and has more than 40,000 employees, according to Patrick Clune, its vice president of shared services.
The company’s stock closed up 1 cent to $12.45 per share Thursday. During the past year, the stock has traded between $5.92 and $13.63.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/05/2013