Week in review - South Florida Business Journal:

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In February, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty approveda 6.4 percenr increase in workers’ compensation rates in response to the statd high court’s October ruling. Wednesday’s announcement followes Gov. Charlie Crist’s signing of a bill last week that caps feesin workers’ comp The bill essentially undi d the court’s ruling in Emma Murray v. , which would have allowedd attorneys whohandle workers’ compensation cases to collect more Under the new law, attorneys will be paid basedr on a set fee schedule. The rollbacko will save employersabout $172 million in insurancr costs, according to McCarty. It effectively restores the 18.
6 percent rate decreasre that tookeffect Jan. 1, with a projected savings of $610 millionn for Florida employers. After a rouned of cost cutting by a newmanagement team, the parengt corporation of has regained profitability. BRCH Corp. earner $8,434 on revenue of $96 million in its fiscalp third quarter endedMarch 31, improved from a $20.0 million loss on revenue of $92.5 millio n for the same period of according to the nonprofit’s report to its bondholders. The hospital’ws board hired Jerry Fedele as CEO in October ashis Brentwood, Tenn.-based FTI Healthcare, workede on a consulting deal with the hospitapl to improve its operations.
Fedele immediatelu embarked on an expense reduction plan that included laying off 38 employeeas andrenegotiating contracts. For its next step to reduce the hospital’s executives are negotiating for more favorable contractsw with managed care planse and its oncology and infusion theraptyphysician group. Former Palm Beach Countyu Commissioner Mary McCarty will be spending the next three and a half yeardsbehind bars. McCarty, 54, was sentenced to prison in West Palm Beach federal court and immediately taken into In March, McCarty pleaded guiltg to mail and wire fraud conspiracy.
She admitted in her plea to misusingg her position to personallyenrich herself, her husbansd and their associates through a series of municipal bond transactionz and through her receipt of gifts and gratuitiesd from entities and people doing business befors the commission. She failed to revealp her financial interests while advocating for numerousx matters beforethe commission, and failed to file or filed incomplete or false disclosure reports to conceapl her true financial interest from the public.
Calder Race Course is gettin into the gaming derby by breaking ground onan $85 104,000-square-foot casino with 1,225 slot The slot machine operations are expected to create 250 to 300 jobs at which is just south of the Miami-Dade/Broward county line near Land Shark Stadium, home to the . The Caldet complex also will includethre restaurants. Track owner Churchill Downs (NASDAQ: CHDN) hopesa to have the complex completed by early in time for the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl at LandSharj Stadium. , a privately held asset-tracking company, has moved its headquartera from Fort Lauderdale to the technology incubatotr at inBoca Raton.
The move should help the company leveragse the expertise of nearby business development professionals withtechnologhy experience, co-owner and President Steveb Muntean said. BlackBox has nine employees in Boca Raton and five more inBuenos Aires, Argentina. The company hopes to have 25 employeezsby 2010, Muntean said.