39 | FACES & PLACES
2 | VET IN A VAN April 13, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 15
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Small-business health exchange challenged with upcoming changes BY COLLEEN WILSON cwilson@westfairinc.com
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ot even halfway through the new year, state health officials and insurance companies are already looking ahead to January when the smallbusiness market in the health insurance exchange will see a major shift in its landscape. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act states that on Jan. 1, 2016, the “small-group market” will expand to include employers with as many as 100 employees, up from a cap of 50 employees. New York faces the challenge of having to blend two differentsize groups of businesses into a more than 20-year-old marketplace while also easing the larger group into a different insurance rating system — a task that some experts say will be difficult.
In 1992, under Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York started using a community rating system to determine premium rates based on family size and region for health insurance plans with businesses of fewer than 50 employees. For large businesses, which were considered companies with more than 50 employees, New York rated premiums based on “experience,” using factors such as age, gender, type of business and claims experience. As it stands now, New York will be forced to merge these two market groups in about eight months, and a portion of the large group — 51 to 100 employees — will no longer have health care rates determined by age, gender and other factors. James D. Schutzer, an insurance broker and vice president of J.D. Moschitto & Associates Inc. in White Plains, said the shift would » HEALTH, page 6
New life for former hospital CEO PAGE 21
Keith Safian at his North Castle home. Photo by John Golden
Receiver named to sell Eljamal’s Shell station interests MONEY WILL GO TOWARD $4.8M DAMAGES AWARD BY JOHN GOLDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com
A STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGE has appointed an independent receiver to collect payments due Westchester businessman Sammy Eljamal by the partners with whom he has waged a fouryear battle of lawsuits in state and federal courts and to sell off Eljamal’s interests in their Shell gas station holding companies to pay nearly $4.8 million in damages a jury awarded a former office
colleague whom Eljamal falsely accused of making death threats against him and his family. As of early March, Eljamal’s distributive share as a member of NY Fuel Holdings LLC and Metro NY Dealer Stations LLC totaled approximately $464,000, according to papers filed in another Supreme Court case involving Eljamal and the managing partners, Scarsdale investor James Weil and Silverman Realty Group Inc. Chairman Leon Silverman, who removed Eljamal as manager of their Shell gas station opera-
tions in Westchester, Long Island and New York City. The money has been held by the partners in an escrow account while the financially beleaguered Eljamal has repeatedly replaced attorneys and filed numerous court motions, appeals and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court related to a separate $5 million judgment against him in favor of Silverman in a dispute over control of several Shell gas stations in Connecticut. Lois N. Rosen, a White Plains attorney representing Silverman
in the Connecticut business dispute, in a Bankruptcy Court filing last year said Eljamal’s petition for protection from creditors on behalf of his Thornwood company, Connecticut Dealer Stations Management LLC, “is just the latest example of Eljamal’s efforts to use (and misuse) the judicial system for his own collateral business advantage.” Eljamal, she said, “has made it clear that he is willing to go to any lengths to avoid the ultimate day of reckoning.” Eljamal has been unavailable » ELJAMAL, page 6