Business digest

InfoCision contract

Akron

InfoCision Management Corp., has signed a contract with Smart Holdings, a Georgia-based company that sells automotive extended-service plans nationwide. InfoCision, one of the country’s largest teleservice companies, will handle Smart Holdings’ inbound and outbound consumer call volume and sales, instant e-mail confirmation of orders, tracking, reporting, fulfillment, audio recording of all calls and customer service. InfoCision, which operates 32 call centers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, initially will train up to 40 agents to handle the Smart Holdings contract.

New insurance rule

columbus

The Ohio Department of Insurance has issued an emergency rule by establishing uniform open-enrollment periods in the state’s individual health-insurance market to ensure insurers continue to cover children under age 19 with pre-existing medical conditions. The rule addresses concerns that insurance for these children would be purchased only for brief periods of time when the purchaser knows the child will need medical care. Requiring all insurers to accept insurance enrollments for children during specified time periods will provide a level playing field.

Insurance companies offering individual coverage to children under age 19 are required to have a one-time transitional open-enrollment period from Sept. 23 to Nov. 15 this year. Beginning in 2011, these insurers must have open-enrollment periods for all of January and July. For more information, visit www.insurance.ohio.gov.

‘Walk to Remember’

youngstown

Forum Health Northside Medical Center will host its 23rd Annual “Walk to Remember” in honor of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the hospital’s Medical Education and Professional Building in the Politis Auditorium. Northside’s annual walk supports the national campaign to raise awareness of perinatal grief and ensure that sensitive care is given to parents who experience the death of a baby. The event is dedicated to the approximately 870,000 babies who die each year through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, prematurity, stillbirth or newborn death.

Funds for ethanol

Columbus

The Ohio Department of Development’s Energy Resources Division is accepting applications for $8 million in funding available through the Advancing Biofuels Beyond the Basics program. The program seeks eligible applicants to expand and improve the state’s ethanol-refining capacity. The funds can be used to buy and install eligible project equipment for increasing second- generation ethanol-refining capacity or biodiesel production for facilities in Ohio.

Eligible projects must be in Ohio, show direct economic impact in the state, have a cost-share investment that is at least 25 percent of the project’s total cost and demonstrate completion within one year. Awards will range between $500,000 and $1 million. To apply, submit a one-page project summary at http://recovery.ohio.gov/opportunities by 3 p.m. Oct. 22. A complete application must be submitted to the department by 3 p.m. Nov. 1.

Vindicator staff/wire reports