Company Roundup

Greetings from Kalamazoo
By Diane Pantaleo

The Kalamazoo facility has a most welcome addition to their work family - Renee Szabo who has formerly worked in Lansing and Ann Arbor. There is also a Filippis on board in the Zoo-Ryan Filippis that is, who has brought his LER expertise to the west side of the state. Ryan is working part-time while continuing his studies at WMU.

Kathie Keith and sister Jean, Deb Snow and daughter Caity, Diane Pantaleo and daughter Sarah, Ginny Spenner at the Making Strides walk.
In October Kathie Keith, Ginny Spenner, Deb Snow, Diane Pantaleo, and their families walked in the Making Strides 5k to raise money for breast cancer research. We were sponsored in part by Wright & Filippis. Late summer we co-sponsored, displayed and spoke about our post-mastectomy program at the annual Horizon for Hope fund raising dinner for the education and research of breast cancer. Kathie and Wright & Filippis co-sponsored this event given by Longaberger Baskets. That's all from Kzoo for now.

News from the Alpena Facility
By Michelle Taliaferro

The new distribution warehouse in Kalkaska is up and running, enabling W&F to expand their service area on the west side of the state down to Ludington. Joe Woodworth is the respiratory clinician/driver who will be covering that area. Order intake and processing is handled out of Alpena (W-01), so if anyone has questions they should direct their calls to Alpena.

In the Central Intake Report Department
By Michelle Newbold
Congratulations to Wendy Lijana and her husband Jeff who are expecting their first baby. We’re also pleased to announce that Rebecca Kristick has assumed the new job responsibilities of delivering rental and purchase orders for W17, W85, and various branches.

Everyone in the Central Intake Report Department has been working very hard at trying to reduce the ORD415 report and clearing up the ORD570 Scheduled Pick Up report, Open Loaner report, ORD590 and ORD593 reports. Keep up the great team work!

ABP Update
By Kathi Lentz

 Hello from the insurance subsidiary of Wright & Filippis. We are all looking forward to some upcoming events here at ABP. Many of us have signed up for an exciting charity event to celebrate W&F’s 60th Anniversary. This event was organized by the Bond Center Warehouse and Driver staff. They have asked us to donate our time to work the concession stand at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The monies collected will be donated to the charities of our choice.

We also welcome our new ABP team members Peggy Cedar (CSR), Marcia Boyd (CSR), and Roxanne Sanchez (CSR). We all look forward to them working toward the W&F goal of "Excellent Customer Service!"

For our personal news, newlyweds Nicki Brown
(formerly York) and husband Mike are anticipating their first child in May, 2004. We are all very excited for them! Our provider relations person, Crista Gallo, is engaged to be married in September of 2004...the ring (and the man, JB, we hear) are spectacular!

From the Wright & Filippis
Authorization Side of ABP
By Sheila Tozer

Please welcome Erin Bellinger to our group! She is the new voice on the other end of the line when calling for W&F authorizations. Erin has transferred from the ABP Provider Relations side. She also assigns authorizations for the orders printed to ABP92. I’m sure you’ve also heard Kathy Walker and Dawn Eatmon’s voices on the phone - they back up Erin on the phones, as well as work on mostly Wright & Filippis reports to keep the Supply and Rental authorizations updated.

Toledo Welcomes New Staff Members for 2004
By Tom Crahan

Here in Toledo, Dona Perales and Jennifer Niemeyer have joined the customer service staff. Cheryl Fulton, from Toledo Hospital, has joined our respiratory department. Matt Blumm and Nick Askins have joined our delivery department.

We have also welcomed many transition patients over the last 6 months due to the solid service reputation we have with our local referrals and in our community. We are all looking forward to 2004 and the prospect of continued growth. After all, without a solid reputation for service, we would simply be "one of the other companies out there".

News from Human Resources

As most of you know, we recently converted our 401(k) Retirement Plan and thought it would be helpful to give you a breakdown of the two primary parties that will be servicing our plan. First, many of you met Susan Shoemaker with Plante & Moran Financial Advisors (PMFA) at our recent enrollment meetings. PMFA provides investment consulting services to the 401(k) plan. The primary services provided by PMFA include assisting the committee with researching funds, meeting with participants for education/enrollment, and assisting with the creation of the lifestyle funds.

The other party that services the plan is Invesmart. Invesmart represents over 550,000 plan participants in more than 7,000 retirement plans. They provide the daily valuation administration on the plan. They collect the employee data, send out quarterly statements, and provide web site and voice response access to your account.

If you want to obtain information on your account, you can call Invesmart’s account information center at 1-800-370-9601 or access the Internet at www.invesmart.com 24 hours a day. You will not be able to access your account until you receive your Personal Identification Number (PIN), which you should have received at the end of conversion along with a pamphlet with information on accessing the web site and the voice response system. Through the 800 number or the Internet you can obtain information on your account balance, make changes to investment elections, transfer money between funds, and request loans or distributions. In addition, there are financial planning tools and education information available on the web site. If you have general investment questions you can call Susan at 248-223-3722.