- November 23, 2024
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The city will invest a maximum of $290,000 into the company, based on its level of job-creation.
BY WAYNE GRANT | STAFF WRITER
A stretch of U.S. 1 where several businesses closed during the recession now has some new life, thanks to a company that relocated there from Daytona Beach Nov. 18. Duvasawko, a billing and practice-management company for emergency physicians, spent $2 million renovating the building and expanding the parking lot.
City Economic Development Director Joe Mannarino said a $290,500 incentive pledged by the city will be a good investment, since the company plans to add 68 new workers to its current staff of 160 over the next three years. The city will pay a lower amount if the company employs fewer people than projected..
“It will be the fifth or sixth largest employer in Ormond Beach,” Mannarino said. “So it is significant, especially in an area that has been distressed with the closing of furniture stores.”
It’s also helpful, he added, that the business is close to downtown.
“That building was vacant for seven years and it is now a Class A office building,” he said. “They remodeled the interior and the exterior. It was just a big box, and they have added windows.”
He said Duvasawko has asked for a list of local businesses in the city to use as potential suppliers.
Maureen France, director of marketing and business development for Duvasawko, said there are a variety of jobs at the company. Medical coding is usually done by someone with nursing or other medical experience, billing representatives need customer-service skills and there are also account managers and physician recruiters.
In addition to Duvasawko, the building is the corporate headquarters of other companies also owned by Dr. Charles Duva and Dr. William Sawko, and all are related to emergency medicine.
The two doctors were practicing emergency physicians who had their residency at Halifax Medical Center in the 1970s, France said.
Another company in the building is Emergency Medical Professionals P.A., formed in 1977, which employs 40 emergency physicians who all work on contract with local hospitals. Duvasawko formed 16 years ago and now has clients in 16 states.
The other two companies at the location are Edge Physicians, a recruitment firm started last year, and PrimeCare Urgent Care Centers, a company that was purchased nine years ago, France said.
“The main reason we moved was to gain space,” France said, adding that the firm gained about 10,000 square feet in the relocation. “All of our companies are growing. Also, rent had gone up significantly.”
Health care is also very uncertain right now, France said, with changes from the Affordable Care Act soon taking effect.
“We don’t know what will happen,” she said.
Another ongoing concern for medical professionals is the amount insurance companies pay for procedures. She said Congress makes changes to Medicare payouts and insurance companies follow suit.
“They say if a cut on an arm is so many inches long, this is how much they will pay,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how much it actually costs.”
France said on the weekend before the first day of business, they were scratching their heads, wondering if they would be ready for launch.
“We had our doubts,” she said. “But we went into overdrive and got it done.”
Mannarino said the city used software from Impact Data Source to measure the impact of the company's growth on the economics of the city to determine the amount of the incentive.
