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Show 2F New Mexico Sunday, October 6, 1985 The Salt Lake Tribune, Business Portrait To Pursue Ski Industry New Merrill Lynch Manager in 4IIome Sweet Home Being named resident vice president of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner L Smiths Utah operations was for Robert J. Gunnarson like getting a much- - welcomed call to return home after a long absence It is like a big, sweet dream," he said, and the object is to never wake up. Mr. Gunnarson, a Merrill Lynch veteran, was recently tiamed to his new position following the retirement of E.Y. (Ned) urdays. During the summers, he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska doing soils and materials analysis. He earned a bachelor of science degree in economics in 1963 At the height of the Vietnam War. Joining the military, Mr Gunnarson attended Officer Candidate School and was later assigned to Military Advisors School and Vietnamese Language School. He served in Vietnam as a military advisor but eventually returned to spend his last year in Washington state as the company commander of an infantry unit. There was a real temptation to stay in the military, he said. It can be a corr.fi 'table way of life as long as you do a good job. But I felt that after 27 years of being around the military that I could find more of a challenge elsewhere." Three months after leaving the military, he joined Merrill Lynch. He met his wife, Carol, while working in one of the firm's Southern California offices. She was working as a secretary in the office after having left a teaching position in East Los Angeles, he said. They celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in June. Once established at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Gunnarson entered the firms management program. And eventually he was named sales manager in the firms Portland office. After assignments in Des Moines, Iowa, and Cleveland, Ohio, he received the offer to head the Salt Lake City office. My boss called me about three or four months ago and said there was an opportunity to effect a Benmon Although he was born in Brigham City, Mr. Gunnarsons fa-- . ther was a career Air Force officer and he grew up around the milmoving from place to itary ; place. Growing up in the military, I never really felt like I had a home, Mr. Gunnarson said. But geUing an opportunity to manage an office as successful as the Utah Merrill Lynch office and being able to move back into an area where I have grandparents and other family living is just delight-- ful. He admits, however, there were benefits to moving when he was younger. Though at times it was very hard to move and leave friends behind, you did learn to make friends quickly. And you are naturally exposed to a much wider range of experiences. His first job, he said, was scrapping dishes in an NCO club in London. He was 13. Mr. Gunnarson attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, working in a service station five nights a week and on Sat gradual and proper changing of the guard in Salt Lake City and asked if I would be interested," he said Obviously, he was. Mr. Gunnarson said he has seen several changes at Merrill Lynch since he joined the brokerage as a salesman in 1971. When I first came into the business, you really were a stockbroker, he said. But that role has changed and accountant representatives are no longer just stockbrokers. They are. now financial consultants in every sense of the word. We even call them financial consultants. In addition, he said, there were fewer women stockbrokers 14 years ago. "Now there are a lot more, he said, and they are some of the best people the firm has working for it. Merrill Lynch is the largest brokerage operating in Utah. It has 87 brokers and 35 back office l. The brokerage's four offices are located in Ogden, Provo, Midvale and Salt Lake City. Although he has only been in Salt Lake City for a few months, Mr. Gunnarson said it will take a lot to get him to leave. I once thought it would be great to be a regional director, he said. "But the position Im now in is the last one on the ladder where there is an opportunity to be out in the field with all the troops. I dont want to loose the y contact with the people who make this firm successful, he said. "Without its good salespeople, Merrill Lynch wouldnt be the firm that it is." To Help Access By Ken Flynn United Press International RUIDOSO, NM.-- A proposed new airport and a $42 million Swiss cograil train will soon allow southern New Mexico to give Colorado some tougli competition in the profitable skiing industry, promoters claim. Fred Dantomo, developer of Rancho Ruidoso Village, 12 miles from tourist mecca, said this the new projects planned for the area w ill make the piney woods of Ruidoso accessible within an hour and a half flying time to 30 million people. With the new airport that will be operational by 1987, and the train system, it will be possible for a skiier to get on a plane in Dallas or Oklahoma City and be on the slopes within three hours, Dantonio said. The new airport will be capable of landing jetliners. The development of another ski slope next to Ski Apache (formerly Sierra Blanca) is also in the planning stages, he said. The new slope will be f located on Buck Mountain, mile from Ski Apache at an elevation of 10,700 feet. Dantonio said he envisions southern New Mexico surpassing Colorado as a prime skiing destination. He said the proposed airport will create a boom in the visitor industry for the Ruidoso area. year-roun- per-sone- Ruidoso, with a permanent population of about 7,000, is located 150 miles northeast of El Paso, Texas, and 180 miles southeast of Albuquerque. During the year the town receives an average of 600,000 visitors. Skiing season is from Thanksgiving to day-to-da- Settling back in his native Utah, resident vice president of Merrill Lynch, Robert J. Gunnarson, is delighted with the job. Firms Seek Prescription in Battling , -- health-insuranc- cy. J As the economy has improved, companies such as Goodyear and Southern California Edison are using unusual and even daring techniques to combat one of the vestiges of the Inflation that ravaged the 1970s: riscosts. They are suping health-car- e porting the formation of lower-cos- t jjealth-car- e plans, such as health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations and encouraging their employees to join them. 1 They have been driven to such ends by a the industry that defies market pressures controlling much of the rest of the economy. the Federal Reserve Although y Boards policies have sharply cut inflation the past six years, those moves have had a less dramatic effect on the $400 billion-a-yea- r health-car- e industry, experts say. Business continues to be especially hard hit, with hospital insurance premiums increasing to 9.1 percent of pretax corporate profits in 1983 from 3 percent in 1970, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Supply and demand works fine when the users are also bearing the cost of the service being provided, said Chris Frenze, an economist with the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. But if you have a third party insurance company making payments, the principle doesnt work as well. If you are a hypochondriac and it doesn't cost you anything for a checkup, you are going to go to the doctor every day. Whereas if you had to pay $25, you might think twice about going in as often. Although the rise of medical costs has abated in recent months helped in part by controls on government-health-car- e supply-and-deman- d fight-mone- health-car- managed entitle- e ment programs most experts expect those costs to resume their torrid climb. "After we emerge from this current period, we have to be willing as a nation to make some hard choices about restricting access or fk quali ty of health care, said Jack Meyer, resident fellow in American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC., and former assistant director of the federal Wage Price Council. "In the long term 10, 20, and 30 we have some years down the road powerful forces pushing up the cost of health care," said Meyer, citing the aging baby-boogeneration, more expensive medical technology and the growth of health insurance. Some businesses already are trying to counter those forces and control the rising tab for employee e health-insuranc- creased to premiums, which in- $101 billion in 1984 from in 1983, according to the $82 billion U S Chamber of Commerce. At the Goodyear plant in Lawton, for example, the 1,726 employees have a choice of using the company-owne- d pharmacy and medical center or going to more costly outside physicians and drug stores. Equipped and renovated at a cost of $100,000, Goodyear's center provides a number of medical services almost at cost. A blood test that costs $25 at local doctors' offices, for example, costs $3.27 at the Goodyear center. and minor surgeries also are much cheaper there. al Pap-smear- d one-hal- Goodyear Opens Own Medical Center By Jube Shiver Jr. Los Angeles Times Writer After years of unsuccessfully goading hospitals to hold down price increases, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. decided to take matters into its own hands: Last August the tire company rolled up its sleeves and opened its own medical center to treat employees. , Located in Lawton, Okla., the medical center is already a financial success, and were looking into applying the concept at other manufacturing locations, said Robert E. Mercer, chairman of Goodyear. Southern California Edison, the targe utility serving Los Angeles and ether cities in the area, has launched $n even more extensive attack on health-car- e costs. Last year it termie nated its contract $nd assumed the task of collecting employee insurance premiums and paying medical claims directly. The utility company also operates nine piedical clinics and owns a pharma- Airxrt, Train New Costs Health-Car- e There is no middle man. so to speak, so we are able to provide services at much lower cost," said Frank Armstrong manager of corporate health services. Of course, it's not quite that simple. The medical center's costs are lower primarily because it doesnt perform major surgery and therefore doesn't maintain the expensive assortment of medical equipment required by hospitals. Its staff of 16 doctors, who are paid by a company that manages the medical center, agree to control their costs. d But for many smaller concerns and even some large ones, operating a medical clinic to cut costs is impractical. For these companies, the chief weapon being employed to fight riscosts is the preferred ing health-car- e provider organization. Preferred provider organizations are companies that rate doctors and hospitals and negotiate discounted fee schedules with the "preferred p.oviders in return for quick payment and a lions share of the companies' business. The underwriter solicits bids from hospitals for services. Once a price is agreed upon, the company sends its patients to that hospital, which then is obliged to supply services at the Im glad I waited for spring. In the summer months tourists flock to the mile-hig- h area to get away from the heat and to enjoy fishing, camping, hiking or simply admiring the lush Lincoln National Forest greenery. One of the main attractions in the summer months is horse racing. Ruidoso Downs Race Track is the home of the worlds richest quarter horse race the All American Futurity. agreed-upoprice. The hospital must swallow any losses that occur because of rising costs. "Of all the options, I think PPOs have the most effect on controlling increase's in health-car- e costs, said M, a senior felRita Ricardo-Camplow at the Hoover Institution and author of a book on the economics and politics of health care. The negotiation of PPO contracts keeps price increases restrained. n New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya Nationwide, as of June 1, there were 334 PPOs compared to 68 in 1980, according to the American Medical Care and Review Association in Bethesda, Md Most analysts predict that by the end of the decade, prepaid health plans such as HMOs or PPOs will become the dominant form of health- care insurance, supplanting the indemnity or system that critics say has helped fuel cost increases the past 20 years. SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER Management Training for Small Business Managers MECHANICS LIENS AND SURETY BONDS Thursday, October 10, 1985 7:00 10:00 pm $25 after October 8 -- FEE: $20 p CASHFLOW MANAGEMENT FOR BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS Thursday, October 17, 1985 7:00 10:00 pm $25 after October 15 -- FEE: $20 UNIVERSITY OF UTAH DIVISION OF CONTINUING EDUCATION CONCERNED ABOUT LOWER INTEREST RATES? POSSIBLE TAX CHANGES? Learn how Franklin can help you towards high income at this free seminar. Achieving a high current return on your investment in todays unpredictable economy has become more and more difficult. At our seminar, sponsored by Kidder, Peabody & Co., guest speaker Thomas O'Connor wall discuss creative ways to achieve high returns in the face of economic uncertainty. Meet the challenges of investing in the 80s with the help of Kidder. Peabody & Co., and Franklin. October Date: 8. 1085 Time: Place: Sheraton Hotel Canyon One Room 255 South West Temple Salt Lake City. 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Sheck, director of the stales Planning and Development Division, said a feasibility study on the Swiss railroad will be completed by December. Sheck said the railroad would link four major points the new airport, the racetrack, downtown Ruidoso and the ski area. b' ?TJ )lc ( miimrr Spi-- i i.ilists , Il'Y MUHRAY f) n k4 J Son, Slate EVANSTON S6 Yellow Creek. Hoad 7B9-0- 5 |