ACQUISITIONS
Nova Healthcare Administrators purchased by Zoeller’s Azeros
Published: October 11, 2009, 12:30 am
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Health care veteran Ronald K. Zoeller and his Azeros Healthcare LLC completed their previously announced purchase of a third-party administrator from Independent Health Association this month, launching Zoeller’s second company in that specific field.
Zoeller did not disclose how much he paid to buy Nova Healthcare Administrators from the Williamsville-based insurer. But the deal gives him a 27-year-old business with 60 employer clients, just over 40 employees, and $4 million in annual revenues. And it’s already breaking even.
“We’re happy with that,” Zoeller said. “I’m very pleased with the staff that we’ve ended up with. They’ve come together quickly under new leadership. It speaks to the work ethic around Buffalo.”
Nova serves 70,000 members, including 17,000 medical and 55,000 for dental. Some members use it for both, so there is overlap.
The business, now known as Azeros Health Plans, has been operating from temporary quarters on Main Street in Williamsville in preparation for the sale. But Zoeller is about to sign a lease with Uniland Development Co. for just under 10,000 square feet of space at 6215 Sheridan Drive, in the Sheridan Meadows complex. The firm will move in Dec. 1, concentrating all employees and operations at the one site.
Zoeller now plans to grow the firm “organically,” by gaining new clients and members throughout upstate New York. That means recruiting new employers through brokers and direct sales.
About 75 percent of its members and business is now concentrated in Western New York, especially Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, but Zoeller is taking aim at the Rochester and Syracuse markets as well.
In addition, while internal growth “is the primary objective,” Zoeller said, “we have an acquisition that we’re looking at right now.”
He wouldn’t elaborate, except to say that it involves another TPA in Michigan.
Prior to the deal, Azeros was a consulting firm for third-party administrators and a marketer of stop-loss coverage for self-insurers. The company was founded by Zoeller in 2006, and employed just four people.
But Zoeller is better known for launching North American Health Plans in 1983. That company, based in Amherst, grew to one of the nation’s largest independent third-party administrators of self-funded health plans by the time Zoeller sold it in 2004 to a Connecticut investor. The investor, Elliot S. Cooperstone, changed its name to Meritain Health and has continued to expand it through acquisitions.
jepstein@buffnews.com
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