Shauna Yearling returns to Pinnacol Assurance!

Pinnacol is pleased to welcome back Shauna Yearling, one of our most recent 'boomerangs' (an employee who left Pinnacol but then returns). Doretha Jones, our intrepid HR reporter,  recently had a chance to catch up with her to chat about her decision to rejoin the company.

Shauna first joined Pinnacol in 1993 as a Records Tech after being referred by Sheryl Lolmaugh. She enjoyed working for Pinnacol and held several positions including Administrative Support, Contract Coordinator, Medical Claims Adjuster, and Claims Rep. Shauna’s desire for change and to explore other employment experiences led to her decision to leave the company in 2003.

Shauna took 3 months off to spend time with family and friends and to work on some projects around her home. Then she accepted a position as a Risk Manager with the Gilpin Casino and Lodge Casinos in Black Hawk. The Gilpin and Lodge Casinos expanded her job responsibilities which would have included traveling to their other locations across the country. She worked for the Gilpin and Lodge Casinos for approximately 18 months. She enjoyed the job but not the commute, so she left in 2005.

Tired of a long commute, she accepted a job within walking distance of her home. She worked as a Paralegal for Cairns, Nemechek & MacGruder LLC for a little over a year. Then she was referred by a friend to Centrix Financial Services, a sub prime auto company, as an HR Generalist. After she was employed for 6 months, the company filed for bankruptcy. Shauna returned to the legal field in 2007, as a Litigation Paralegal with White & Steele. They are primarily involved with insurance defense. She remained with them until she returned to Pinnacol.

Shauna saw the Legal Secretary position posted on www.pinnacol.com/careers and decided to apply. She rejoined Pinnacol as a Legal Secretary in September 2009. She enjoys the job duties of a legal secretary and she is very excited to have returned to Pinnacol. Shauna likes that Pinnacol is a good company with good benefits and that it has a great  environment where people respect each other. She also appreciates the flexible schedules that are available to employees and in comparison to other companies she has seen thinks Pinnacol’s level of technology is superior. The company’s commitment to volunteerism through its Pinnacol in Action program was also important to her.

Shauna enjoys reading mysteries. Two of her favorite authors are James Patterson and Agatha Christie. She likes to visit the Art Museum, Colorado History Museum, Colorado Museum of Nature and Science. She likes to take walks with her 2 dogs, Sparkie, a Shih Tzu, and Red, a Chihuahua. She also likes to be around her family and friends.

Since Pinnacol has such a supportive environment for education, Shauna would like to return to school and continue to work on her educational goals and pursue some of the insurance certifications/designations.

Welcome back Shauna!

Pinnacol in the news

The Denver Post and other media this morning report that Pinnacol has increased its offer to the state to $330 million, up from the original $200 million. $230 million would be paid over two years in $115 million annual lump sums and the remaining $100 million paid over 30 years at 11 percent interest.

In February Pinnacol offered the state $200 million in exchange for nearly full autonomy, and, as under the original offer, the new deal would still allow Pinnacol to keep its federal tax-exempt status, but the new proposal would require the insurer to pay taxes on all its premiums.


Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14707501#ixzz0id7wVTkO

What are your thoughts regarding Pinnacol's efforts to distance itself from the state?

9Health Fair Coming April 21

Pinnacol is pleased to again be one of the locations for this year's 9Health Fair.

Most of you are already familiar with the annual 9Health Fair but here's some information you may not have known:

In the late 1970's John F. Brensike, a physician conducting heart disease research at the National Institutes of Health in Washington , D.C. , became involved in cholesterol screenings. As he traveled the country, he observed a high level of interest from communities to provide screening services. However, he noted that few screenings were available and the quality varied. But more importantly, he noted that there was no mechanism to provide health education and medical follow-up to the community. From there, Dr. Brensike started the National Health Screening Council for Volunteer Organizations (NHSCVO) as a means of promoting preventative health maintenance. Through this organization, the health fair concept was born. The idea was presented by NHSCVO to interested communities across the country. In Colorado , NHSCVO approached Al Flanagan, then president of KBTV Channel 9 in Denver , now 9NEWS. The television station recognized this effort's value to the community and agreed to provide both financial and media support to help launch the first health fair.

In 1980, along with support from hundreds of medical and non-medical volunteers, the Lions Clubs of Colorado and the Colorado National Guard, the first 9Health Fair was staged. To this day, all three groups remain steadfast in their important roles with the 9Health Fair as important in-kind sponsors.

In 1987, 9Health Fair became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. With the sole mission of promoting health awareness and encouraging individuals to assume responsibility for their own health, and because of the support of 19,000 statewide volunteers, 9Health Fair has helped save thousands of lives by providing free and low-cost health awareness and educational screenings. To date, 9Health Fair is the only program of its magnitude and that has become a community institution as a result of the NHSCVO initiative. Since inception, 9Health Fair has impacted over 1.7 million individuals.

The program's proven history and consistent quality has earned us unique endorsements from the Colorado Medical Society, Colorado Nurses Association and the Colorado Hospital Association.

Anyone 18 and older can participate in a 9Health Fair. With over 25 screenings available, your 9Health Fair results, along with an explanation on how to read your results, are delivered directly to you within three to six weeks of your visit. Our team of volunteer registered nurses and physicians will contact you within 72 hours of your 9Health Fair visit and, if necessary, provide you with local follow up resources if your results indicate that a critical or alert health situation is occurring.

Attending a 9Health Fair does not replace your regular check-ups with your physician, and you are encouraged to share your results with your primary care physician for further diagnosis and treatment.

If you can't attend the event held at Pinnacol's headquarters, there are plenty of other sites available. Here's the link to find a location near you:

http://www.9healthfair.org/default.aspx

"Pinnacol deal starting to look better for Colorado"

In an editorial today the Denver Post cautiously encourages a close look at the potential deal to further distance Pinnacol Assurance from the State. To read the editorial click here: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14642883 . Let us know what you think of the potential transaction!

Pinnacol in the news...

If you have been following the legislative session this year you're well aware that Pinnacol is facing several important pieces of legislation. Add to that the offer of Pinnacol to pay the State of Colorado $200 million for increased autonomy and it makes for a very volatile session. Today's Denver Post reports that Morgan Stanley has completed its valuation of Pinnacol for the State and estimates that Pinnacol could afford to pay from $331 to as much as $374 million. To read the article, click here: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14637768

Open positions at Pinnacol are few and far between

We know you as alumni are a tremendous referral source of great candidates interested in career opportunities with Pinnacol. Given the current economic climate, openings at Pinnacol, as elsewhere, are somewhat scarce. When an opening does occur Pinnacol is trying to first fill the vacancy with an internal candidate. If that does not work we will of course look to the outside to find the skills we need.

If you know of someone interested in opportunities with Pinnacol they can always see what is currently open on our company website at www.pinnacol.com/careers and they can also be notified of  job announcements as they occur on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) by following pinnacoljobs. We have also started a new Pinnacol Careers blog full of information for folks who are interested in considered us as an employer. Check it out at http://pinnacolcareers.blogspot.com/.

Community Giving Report Released

If you haven't already seen it, take a look at the recently released Pinnacol Assurance Community Giving Report. It features several videos (you'll probably recognize some of the folks!) as well as a wealth of information on Pinnacol's efforts at giving back to the communities that support us.

http://www.pinnacol.com/acom_docs/cir2009/

Recent Staff changes at Pinnacol

Here are some of the recent staff changes at Pinnacol:

• Lucinda Flores has been promoted to HR Manager: Staffing and Employee Relations.
• Vanessa Fields, our current Benefits Administrator, has expanded her responsibilities and is now HR Manager: Benefits, Wellness, and Payroll.
• Cecelia Muir who has moved to a part time position focused on compensation, projects and special assignments.
• Ruby Hammond, a claims representative on the SSO team has been promoted to the Business Director position of our customer service team. She replaces Jerica Jones who has been tapped to head the Medium North team. Jerica in turn replaces Jim McMillen who will be heading up a new team for all Loss Prevention services.

Please join me in congratulating each of these folks and wishing them well in their new roles!

Welcome to the Pinnacol Assurance Alumni Group!

In an ongoing effort to ensure that information is readily available to our valued alumni, we are moving the content of our newsletters to this site. This format has several advantages to alumni including:

• the ability to easily find and see prior information
• the ability to share your thoughts, questions, suggestions, and ideas (hint, hint!) directly via this site
• the ability to get time-sensitive information out very quickly

We hope you enjoy the new format and find it more user-friendly! As always, please let us know of any information you think would be of interest to your fellow alum's as well as ideas and suggestions for what you would like to see on this site.