Risk Management Pools continue transition, add two

Two new faces joined the Association's staff in February as the Risk Management Pools continued to build resources since restructuring staff and bringing Loss Control and Underwriting and Administration services in-house in January.

Benefits Program Specialist Jennifer Ketner will be traveling the state and serving as a resource on the County Health Plan, while Risk Control Specialist Stuart Darden will assist with safety management training and programs, primarily in Piedmont counties.

Ketner came to the Association on Feb. 9 with a working knowledge of the services that the pools offer, having worked through CIGNA to grow the CAPE (Carolina Access for Public Entities) healthcare provider network. The NCACC owns CAPE, which supplements the County Health Plan's primary network – the CIGNA Open Access Plus network.

Ketner served with CIGNA for 15 years, and she said that while she wasn't unhappy with her role, the opportunity with the Association's pools was too good to pass up.

"The Association offered me an opportunity to grow professionally and to expand on my knowledge of group benefits," she said. "I'm going out and doing hands-on work with our members to meet their employees' healthcare needs."

"It has been very exciting and I learn something new almost every hour of the day, especially with the meetings we've been having since I started."

During her first week on the job, Ketner participated in a Risk Management Pools Board of Trustees retreat, during which the board established a new mission statement and set short- and long-range goals for the pools.

In one of the exercises, participants were asked to help put together a timeline for the pools since their inception in the early 1980s.

"I sort of got a history lesson," she said, and added that interacting with and establishing relationships with board members at the retreat helped to ease her transition to the Association.

Ketner lives in Onslow County. She can be reached at (919) 271-8699 or jennifer.ketner@ncacc.org.

Darden came on board with the pools a week earlier on Feb. 2, bringing 20 years of experience in the safety and risk management industry. He hit the ground running, meeting with all but one of the Liability & Property and Workers' Compensation pools' member entities in his Mid-Region territory in his first month.

Like Ketner, Darden is a CIGNA veteran. In his 11 years with CIGNA he served as a municipal specialist, primarily in North Carolina, and has for the past five years worked on safety issues primarily for construction and utility contractors.

He said the position with the pools also offers an opportunity for professional growth, and that working with local governments presents a unique challenge.

"I used to work with municipalities at a former employer and I enjoyed the variety that you encounter there," he said. "Rather than working with one specific set of exposures on a daily basis, when you work with counties you run into everything from swimming pools in the county parks and recreation department, to the county jail. There's a wide variety of exposures, which to me is much more interesting."

His focus on safety is a benefit to member counties and county entities that may not have the resources to dedicate staff to risk management on a full-time basis.

"As a general rule, private industry has more money to do things," he said. "I'm going to have to help the counties be creative in solving problems so that it actually saves them money. That is the end game."

Darden earned a designation as a Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS) through the National Fire Protection Association in 2001 but must become recertified – something he plans to do soon.

Darden lives in Cabarrus County. He can be contacted at (980) 253-0132 or stuart.darden@ncacc.org.

Loss Control and Underwriting and Administration services were previously provided by Marsh. Risk Management Director Lester Nixon has estimated that, in the second year and in each year thereafter, bringing those services in-house will save the Pools $1.2 million annually.