North Bay Business Journal

Santa Rosa-based Zainer Rinehart Clarke CPAs announced the addition Dale Brown, Bob Holder and Danielle Sandoval, formerly of Brown Holder Alfaro & Co. in St. Helena. …

Tony Bartenetti has been named executive vice president at Sonoma-based Nelson, a move driven by the company’s geographic expansion. …

Mavrik North America of Santa Rosa appointed Kevin Wilkinson to oversee engineering and fabrication operations for its wine making technologies and equipment. …

DH Wine Compliance in Santa Rosa announced the addition of Milli Conover, who will lead the operational reporting department as a reporting specialist, and Alissa De La Riva as a senior compliance specialist. …

Narrow networks are coming to the North Bay.

Blue Shield of California will launch its SaveNet HMO in Marin and Sonoma counties in 2013, forming a narrow network around Novato-based Meritage Medical Network and Sonoma County Primary Care.

Western Health Advantage formally filed plans with the state to be a part of Covered California, the state’s online health exchange that will go live in 2014 as part of the federal health care reform bill, the Affordable Care Act. …

On the federal level, the Obama Administration last week issued a host of new rules and details on how insurers can structure benefits and premiums beginning in 2014. …

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company announced the appointment of Travis Bethune to the position of vice president, distribution management and services leader. …

SANTA ROSA — Roseville-based Adventist Health plans to open new centralized administrative offices in Santa Rosa for North Coast operations by Dec. 3.

Unemployment rates for North Bay counties were largely unchanged in October from the month before, but Sonoma County continued to lead all of California in job growth, helping the entire North Bay grow by 2.5 percent from the previous October, according to state figures released this morning.

The political and legal challenges to federal health reform may finally be settled with the reelection of President Obama and the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act, but, even with that seeming sense of finality, a host of challenges lay ahead for all levels of the industry.

Eleven North Bay restaurants received the industry’s highest rating– the Michelin star — with two Napa Valley restaurants maintaining a three-star rating and nine others earning the one-star rating.

SANTA ROSA — Osseon Therapeutics, Inc. announced staffing changes that include Ron Clough being promoted to chief executive officer in September, as the medical device maker seeks to bolster its presence in Europe, which accounts for 40 percent of its total sales.

Plans to develop a “community choice aggregation” power agency in Sonoma County have advanced over the past few months, with outreach to the region’s residents and municipal governments laying the groundwork for a joint powers authority to govern the so-called “Sonoma Clean Power.”

Tasked by its board of directors to develop the proposal, the Sonoma County Water Agency began work in 2011 to hone the finer details of a renewable energy-focused power agency in the county. Cordel Stillman, deputy chief engineer at the Sonoma County Water Agency, heads the effort.

SANTA ROSA — Nearly 660 staff nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital went on strike Tuesday morning at Sonoma County’s biggest hospital as the St. Joseph Health-owned facility and the union representing the nurses, Staff Nurses’ Association, failed to reach agreement on a number of employment-related issues.

SANTA ROSA — Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa announced that it has secured two anchor tenants for its forthcoming 80,000 square foot medical office building, which will be adjacent to the new $284 million hospital being constructed in northern Santa Rosa.

A battle is brewing between big business and labor in Sonoma County over the prospect of the Board of Supervisors possibly adopting a project labor agreement for construction projects of over $25 million.

Amid an uncertain political climate in Washington, estate tax attorneys are urging clients to plan now, before a bevy of favorable rates expire at the end of this year.

SANTA ROSA — The Medtronic CardioVascular division in Santa Rosa is beefing up its manufacturing operations to turn out more prototypes more quickly, according to endovascular therapies R&D lab manager Joe Wilson.

The average American spends 45 years or 90,000 hours working. She typically spends about half that time — 20 years or more — retired. Yet, planning for retirement is often overlooked or put off until it’s too late to adequately prepare.

SANTA ROSA — St. Joseph Health affiliated-Annadel Medical Group announced today that it is starting two specialty practices while adding 13 new physicians to the group, bringing the total number of providers to 60 across Sonoma County.

You probably know how much revenue or income you produced last month. You probably have a figure in mind for sales over the next few years. But if you’re like most businesses, you’ve never done the exercise to determine your current capacity to reach these targets.

SEBASTOPOL — The Palm Drive Health Care District today unanimously voted to approve Tom Harlan as Palm Drive Hospital’s new chief executive officer, it’s 10th in five years.

SANTA ROSA — It surprised backers of the planned runway expansion at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport when federal wildlife regulators earlier this year said the presence of an endangered flower in the project area might be assumed though not found specifically there in surveys, potentially needing more conservation measures estimated to boost the job cost by at least $10 million and delay it a year.

Western Health Advantage has filed for an expansion of its business into Marin and Sonoma counties, where it hopes to partner with the Marin-Sonoma IPA and much of the region’s hospitals in offering a new health plan for employers and individuals