Answer Watertown relocates office

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Answer Watertown has relocated its office to a 1,600-square-foot space at 522-A Bradley St. in the Jefferson County community.

Answer Watertown is a call center that is part of AnswerUSA Group, a division of Auburn–based Finger Lakes Business Services, Inc. (FLBS).

The office move was “necessary” to provide additional office space to support an increased number of staff and conference areas, AnswerUSA said in a news release issued Monday.

The Watertown office started operations in its new space on Feb. 16, the company said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry.

It previously operated in an 850-square-foot space at 44 Public Square in Watertown, a space located above S.T.A.T. Communications, Inc., from which FLBS had acquired the answering-service portion of the business in 2014.

Crews renovated the space to accommodate the needs of an answering service. The work included “mandatory” separation of the operators’ room from other areas.

The moving process involved “company-wide preparation” to “guarantee continuity of service for all clients,” the company said.

“We’re pleased with our decision to make this move. It’s meeting the need of our Watertown staff. The new space offers much needed quality space as we continue to expand our workforce,” Gardner McLean, president of FLBS, said in the company’s news release. “We’ll be better equipped to attract new employees, provide space for visitors and staff from our other sites and to host client meetings, without disrupting our operators’ room. Separation of staff handling our clients’ calls is a requirement for compliance with HIPAA/HITECH standards.”

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

HITECH is the acronym for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, legislation that helped stimulate the adoption of electronic health records. HITECH was part of the federal economic-stimulus legislation of 2009.

Besides the Watertown office, the AnswerUSA division also includes offices in Auburn, Syracuse, and Tampa, Florida.

FLBS employs about 70 workers, including eight people in the Watertown office. The company anticipates adding two more people to the office this year.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com