From health care to paintballs, company a moving target

Pity the shareholders of Access Health Alternatives Inc.

Since 1999, the Orlando company has performed a 10-for-1 reverse stock split, been tossed off the over-the-counter bulletin board (later reinstated), gotten punished by Maine securities regulators, lost its chief operating officer (last name: Miracle), and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As of Aug. 31 it had just $24 cash on hand.

And those were the good ol' days. Last week, the company unveiled a new location, new board of directors, new business plan and yet another reverse stock split -- this time, 100 to 1.

As a result, stock symbol "AHAI" no longer represents the founders of a network of alternative medical centers but rather, thanks to a court-approved reorganization plan, a Pinellas Park manufacturer of paintballs.

"I guess one of the investors that put a ton of money in the (health) company also owns a paintball company," says Donald Metchick, a former Access Health officer, shareholder and, he says, creditor. "Of course, none of (the shareholders) are happy."

The new management is far more optimistic. A company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission describes paintball -- a war game where opponents shoot gel-covered balls of paint at one another to simulate gunshot wounds -- as one of the world's fastest-growing "extreme" sports.

Board member and shareholder Joseph Camillo says the Pinellas Park factory employs 25 and churns out balls at the rate of hundreds of millions per year.

And Camillo says he's not worried about an ongoing, three-year investigation by Florida securities regulators of Access Health's fundraising methods. The bankruptcy reorganization should wipe that out, he says.

But if Access Health shareholders don't want to stick around any longer, they can always sink their money into another venture that Camillo and his partners have registered with the SEC: RTG Ventures Inc., which imports crawfish from Indonesia.

As of June 30, the company had $921 cash on hand.

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