Clinton and Gore have both described these outcries as lacking merit, with Gore going so far as to call for Federal Trade Commission probes into the large oil companies responsible for distributing the highly priced gasoline.

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Distributing apps that did the same work significantly reduced the number of calls into the call center, freeing up those employees to deal with customers or process insurance claims, Aflac said.

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One potential problem brought up on the call: Many other players in the pharmaceutical benefits field are also in the higher-margin business of distributing injectable drugs as well as pills.

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In a recent conference call Michael Campbell, Regal's chief executive, justified the dividends as "the most efficient means of distributing value, " adding that his balance sheet remained prudently capitalized.

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"I don't call him, he calls me, " says Elliot Maisel, an Alabama booster and the chief executive of Gulf Distributing Holdings, a beer wholesaler in Mobile.

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