Company news

WellPoint Inc. is one of several health insurers weighing bids as high as $2 billion for XLHealth Corp., a provider of managed care for chronically ill Medicare members, according to Bloomberg News. According to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg, the bids for XLHealth may value the company in a rage from $1.5 billion to $2 billion. A deal may be announced in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported. Indianapolis-based WellPoint and its peers have made a point of expanding their services to beneficiaries of the federal Medicare program, which is expected to grow rapidly thanks to aging baby boomers. By contrast, WellPoint expects its bread-and-butter employer business to stagnate soon. In June, WellPoint purchased California-based CareMore Health Group, which serves Medicare patients. XLHealth, started in 1997, provides managed care services for Medicare patients with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions. It has 111,000 members in Medicare products, including the Part D drug plan and the Advantage plan for physician fees and hospital charges.

West Lafayette-based Medtric Biotech LLC won $65,000 in cash and services at the Purdue University Life Sciences Business Plan Competition for its winning presentation on its innovative wound-care technology. Medtric’s technology uses "nanobubbles" in its antimicrobial process for destroying bacteria to help prevent and treat infected wounds. Two other West Lafayette companies—BioRegeneration Technologies and QuantIon Technologies Inc.—placed third and fourth, respectively. The runner-up company was OneBreath, of Palo Alto, Calif., which is developing a simpler platform to provide mechanical ventilation for those with respiratory problems from flu or other trauma.

Indianapolis-based Better Healthcare for Indiana is convening community leaders to improve health and health care in cities around Indiana. The not-for-profit group’s third annual “All Healthcare is Local” conference will take place on Nov. 16 at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. Leaders from Terre Haute, Columbus, Kokomo and Evansville will all give presentations on the efforts in their communities. Keith Reissaus, vice president of community and work force initiatives at Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, will give the lunchtime talk. The keynote speech, titled “Healthy Communities Mean Lower Costs,”  will be delivered by Tyler Norris, president of Community Initiatives Inc. in Boulder, Colo., and a senior adviser to the California-based health insurer and medical provider Kaiser Permanente.

In an early example of enforced rebates, Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. is one of 11 health insurers ordered by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to refund $114.5 million to policyholders, according to Bloomberg News. That’s because the insurers failed to spend at least 82 cents of each premium dollar on health care as required by the state. A mandate to spend a certain amount on medical care also is a federal requirement under the 2010 U.S. health reform law. WellPoint’s Empire BlueCross BlueShield was ordered to pay $61.1 million, which is the largest rebate demanded from insurers in New York and nearly three times as much as the second-largest rebate. WellPoint’s Empire payments represent about 3 percent of its total premium revenue for insurance products subject to these laws, Kristin Binns, a WellPoint spokeswoman, told Bloomberg. “As in previous years, and consistent with New York law, if the amount Empire pays for medical claims is unexpectedly low, Empire pays refunds to its customers,” she said.

Biomedical research at the Indiana University School of Medicine and its partner hospitals pumped $370 million into Indiana's economy in 2009, according to a new study detailed by the Associated Press. The study by the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates the medical school pumped an estimated $142.5 million into the economy directly through federal and state-funded research. That research generated another $228 million in indirect economic activity. It also estimates the Indianapolis medical school's research supported about 2,470 jobs in Indiana in 2009. The report doesn't include economic activity of businesses that commercialize biomedical discoveries made by IU researchers.