Company news

Bloomington-based CarDon & Associates Inc. is facing opposition to its plan to rezone more than 25 acres to build a senior living campus in Zionsville. Residents from neighborhoods near the proposed campus packed Town Hall on Jan. 20 to voice their opposition to the project, which they say will cause traffic problems and is too large for the area. The Zionsville Plan Commission is set to consider CarDon’s request on Feb. 17. Indianapolis attorney Matt Price, who is representing CarDon, said the company has adjusted its plans to address residents’ concerns: it reduced the size of an assisted-living building from three to two stories and trimmed the number of units from 330 to 274 (40 assisted living, 84 independent living and 104 skilled nursing units, in addition to 46 cottages).

Hoosiers’ enrollment in health plans sold on the Obamacare exchange was tracking expectations heading into the close of the open enrollment period on Sunday. After 132,000 Hoosiers selected an Obmacare plan for 2014, the nine insurers that signed up to compete on the exchange this year predicted they would add 70,000 to 75,000 new customers for 2015. That would put total 2015 enrollment between 200,000 and 210,000. Enrollment in Indiana stood at 198,635 on Feb. 11, according to the most recent figures released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One of the newcomers to the Indiana exchange this year, Ohio-based CareSource Inc., has far outstripped even its own projections for enrollment. As of Feb. 12, CareSource had 21,000 exchange customers in Indiana. That was more than double the 10,000 it expected right before enrollment began in November. And it was more than five times as much as it projected last May, when it first filed paperwork to sell on the exchange. CareSource’s premiums were the lowest available this year—even lower than those offered by Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health said it will not construct a new hospital on its current location in the heart of Bloomington, after a study concluded it was not feasible, according to Indiana Public Media. The hospital’s board is considering moving locations, likely to a property the hospital has already purchased just north of the city. However, no decisions have been finalized, as the IU Health board has yet to approve funding for a new hospital. If the Bloomington hospital does move, IU Health officials say they would need to find an alternative use for the land.

An academic-industry collaboration spearheaded by the Indiana University School of Medicine handed out more than $1.9 million to researchers focused on autoimmune disease treatments. The first round of grants from the Strategic Pharma-Academic Research Consortium for Translational Medicine will fund research work at IU, Northwestern, Ohio State and Washington University in St. Louis focused on Crohn’s disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis and two connective tissue disorders, dermatomyositis and scleroderma. Funding for the awards came from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Inc. The consortium is led by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, which, in addition to IU, includes Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.