A deal in which St. Vincent Health would buy or lease Bedford’s Dunn Memorial Hospital is in the final stages, according
to the Times-Mail of Bedford. The hospital board held two hours of closed-door talks on May 26, and one board member
predicted a decision within days.
The much-maligned health care bill provides a huge opportunity for local communities to improve the health of their citizens
and for local health care providers to win bonus payments from federal health insurance programs. That's the message Len
Nichols, a Beltway veteran and health policy expert, will bring to attendees at the All Healthcare is Local conference today.
In 2008, Eli Lilly and Co. asked drug regulators to change the label on Alimta so Lilly could no longer promote it as a treatment
for all patients suffering from non-small-cell lung cancer, but for only about 70 percent of the patients. Since then, sales
of the drug have accelerated, growing a whopping 48 percent last year.
A maker of medical imaging equipment that recently moved its headquarters to Fishers has grand plans to reach $1 billion in
sales and build a multimillion-dollar cyclotron facility in five years. But history shows Positron Corp. has been far better
at losing money than making it.
In the company's latest response to withering criticism of its breast-cancer policies, WellPoint Inc. said it will pay
for any breast cancer patient to stay two days in a hospital after surgery.
Now that health reform is law, a local not-for-profit group, Better Healthcare for Indiana, wants to help Indiana community
leaders use the law to slow runaway medical spending while improving the health of their citizens.
WellPoint Inc.'s announcement of comparative effectiveness research guidelines last week marks a new era for U.S. drugmakers.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer will use studies that compare the effectiveness of one drug against another as a complement
to typical clinical trial research that compares a drug against a placebo sugar pill.
Don Stumpp, manager of payer contracting at Indianapolis-based physician group American Health Network and president of the Indiana Medical Group Management Association, discussed the impact of the health care reform law on primary care physicians as well as the near-constant threat of a sharp cut in Medicare reimbursement.
Dr. Rob Stone wants the giant health insurer to convert to not-for-profit status and put him, an advocate of national health
insurance, on the company’s board.
If Clarian Health CEO Dan Evans were investing in health care real estate, he’d make bets in three new things: smaller,
denser clinics with lots of computer equipment to do telemedicine; medical office buildings populated by physician assistants;
and nursing homes with a strong relationship with a hospital.
Influential investor sold off all 1.3 million shares in the Indianapolis-based health insurer during the first quarter.
Board member William “Bucky” Bush, uncle of former President George W. Bush, appeared OK after a shortened meeting in which
shareholders approved
a “say-on-pay” proposal. Protesters gathered outside WellPoint’s headquarters after the meeting.
The lawsuits, filed in Marion Superior Court, say board members have breached fiduciary duties by making no recommendation
on deal that, they say, will enrich Chairman Jeff Smulyan at the expense of minority shareholders.
CNO Financial Group Inc., known as Conseco Inc. until May 11, has become almost the polar opposite of what it was under flashy co-founder
Steve Hilbert. Instead of high-octane growth driven by merger deals, CNO Financial has returned to profitability
by selling low-dollar products and emphasizing low-cost operations.
Marian University has renamed its school of business after Clark H. Byrum, president of Indianapolis-based The Key Corp.,
who made a significant gift to the university this month.
Indianapolis-based CountryMark, a co-op that provides fuel to farmers, has acquired 600 oil wells and other assets in the
Illinois basin.
Joe Guzman is a co-founder of Indianapolis-based Ascend USA, the new trade adopted after Guzman merged his
benefits brokerage, Benefits Strategies Inc., with benefits business Steven Goodin. The eight-person firm expects to hire
as many 15 new employees in the next year. Those workers will help Ascend diversify from health benefits into brokering commercial
insurance products.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week pushed its self-declared deadline for rendering an approval decision on the
drug Bydureon to Oct. 22. The previous deadline was in March.
As physician mergers increase in Indianapolis, a new study has determined that quality at large, multispecialty practices is at
least 5 percent higher and costs are 3.6 percent lower than at small group practices.
Carmel-based life and health insurer is now CNO Financial Group Inc. to reflect what company officers call a “transformation”
of the once-troubled firm.
