‘Buy local’ law to be tweaked
New requirement that local governments hire local bidders came under fire.
New requirement that local governments hire local bidders came under fire.
State municipal-bond banks in Indiana, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire plan to issue about $190 million in debt this week, as smaller communities seek to take advantage of 10-year interest rates near a six-week low.
A real estate brokerage picked by the city to spearhead redevelopment of a prime Mass Ave parcel occupied by the Indianapolis Fire Department stands to collect a million-dollar-plus payday if it closes the deal.
Angie’s List Inc. shares rose as much as 44 percent in their trading debut Thursday after the company raised $114 million Wednesday in its initial public offering. The stock closed the trading day up more than 25 percent, at $16.26 per share, after rising as high as $18.75 early in the morning.
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.
XL Health specializes in chronically ill Medicare members, could help WellPoint profits as baby boomers age.
Offers for XLHealth, a provider of managed care for chronically ill Medicare members, may value the company at $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
A Republican Party tally gives the GOP a 61-54 majority over Democrats among the state's mayor's offices — a shift from a 68-48 Democratic lead.
Republican Duke Bennett was elected for a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Fred Nation, an Indianapolis Motor Speedway executive.
In a Monday SEC filing, the company said it lost $43.2 million through the first nine months of 2011, pushing total losses since 2006 to $160.6 million. Angie’s List filed in August to go public.
Indiana on Tuesday awarded a $13.9 million contact to repair a closed Ohio River bridge linking southern Indiana and northern Kentucky to a Louisville-based company that promised to have the nearly 50-year-old span reopened by early March.
The city, along with the nearby Children's Museum of Indianapolis, is spearheading redevelopment of the abandoned property where demolition began Monday. Bids to build mixed-income housing will be sought in the coming months.
The Whitsett Group LLC’s plans call for a $22 million project that would include nearly 140 apartments and a retail component on the property where Keystone Towers stood. The company submitted the lone bid to the city to redevelop the site.
Aecom, a global firm that also is one of the companies rebuilding the World Trade Center site in New York City, designed the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector, the linchpin of a tunnel system the city will build to handle sewage overflows during rain storms.
The investment from Allos Ventures in Carmel and MK Capital in Northbrook, Ill., will help the company expand into more cities. BidPal uses wireless handheld devices to automate charitable auction bidding.
Money and experience have flowed to a number of firms from Software Artistry executives.
Landstory, Joann Green’s landscape architecture firm, is a snug four-person company that has designed exterior spaces for some major Indianapolis projects, such as the JW Marriott, Lucas Oil Stadium and Indiana University’s Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.
The buyers of former IPS School 64 stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars if they manage to flip the property they bought for just $20,000.
The next four years could be rough for makers of medical devices and orthopedic implants, including Bloomington-based Cook Medical Inc. and Warsaw-based Zimmer Holding Inc. and Biomet Inc.—and not because of the 2010 health reform law.
A new state law that could add to the cost of public works projects didn’t impact one of Indianapolis’ most sizable bids this year.