Derek Bang, practice leader of health care advisory services at the Crowe Horwath accounting firm in Indianapolis, spent a week in March studying health care in the United Kingdom, especially its universal health care program. He was surprised by the “daily barrage of criticism” he heard about the National Health Service, but also found that the United Kingdom and United States face very similar issues when it comes to constraining growth in health care costs.
WellPoint Inc. and other U.S. health insurers will have to provide justification for any increases to customers’ premiums of more than 10 percent next year, according to federal regulations published Tuesday.
St. Francis, which operates three Indianapolis-area hospitals, and WellPoint, the giant health insurer, announced this month that they have agreed to jointly form an accountable care organization.
Health reform entrepreneurship could brand Indiana as productive, healthy place for employers to operate.
Interest in primary care has fallen off markedly due partly to relatively low pay.
Indianapolis-area hospitals have negotiated reimbursement rates with private health insurers that are two and three times higher than those paid by the federal Medicare program, suggesting the hospitals have the upper hand over insurers, according to a new study.
Les Zwirn, executive director of Better Healthcare for Indiana, talked about his group’s progress on promoting community collaborations to improve health and reduce the cost of care in cities around Indiana. BHI is hosting its third health care summit of Indiana community leaders today at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.
A study at the Center for Health Policy at IUPUI found that 66 cents of every dollar the state spends on services related to substance abuse goes toward health care while only 1 cent goes toward prevention or intervention.
A new estimate has lowered the expected cost of the federal health care overhaul to Indiana’s state government to perhaps $2.6 billion over the next decade.
Health insurers won fairly broad leeway under key rules suggested by state insurance commissioners that will govern what kinds of expenses count toward meeting a new federal threshold to spend at least 80 percent of premiums dollars on medical care.
The failure by state regulators to decide how much insurers must spend on patient care is scaring investors from health-plan stocks and complicating insurance company decisions.
Indianapolis-area hospitals spent billions on construction in the past decade and increasingly tried to poach patients from one another’s territories. Yet last year—one of the worst economically in recent history—21 of 26 hospitals still were able to show operating profits.
The bill has the potential to affect more than 250,000 Indiana workers in up to 24 categories of licensed professionals, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, chiropractors, hypnotists, dietitians and even veterinarians.
It’s been a tough year for major health insurers, but Barron’s magazine predicts a big comeback for Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and its rival UnitedHealth Group.
Angie’s List has partnered with Tennessee-based Healthcare Blue Book to give its members price information before they receive medical care.
Ben Bernanke may be worried about deflation in the economy, but there’s certainly no chance of it in health care and
insurance. Employers’ health plan premiums surged another 8 percent this year, according to results from a massive survey
by Indianapolis-based United Benefit Advisors.
Changes in reimbursement could fuel market for WoundVision’s product.
The health care industry is responding to reforms that will pay doctors bonuses if they provide high-quality care and save
Medicare money.
WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and three other health insurers, criticized by Democrats during the health care reform
debate, are seeking to influence how the new law will be implemented, and possibly change it, by campaigning for supportive
congressional candidates.
Dr. Ben Park joined Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1993 to start a large group of primary care physicians who would
institute a concept called managed care. Now American Health Network is
well-positioned to take advantage of the new version of managed care, called accountable care.
