U.S. health insurers are “moving towards an oligopoly,” a process that this year’s health-care overhaul
will accelerate, the investor-relations chief at WellPoint Inc. said Thursday.
One key change would grant patents to the first inventor to file an application, not the first who can prove to have made
the invention first.
McCready and Keene Inc. is the fifth-largest employee benefits firm in the Indianapolis area. It employs 95 people nationally, 82 of them in Indianapolis, according to IBJ research.
Hospitals continued to be a stable and slightly growing source of jobs and wages in Indiana—for better and for worse.
The sector paid $7.3 billion to 127,000 Hoosiers in 2008, according to the latest data from the American Hospital Association.
Physician offices will begin receiving payments from the Medicare that are 21.3-percent below
what they’ve been getting so far this year. Doctors still expect Congress to reverse the payment cuts, but physicians
and the Medicare program will have to reprocess claims, costing both extra money.
Roche Holding AG’s decision to postpone its experimental diabetes drug is helping boost shares in Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Inc. and drug partner Eli Lilly and Co.
The giant drugmaker is in the process of trimming 35 percent—or about 19 people—from its 55-person communications
staff. Most of that staff is based in Indianapolis.
Wellpoint has stuck to the $6-per-share forecast since January even after reporting that first-quarter net income jumped 51
percent, easily topping Wall Street expectations.
Health care, plastics, other fundamental consumer needs kept some companies on upswings.
U.S. regulators may phase in requirements on how much health insurers spend on medical care to avoid pushing plans out of
the market for people who buy their own coverage, WellPoint Inc.’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.
Dan Evans, president and CEO of Clarian Health, details his cure for losing sight of day-to-day operations, how
he gauges his effectiveness, and two bits of crucial advice.
The Indianapolis-based Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation is contributing $20 million to support IUPUI’s effort to open
a school of public health.
One in five medical claims is processed inaccurately by commercial health insurers—and a unit of Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. does even worse—often leaving physicians shortchanged, according to the nation's largest doctor's
group.
WellPoint plans to build a network of primary care doctors and specialists who will be available any time to consult with
patients.
Despite losses, company sees growth in its DailyMed pharmacy services, which packages the right dosages of prescriptions to
make it easier for patients to follow their regimens.
Angie’s List physician rating service has been controversial since it started in 2008. But an academic journal article
is now telling the docs to relax. Nearly 90 percent of patient comments on sites like Angie’s List are positive.
WellPoint may face the most threat from more aggressive reviews. The Indianapolis insurer is the leader in small-business
and individual policies, areas that have seen the biggest increases in recent years.
Indianapolis-based MHP Pharmacy’s facility on North Meridian Street will close in August as a result of the company’s purchase
by In Touch Pharmaceuticals in Valparaiso.
Eli Lilly and Co. and Merck KGaA drug failed to slow tumors in a study designed to expand the medicine’s use to patients whose
disease is in an earlier stage.
The Indianapolis-based insurer’s first-quarter spending is 16 percent more than it spent in the same quarter last year and
in the fourth quarter of 2009.
