U.S. spending on prescription drugs soared last year, driven up primarily by costly breakthrough medicines, manufacturer price hikes and a surge from millions of people newly insured due to the Affordable Care Act.
A growing number of hospitals locally and nationally hiring scribes to help doctors fill out electronic medical records, which were billed as a time-saver over paper charts.
AIT Labs and its former executives have already incurred nearly $5 million defending themselves against charges by the U.S. Department of Labor that AIT founder Michael Evans sold the company to its employees in 2009 at an inflated price.
By subtly threatening the loss of patients via a new “reference lab network,” the Indianapolis-based health insurer has persuaded 63 Indiana hospitals to slash their prices for blood and tissue testing by as much as 80 percent—beyond the discounts Anthem had already negotiated with them.
Instead of building new medical office buildings, cost-conscious Indianapolis-area hospital systems have the past few years opted for space in existing buildings.
The 4,200-square-foot space, which includes billiards, foosball, a video game wall, an arts and crafts area and even a recording studio, is the nation's 11th and largest hospital Child Life Zone.
Hospitals and doctors still aren’t seeing a wave of new patients because rising deductibles in patients' health plans are continuing to delay medical procedures, even though their job prospects are better than they’ve been in years.
The American Lung Association says Indiana's health insurance marketplace is failing to provide all the coverage it should to help people quit smoking under President Barack Obama's health care law.
Nurses in Indiana are underpaid, relative to their peers nationally. They are not overworked from a sheer number of hours, but the demands of hospitals nurses have spiked recently, reducing nurses’ margin for caring for patients with a human touch. For a business that competes on service and, increasingly, on price, those are big problems.
Sparking the movement is anticipation of employers’ dropping their group health plans, thereby forcing workers onto Obamacare exchanges in search of coverage.
The number of health care providers contracted with the Medicaid managed care plans and Healthy Indiana Patients surged 17 percent in just seven weeks after the federal government approved Gov. Mike Pence’s expansion of the Healthy Indiana Plan on Jan. 27.
“Shared value” approach directs resources to help people in ways that could build the drugmaker’s business.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer raised pay for its executives, including CEO Joe Swedish, at a much slower pace than the 38-percent return it generated for shareholders last year.
The fired nurse, Lacie Little, was one of two nurses quoted in an IBJ story that broke the news of the attempt to organize a nurse union at IU Health’s downtown hospitals. The union working with the IU Health nurses has filed an unfair labor practices charge.
The state Senate voted 36-12 Tuesday to give final approval to the bill, sending it to Gov. Mike Pence.
IU Health had one of its most profitable years ever in 2014, as it cut staff, boosted its physician office visits and improved bill collections. But it is still hoarding cash to be ready for future cuts in reimbursement as well as future building projects.
The main driver of colleges getting out of the insurance business is a provision in the Affordable Care Act that prevents students from using premium tax subsidies to purchase insurance from their college or university.
After 15 years on the air, "Sound Medicine" will broadcast its last new episode on April 26. The Indiana University School of Medicine, the show's primary funder, wants to change the direction of its marketing.
Think we’re almost done with changes from Obamacare? Think again. Things won’t settle down any sooner than 2017, and they could actually get even wilder after that.
Nurses at Indiana University Health’s downtown hospitals are moving quickly to form a union in a bid they say is designed to improve their own working conditions and pay and to improve care for patients.
