Health Care & Life Sciences
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Pence seeks meeting with Obama on Medicaid plan
Pence asked Obama for the meeting in a letter Thursday, suggesting it could occur while Obama is in southwestern Indiana on Friday to tour a steel processing company to mark Manufacturing Day.
WellPoint unit, hospital group hit impasse on contract
Contract talks broke down Wednesday between Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and a network of five hospitals and other facilities, leaving tens of thousands of patients facing higher health insurance costs.
Lilly to end development of lupus drug after trial failure
Tabalumab was expected to generate about $250 million to $300 million a year in sales in several years.
Altemeyer: Buildings, facilities play role in fighting ‘superbugs’
Design can help thwart antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Kaelin: Affordable Care Act pushes employers to keep insurance
Health benefits are still demanded by the most-valued workers.
Walker: Still a long way to go to control health care costs
Gains are needed on top of significant streamlining already in place.
Employer clinics are latest health care disruption
The clinics could rearrange the system by forcing price quotes and demanding that providers follow-through.
U.S. judge blocks Obamacare tax rule for non-exchange states
An Oklahoma federal judge dealt a blow to President Barack Obama’s health-care law, invalidating IRS rules aimed at making policies affordable for consumers around the country.
Health Care & Benefits Power Breakfast transcript
Indianapolis Business Journal gathered leaders in the state's health care and benefits sector for a Power Breakfast panel discussion Sept. 26. The panel discussed disruption of employer clinics, health care spending and more.
If past is prologue, HMOs will make a comeback in Indiana
WellPoint created an HMO joint venture with seven big hospitals in Los Angeles. Could it do something similar here? Quite possibly.
Endocyte faces big decisions with new cancer drug
Endocyte’s lead drug showed big impact on lung cancer patients, but some analysts think the company should scrap it for a newer drug that is more powerful.
Company news
Major Health Partners will construct an $89 million hospital on the north edge of Shelbyville, after nearly a decade of shifting services to that location. According to the Shelbyville News, Major’s board voted Sept. 22 to build a 300,000-square-foot facility in the Intelliplex technology park along Interstate 74 and move from downtown Shelbyville. Construction on the project could begin as early as next month and take about two years to complete. Major first revealed detailed plans for the hospital six weeks ago, but the project could not go forward until the board’s 6-0 vote. The hospital will include 56 beds, all in private rooms, and 38 outpatient observation beds. Major’s current hospital has 72 beds in mostly semi-private rooms. When completed, the new complex will also have four operating rooms and house 57 physicians and a staff of about 930.
Researchers at Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine have received a $3.7 million grant to study how blueberries reduce bone loss in postmenopausal women. The five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine will pay for researchers to conduct human trials aimed at finding the most effective varieties and dosage levels of blueberriers for reducing bone loss. “This is one of the most compelling avenues to pursue in natural products research because blueberries would be a new alternative to osteoporosis drugs and their side effects,” said Connie Weaver, the head of Purdue’s department of nutrition science and one of the grant recipients.
Bernard Health, a health benefits brokerage firm based in Tennessee, opened its second retail store in Indianapolis last week. The 1,270-square-foot store is downtown on Pennsylvania Street, just north of Washington Street. Bernard, which now employs seven here in Indianapolis, opened its first local retail store in the Nora neighborhood in 2012 and now has 12 stores nationwide. For a fee, Bernard helps individuals and small businesses evaluate and purchase health benefits. It is one of several new models being tried out by benefits brokers in Indiana to adapt to new rules and opportunities under Obamacare.
The Indiana University School of Medicine received gifts totaling $1 million on the 40th anniversary of Dr. Larry Einhorn’s discovery of a drug combination therapy that nearly cured testicular cancer. In September 1974, Einhorn, a professor at the IU medical school, first tested the cancer drug cisplatin with two other cancer drugs—a combination that boosted survival rates from the cancer from about 20 percent to 95 percent. According to the medical school, 300,000 patients have survived testicular cancer after receiving the drug therapy Einhorn discovered. The most famous is Lance Armstrong, the cycling champion stripped of his victories after admitting to doping. The gifts will help launch a gene sequencing program among survivors so future patients can be given treatments that reduce side effects and complications. Half the donated money came from A. Farhad Moshiri of Monaco, who previously donated $2 million to IU. Another $300,000 will come from the children of local real estate magnate Sidney Eskenazi and his wife, Lois.
IU Health CFO: 3 years to go in difficult transition
In the past two years, IU Health has laid off 935 people, halted construction of a major bed tower, sold off health clinics and decided to close its proton-therapy center. But there are three more years of changes to come, said CFO Ryan Kitchell.
Experts: Telemedicine can bridge mental health gap
Modern technology offers a way to deliver much-needed mental health care to rural sections of Indiana where little or none is available, experts told a legislative study committee Thursday.
The Interview Issue: Ron Ellis
Ron Ellis has been CEO of the drug discovery firm Endocyte Inc. since 1996. When he moved to West Lafayette to take the job, he wouldn’t let his wife paint the interior of their new house—for fear he’d be looking for a new job soon. Endocyte has yet to generate any revenue.
The pain (and pleasure) that comes from paying more of our health care bills
Paying off medical debts over time is now a common experience for families with health insurance and becoming more so. And that is inducing big changes in the health care marketplace.
Advocates seek action on Indiana Medicaid plan
Health care advocates and industry lobbyists are asking federal officials for speedy approval of Indiana's request for a Medicaid expansion.
Rise in bed sores pushes state medical errors to new high
Overall, 111 medical errors were reported in 2013, the biggest number in any year since the state began reporting them in 2006.
Major Health to put new $89 million hospital along I-74
Major Health Partners will construct the new hospital on the north edge of Shelbyville, after nearly a decade of shifting services to that location. Construction could begin next month.