SMITH: Small steps, big results: gauging design’s impact
Metrics make a difference in health care facilities.
Health Care Reform
Articles
Few employers say they’ll drop health coverage
Few employers in Indiana say they’re likely to drop health benefits after state insurance exchanges are formed in 2014, according to a new survey by the health benefits firm Mercer.
Q&A
As an Eli Lilly and Co. lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Jay Bonitt is hoping the Congressional “super committee” charged with trimming the federal budget doesn’t turn to the Medicare prescription drug program, known as Part D, to do so. Bonitt, Lilly's vice president of federal affairs, said the program is under budget and helps spur drugmakers to further innovation.
Kaiser: Lack of competition endemic
In a new study, Indiana ranked as the 19th least-competitive state for individual health insurance and the 27th least-competitive for small-employer health insurance.
Insurance mandate lacks teeth, WellPoint CFO says
As constitutional challenges to the health reform law’s mandate to buy insurance advance, WellPoint Inc.’s chief financial officer reiterated that the company does not object to the mandate, just to its lack of penalties.
Hospitals scrambling to buy nursing homes
The hospitals owned by Boone and Hamilton counties are following the lead of Indianapolis-based Wishard Health Services and its parent organization by acquiring far-flung nursing homes, hoping the strategy proves as lucrative.
Best and worst of times for new docs
Medical residents are getting more job offers than before, yet greater numbers of them say if they had it to do over again, they would not go to medical school.
IU Health, Howard Regional call off merger talks
The integration of the two not-for-profit hospital systems, approved by Howard Regional's board in late May, is now dead, the two hospitals announced Monday.
Private exchange could boost WellPoint profits
WellPoint Inc.’s participation in buying a majority stake of the private health insurance exchange operator Bloom Health could help it get back to its roots as a health insurer—and make a bit more money in the process.
PANEL: Reforms to rapidly reshape health care
Reform-induced changes dominate health care panel of health care experts convened by Indianapolis Business Journal.
Health care law definition of ‘affordable’ vague
Researchers at IU and Cornell say that how the federal government defines "affordable" could leave millions of dependents of low and moderate income workers without reasonably priced insurance.
Accountable care ‘savior’ of doc groups
Indianapolis’ largest independent physician group, American Health Network, doesn’t want to sell to a hospital, but its CEO hopes it can hold on until accountable care kicks in.
Firm tries again with personal health records
Even though Google Inc. has given up on the business of electronic personal health records, Fort Wayne-based NoMoreClipboard.com is launching a new service it thinks will crack open the market.
WellPoint buying private health insurance exchange
The deal helps WellPoint compete for employers with the U.S. state-run marketplaces set to open in 2014 under President Obama’s health-care overhaul.
Will ACOs really get off the ground?
The hype over accountable care organizations—something every major hospital in Indianapolis is moving to become—is increasingly being laced with skepticism as the economics behind the idea get more scrutiny.
Gloomy outlook for medical device makers
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.
Roche hopes to prosper from austerity
Executives at Roche Diagnostics expect the wave of austerity measures being taken by western governments—including the United States—to as much as double its sales of fluid- and DNA-based tests in the next three years.
Q&A
Angela Smith, an attorney for hospitals and physicians at Indianapolis-based Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman P.C., spoke about Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, a federal initiative that will attempt to shift health care payments from the fee-for-service model to one based on health outcomes. On July 1, hospitals began being scored on their performance in 13 categories, including processes, patient outcomes and patient satisfaction surveys. How hospitals score could boost or diminish all their Medicare payments by as much as 1 percent, beginning in October 2012.
Study: Hospital-doc hookups raising costs
Indianapolis doctor tell researchers that hospitals are paying more than $1 million a year to employ some cardiologists.
WellPoint spent $1.3M on federal lobbying in 2nd quarter
WellPoint lobbied on issues tied to the overhaul's implementation and regulations for accountable care organizations, which are networks of hospitals, doctors, rehabilitation centers and other providers that coordinate a patient's care.