Congress and the courts long have tried to balance regulations to try to protect consumers while giving companies
space to operate.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to limit lawsuits against medical device makers if the Food…
Clarian Health has acquired a controlling stake in a cardiology practice based at the Indiana Heart Hospital, which is owned
by Clarian competitor Community Health Network.
For seven years, real estate investment trusts delivered returns that clobbered the overall stock market. Then, last year, the winning streak came to an end. Between January 2007 and January 2008, REITs as a whole lost 24 percent of their value. An index of the companies took a bigger hit than most every other sector. Among local REITs, Duke Realty Corp. was the hardest hit, with its stock price falling 44 percent, from about $41 to $23, during the one-year…
Today-not tomorrow or next week, but now-is the moment to get involved in improving your life and the lives of your family and neighbors. Don’t delay. All you need do is both of two simple things. First, find out who is running in the primary election on May 6 for the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate from your district. Yes, the national news media have told us that our Indiana primary may be meaningless. They are referring to the…
Californians are howling over the recent discovery that one of WellPointâ??s units made a practice of asking
doctors to report conditions that the insurance company could use to cancel medical coverage for new patients.
The letter amounted to asking doctors to…
Health insurance companies including Indianapolis’ own WellPoint Inc. have been relentless in trying to suppress
spiraling health costs. So relentless, in fact, that doctors are pushing back.
Physician groups in Kokomo, Rushville and other cities are refusing to take new patients…
The next generation of environmental law is coming to a firm near you. Many law firms have existing practices that counsel clients on the complexities of complying with air and water permits or cleaning up contaminated properties. But now that the corporate sector is embracing “green” initiatives quicker than Al Gore accumulates carbon credits, environmental law is becoming as sexy as, say, intellectual property. Two of the city’s largest firms-Ice Miller LLP and Baker & Daniels LLP-recently unveiled so-called “green”…
Truck drivers are accustomed to logging lots of miles on their 18-wheelers, but on their sneakers? They are at locally based Celadon Group, thanks to its “Highway 2 Health” wellness program the trucking firm launched in 2006. Prodding employees to lead healthier lifestyles is a way to help cut escalating health care costs. It’s a challenging task for any corporation, particularly for transporters whose workers are strewn throughout the country hauling freight on America’s highways. Sitting behind a wheel for…
Joy’s House on Broad Ripple Avenue provides day care services for 23 people. Often at or near capacity, the not-for-profit is raising funds to build a $1.6 million addition that will quadruple its current size. The cramped quarters, where activities include shooting balls in pint-size basketball hoops, underscores the need for extra space. And the participants are not children; they’re adults-the parents of baby boomers who’ve been thrust into the role of care giver. Adult day care centers steadily are…
Few issues garner as much vitriol as the debate over illegal immigration. The dimensions of the debate are wide-ranging, but as with most aspects of public policy, they are heavily influenced by economic issues. Indiana has embarked on an immigration debate, so a bit of economics might be helpful. First, according to the most reliable recent data, Indiana is underrepresented by illegal immigrants compared with neighboring states. I have seen estimates of immigrants in Indiana of between 45,000 to more…
Eli Lilly and Co. hopes to extend the life of its best-seller Zyprexa with a potentially lucrative, long-acting form of the antipsychotic drug. But first, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker must win over a panel of medical experts convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 6.
Fifty years ago, a sick or injured worker in a manufacturing plant did not have to leave work to get care-the worker simply went to the plant clinic and saw the company doctor. Today, the idea of the company clinic is making a come back, but with a new emphasis on wellness and prevention. health recommendations and concerns. In some cases, these routine visits can lead to the discovery of potentially serious conditions that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and…
For years, dreamers have envisioned a life sciences crescent stretching from West Lafayette down Interstate
65 to Indianapolis, then along State Road 37 to Bloomington.
The thinking was, this corridor would take advantage of Indiana and Purdue universities and IUPUI as…
Anxieties about immigration legislation introduced this session are growing. If the bill passes, businesses that “knowingly” hire undocumented workers will face harsh penalties: threeyear probation for companies found to have hired undocumented immigrants; for a second offense, loss of the firm’s license to do business in Indiana. And it would be a misdemeanor to transport, conceal or harbor an unauthorized immigrant; a second offense would be a felony. The law would require the Indiana attorney general to investigate complaints against…
State negligent on smoking ban Lawmakers sidestep serious issue We’d like to think the demise of Rep. Charlie Brown’s bill that would have banned workplace smoking statewide was just another casualty of the property tax reform wave. More likely, the bill died because our legislators don’t have the will to tackle the sad state of Hoosier health. Brown’s bill died in a House committee Jan. 23 after a brief hearing in which testimony on the bill’s behalf was cut off…
Jerry Carr studied turf at Purdue University-how to grow some of Mother Nature’s best and how to design the artificial kind. After graduation, his jobs mostly kept him outside and active. But when he moved into a desk-bound sales job in 2006, he noticed more than the inevitable weight gain. “I couldn’t wait to exercise at the end of each day,” said Carr, 47. Feeling restless and unfocused, he brought a treadmill into his office. But he found that switching…
It isnâ??t often these days that we see deep, serious reporting on poverty that helps explain the problem
and makes us think.
In a recent interview, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne argued that the subject has been edged out of
news…
Thanks to a series of major economic development wins, Indianapolis is enjoying a pharmaceutical distribution business hot streak. Life sciences industry leaders hope to keep the sizzle burning in 2008 and beyond. “It’s not something we’re hoping we can do someday. It’s something we’re already doing now,” said BioCrossroads CEO David Johnson. “We’re simply trying to expand the footprint of what we’re doing.” Pharmaceutical logistics has become a big business. According to the Arlington, Va.-based Healthcare Distribution Management Association, U.S….
On the presidential campaign trail these past few weeks, the dominant exit-polling insight seems to be that Americans are hungry for change. Voters have told interviewers they’re weary of the direction we’re headed, tired of the politics of the past and eager to forego the status quo. And so the presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat alike, have jumped on the change bandwagon, ridden it from Iowa to New Hampshire, and tried to explain why they’ve been, are, or could be…
Nineteen central Indiana companies have seen their stock prices fall more than one-quarter from the 52-week highs-a plunge that largely reflects pessimism over the strength of the economy. The pullback has hammered some of the top-performing Hoosier companies in recent years, including shopping mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. (off $46 a share, or 38 percent) and school operator ITT Educational Services Inc. (off $52, or 39 percent). Former highfliers often take the biggest tumble when investor sentiment turns bearish….
