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People V Pounds: Ten local law firms vie to shed weight in friendly contest to promote wellness

Ten local law firms vie to shed weight in friendly contest to promote wellness Ten city firms indeed are vying to see whose members can shed the most inches from their waistlines within 10 weeks. The impetus for the “friendly” competition, which ends April 9, is modeled after Gov. Mitch Daniels’ INShape Indiana program challenging Hoosiers to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Because participating firms range in size from behemoth Ice Miller LLP to boutique Schuckit & Associates PC,…

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Wellness gains full-time presence: Hospitals try to bulk up health promotion at employers’ offices

Wellness is good for business. At least that’s what Community Health Network and other Indianapolisarea hospitals are finding as they ramp up the wellness programs they offer onsite to area employers. Community has grown its health promotion division an average of 30 percent in each of the last three years. And this year, it had two corporate clients ask to have wellness staff at their offices daily. Community parks a wellness coordinator five days a week at Celadon Group Inc.,…

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WellPoint draws ire for pushing generics: Pfizer asks docs to resist cheaper statins

Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. is in a tussle with the nation’s largest drug maker over the nation’s top-selling drug. New York-based Pfizer Inc., facing the loss of billions in sales of its Lipitor cholesterol-fighting drug, sent letters last month to doctors, encouraging them to protest the attempts of health benefits firms to switch patients to generic cholesterol drugs. The letter, which says the change is being pushed “for cost reasons alone,” reached doctors several days after Well-Point expanded a promotion to…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Whom will the state subsidize next?

Last week, I was walking on the Statehouse grounds and I saw some folks with large green pins on their lapels. “What do those stand for?” I asked. “Small businesses need Electronic Gaming Devices” one wearer told me. “That’s for bars,” I commented. The reply I got was not friendly. In the newspapers and on TV during the same week, there were features about horse breeders “needing” more state subsidies from slot machines at racetracks to “keep the industry alive.”…

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Consumers drive away from HMOs: Despite declines, most plans in Indiana still have healthy reserves and profits

Most central Indiana HMOs lost customers again in 2006, with consumerdriven health care plans inflicting the latest cut. Eight out of 10 major health maintenance organizations lost members, some for a third straight year. The declines ranged from 4 percent to 48 percent, according to their annual reports filed with the Indiana Department of Insurance. Most HMOs are in no danger of going out of business. Many posted increased profit in 2006, and most have healthy cash reserves. But HMOs…

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Surgeon helping pioneer efforts to regrow knee cartilage

When Dr. Jack Farr II saw his grandfather’s knees become bowed out, then saw his father get a knee replacement, he knew he
was next. So he spent his career trying to develop new techniques to replace–and now even regrow–the cartilage around knees.
His labors are part of an international effort to develop alternatives to joint replacements.

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St. Francis CEO says Beech Grove move inevitable

Robert J. Brody, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, announced March 8 that St. Francis would shutter
its inpatient hospital in Beech Grove and expand its south-side hospital by 2010. In an interview with IBJ, Brody laid out
the ills that beset hospitals across the country.

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Commentary Noblesville gets traction under mayor:

When it comes to the battle of the ‘burbs-at least those north of Indianapolis-Carmel seems to get all the glory. Not that it’s undeserved, considering the progress and growth that have taken place under Mayor Jim Brainard. But lest you haven’t noticed, Carmel’s rival to the northeast-Noblesville-has fired up its afterburners in the last few years and is making major strides on the development front. Some of the credit should go to that city’s first-term mayor, John Ditslear, who was…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Ideas needed for fixing health care financing

It’s been 15 years since third-party presidential candidate Ross Perot briefly captured the nation’s attention with his crisp, witty promises to “look under the hood” to fix the problems in Washington. Since that time, some problems have gotten worse, some have gotten better. But in this era of political polarization and legislative gridlock, the idea of a new face coming to town to actually fix some of the problems we face today is as appealing as ever. What would such…

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FUNNY BUSINESS: Indiana’s rural counties fall short of ‘progressive’

I notice that my home county, LaGrange, did not make Progressive Farmer magazine’s 2007 list of Top 10 Rural Counties in America. Then again, “progressive” is not a word that leaps to mind for a county that is about 40-percent Amish. Actually, none of Indiana’s 92 counties made the Top 10. According to the magazine, the best rural places to live in America are (in reverse order): 10. Polk County, N.C.; 9. Amador County, Calif.; 8. Garfield County, Okla.; 7….

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NOTIONS: How to save lives, money, and still win re-election

As a hearing-impaired, diabetic, migraine-suffering cancer survivor, father of a cancer survivor and widower of a cancer victim, I’ve followed my share of doctor’s orders. So I’ve taken two of Monroe’s tenaciousness pills, and I’m calling (well, writing) you in the morning. Since my late wife the non-smoker was diagnosed with a smoker’s cancer, I’ve shared our sad story to educate government officials and citizens about the dangers of secondhand smoke. But let’s skip the emotions this time, abandon impatience…

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Rivals tangle over impact of new hospitals: Health care providers disagree on how head-to-head competition will affect costs

Once joined at the hip, the two main health care providers in Tippecanoe County-Arnett Health System and Greater Lafayette Health Services-have become fierce rivals. Each is building a new hospital and will compete to provide services for the 154,000 county residents, and tens of thousands more in surrounding counties. Lafayette-based Arnett, a multi-specialty medical practice, has 140 doctors at a dozen area locations, plus eight facilities in other parts of the state. Greater Lafayette Health Services, part of Mishawaka-based Sisters…

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Physician assistants want OK to prescribe drugs: Bill would make Indiana last state to allow it

Indiana could see a wave of new physician assistants working here if lawmakers allow the medical technicians to prescribe medicine. So say the proponents of House Bill 1241, now being debated in the Indiana Senate. They claim Indiana, as the only state yet to grant the prescribing prerogative, forces doctors to hire fewer physician assistants and so loses health care workers to other states. That’s a particularly important issue in rural and some urban areas, where doctors are scarce. Because…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: WellPoint succession breeds unease on Wall Street

This isn’t the Well-Point Inc. way. The last two times the Indianapolisbased health insurer appointed a CEO-when Ben Lytle took the job in 1989 and Larry Glasscock succeeded him in 1999-there was no drama. The board had publicly, and painstakingly, groomed the new leader. WellPoint did nothing remotely similar this time around. As CIBC World Markets analyst Carl McDonald pointedly observed in a research note, “There’s clearly a gap in succession planning when a company of Well-Point’s size has to…

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Software firm finally making name for itself: Fusion quietly becomes giant in local tech industry

Doug Brown might not know how to name a company, but he sure knows how to grow one. CEO Brown, 46, co-founded Fusion Alliance Inc. in 1994 along with Tim Shaw, who is no longer active in the firm. The company has since blossomed into the Indianapolis-area’s’s largest software developer, with 196 staff and contract software engineers and programmers. Much of the growth coincides with the decision in 2000 to rechristen the northwest-side company from its original and less glamorous…

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EYE ON THE PIE: What’s wrong with property taxes?

So much is going on in the Indiana General Assembly that it makes my head spin, which makes me dizzy and unfit for driving safely on the roads. That, plus the recent heavy snows, has made me a hermit. To re-enter society, I called Dr. Werner von Fizzle, the only psychologist I know who provides at-home consultations. As he sat down, Dr. von F asked, “Do you have some tonic vater?” I nodded and rose to fill his request. “And,”…

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Doctor grows magazine with unusual strategy: Circulation hits 100,000 nationally and still climbing

A Carmel-based doctor turned publisher is celebrating his magazine’s first anniversary by rolling out plans to take his publishing and health care businesses nationwide. Radius magazine is poised for rapid growth due to its “no fluff” content, according to its founder, Dev Brar, who founded Carmel-based Nightingale Home Healthcare in 1996. Both businesses are operating out of a new headquarters at 1036 S. Rangeline Road, and Brar is hoping the two will grow hand-in-hand. Brar is using Radius to market…

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NOTIONS Bruce Hetrick: A buck-a-pack increased tax for the health we lack

After our Valentine’s Day wedding, my bride and I took a few days off for a brief New York City honeymoon. We walked nearly everywhere, used public transportation when we wanted to go farther and bought our food and drink in jam-packed, smoke-free restaurants and bars (the only kind there are in New York, thanks to a several-years-old, levelthe-playing-field, smoke-free workplace law). I liked being able to dine anywhere and everywhere with clean indoor air. I liked the exercise from…

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New NFIB boss knows politics: State chapter to devote more time to campaigns

Kevin Hughes cut his teeth in the political world. Now he’s taking a bite out of small business, as the new state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. Hughes, 30, has never owned his own business, but he worked for six years at the Ohio State Legislature as a legislative aide and for the Senate Republicans there. He also worked on several campaigns. In 2004, Hughes took a job as the Midwest regional political director for NFIB in…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Markets pay a premium for the college-educated

Nothing erases the thrill of getting a raise from your employer faster than the news that someone else got a bigger one. We care about how much money our friends, neighbors and coworkers make-not always in a benevolent sense-even though there is usually little we can do about it. The trappings of material wealth are all around us, and it is almost impossible, it seems, not to get caught up in the game. But despair over disparities in income and…

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