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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Health care close to implosion?

The rash of specialty-hospital construction in the suburbs is a gold rush, driven more by greed than the desire to satisfy an unmet need. The fact that 45 million people in America are without health insurance is a deplorable national disaster. The best way to use America’s health care system is to not get sick. These aren’t the rants of a deranged publisher. These are comments made by a doctor and a pair of health care executives who were panelists…

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Flexible spending extension expected to be little-used: Planners say total elimination of use-it-or-lose it rule would increase participation, make plans more useful

A new Internal Revenue Service rule relaxes the “use it or lose it” rule in flexible spending accounts by extending the period during which expenses may be incurred beyond the end of the plan year. Health care flexible spending accounts allow participants to set aside at the beginning of the year a predetermined amount of pretax money to be used for medical, dental and vision expenses not covered by insurance. Dependent care spending accounts do the same thing for child…

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Building boom out of hand?: Critics say hospital construction boosting health care costs

The network has launched a growth spurt that will take it into new markets, boost technology and strengthen Riley Hospital for Children all over the next few years. This construction also will pile on to the cost of health care, according to several researchers and health care experts. How that trickles down to the average patient bill, or if it does, remains to be seen. Consultant Edmund Abel has to think back more than 20 years to recall a capital…

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How Clarian funds building projects:

Clarian Health Partners CEO Dan Evans offers a simple explanation for how the People Mover, Clarian’s futuristic rail system, came to be a few years ago. “People ask me all the time how we paid for it. I said, ‘Thank the stock market,'” he said. The bull market of the late 1990s allowed Clarian to use mostly investment income to fund the $40 million transportation project that opened in 2003 and connects its three downtown hospitals: Methodist, IU and Riley…

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Aquarium lessons carry hope for spinal-cord patients:

Purdue University researcher Richard Borgens developed a fascination with nerve regeneration during childhood, when he watched the newts in his father’s aquarium regrow legs bitten off by fish. Today, he’s developing nerve-regeneration methods that may prove instrumental in treating spinal-cord injuries. Borgens directs Purdue’s Center for Paralysis Research and is the founder of Andara Life Sciences Inc., a startup whose treatments are showing promise in clinical trials. One of Borgens’ therapies involves the patented oscillating field stimulator device, which stimulates…

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Proposal aimed at curbing medical mishaps: Indiana hospitals, surgery centers may have to start submitting data on serious errors by the first of the year

The state health department wants to spotlight serious medical errors in hopes the scrutiny will reduce the likelihood of future mishaps. The department’s Indiana Hospital Council recommended last month that it start requiring hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to disclose 27 severe problems-also called “never events”- within 15 days of their discovery. The list of those events, which was devised a few years ago by the not-forprofit National Quality Forum, includes surgeries performed on the wrong body part or the…

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Don’t turn back on local needs: United Way deserves support as much as hurricane victims

How do you compete with Hurricane Katrina? For three weeks, we have been inundated by images of suffering and devastation on the Gulf Coast. In the midst of it all, United Way of Central Indiana has struggled to attract attention to the kickoff of its annual campaign. It’s a tough sell, just as it was four years ago when another horrific event-the 9/11 terrorist attacks-coincided with the campaign kickoff. “It took the fund-raising community about three years to recover from…

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Opportunity … .. or Albatross?: Winona bankruptcy creditors move toward sheriff’s sale

A sheriff’s sale to the highest bidder may be the fate of the once-bustling Winona Memorial Hospital. Bankruptcy creditors, frustrated that they haven’t found a buyer for the vacant near-northside property, plan to seek a foreclosure that clears the way for public auctions of the hospital and an adjacent nursing home. A sale and renovation of the properties could boost the neighborhood surrounding Winona, a part of town that has struggled but is riding a wave of good news the…

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Formula freebies create controversy: Medical profession encounters gray area when it accepts samples

The free mouse pads and pens that popped up every time a baby formula salesman visited Indiana University Hospital annoyed Marsha Glass, a former lactation consultant there. However, the cases of baby formula-left not for newborn mothers but for nurses on her floor who had babies at home-prompted her to take action. Giving formula to nurses, she said, went way beyond the $75 limit set for such gifts by Clarian Health Partners, the hospital network that includes IU. Glass complained…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Rising health care costs killing jobs and income

Most of us have been in a doctor’s office, and many of us have had conditions that require treatment. But few of us are likely to hear any information presented on the cost of different treatment options along with their benefits, especially if we are one of the 170 million people covered by employer- or governmentprovided health insurance. It is an amazing fact that nearly $3 trillion of health care goods and services are ordered off a menu that has…

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Staffing agency seeks bankruptcy protection: Morley Group begins reorganizing $5.3 million debt

The 13-year-old staffing agency already owes the bank $1.94 million-a $1.17 million loan used to construct its headquarters and about $768,000 for operating expenses. President Michael Morley blamed poor economic conditions for the filing. He said the company hopes to emerge from bankruptcy quickly. “Our business is just now starting to come back and increase,” he said. “We’re going to be able to straighten this out. We’re not taking this lightly.” Other debts listed in the bankruptcy filing include a…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Here’s a Blues performance that won’t get you down

Anthem Inc.’s $1.9 billion initial public offering in late 2001 set all kinds of records. It was the biggest IPO for a U.S. health care company ever, and the biggest IPO for a Hoosier company of any kind. But that company, now known as WellPoint Inc., was puny compared with its size today. Then, it had a market value of $3.9 billion; now, thanks to acquisitions and a surging stock price, it’s worth $45 billion. WellPoint shares were trading last…

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Insurers thinking younger: Healthy, uninsured and 20? WellPoint, Golden Rule, others would like to sell you a policy

WellPoint Inc. and other insurers think they’ve found a hot new market-offering high-deductible individual health insurance policies to uninsured people who are young and healthy. It’s a market insurers historically may have overlooked, based on the misconception that uninsured people are poor and in bad health, said Dana McMurtry, vice president of health policy and analysis at WellPoint. Nationally, more than half the 45 million uninsured earn more than $25,000 a year and more than one-quarter top $50,000 annually, according…

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EYE ON THE PIE: How home buyers step off a cliff

Why does Indiana have such high bankruptcy and mortgage foreclosure rates? No one knows. Many say the economy in Indiana has been responsible for our troubles, but other states have been hit as hard and not had the same bankruptcy and foreclosure problems. Perhaps we are a state of dreamers, people who want to own a home but do not understand the obligations we assume. Our dreams are encouraged by the federal government, which allows mortgage interest and property tax…

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Soldiers confront insurance obstacles: Health providers reluctant to accept Tricare coverage due to low reimbursement

Karen Welch had plenty of reasons to break out the worry beads last year, even before she dealt with Tricare, her new health insurance provider. The Zionsville resident was a month pregnant with her first child when she watched her husband, Travis, leave for Afghanistan with his Indiana National Guard unit. Then she learned she had to find a new primary care physician who would accept Tricare. She also needed an obstetrician/ gynecologist and a pediatrician in the netwowrk for…

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NOTIONS: An empty nest fills with memories

Last Sunday morning, I awoke before dawn. Dreading what was to come, I lingered in bed, watching the gray light of a cloudy morning illuminate the houses across the way. Around 7:30, I worked up the energy to get out of bed. I took a shower, popped my morning meds, and headed downstairs. As is their teen-age wont, both my boys were still asleep. So I retrieved The Star and The New York Times from the driveway and glanced through…

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Questions follow Standard into new arena: Company boosts health services with several purchases

Standard Management Corp. followed the sale of one of its staple insurance businesses with a flurry of purchases this summer aimed at shifting its focus to health care services. Despite all the change, some constants remain for the struggling Indianapolis holding company: seven-figure quarterly losses and questions about its new direction. Standard completed the sale of Standard Life Insurance Company of Indiana to Louisville-based Capital Assurance Corp. in June for $79 million, then wasted little time spending some of the…

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Community entity wants to know where to grow next: Visionary Enterprises may test markets in several states

Community Health Network first exported its expertise in surgery-center management a few years ago. Now, the Indianapolis-based network wants to see how far beyond state lines it can push the growth for this moneymaking venture. The not-for-profit hospital network is exploring Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio and other Midwestern states as possible growth sites for Visionary Enterprises Inc., according to Community CEO William Corley. The for-profit arm of Community already runs an office and three locations in Michigan, along with five in…

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Dose of OPPORTUNITY: Wellpoint, other health care insurers forge strategies to grab their share of Medicare drug-plan business

Afresh market that could be worth billions of dollars lies just over the horizon for health insurers like Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly and disabled, will add a prescription drug benefit starting Jan. 1, and it could spend as much as $60 billion next year on medicines for 30 million people, according to Bloomberg News. But before insurers can start cashing in on this potential, they must develop their drug plans, win over some…

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