Legislation set to come out of Washington will not change the most fundamental problems of the health
care system, leaving it up to states, cities and companies to figure out what to do about it.
The bill imposes hefty new taxes and coverage rules that will pinch insurers such as WellPoint Inc. by forcing them to cover
more sick people without gaining enough healthy, lower-cost customers, industry insiders say.
An actuarial report prepared by the local office of Milliman Inc., a Seattle-based consulting firm, projects
that the state of Indiana would have to hike its Medicaid payments by one-third in order to entice more
doctors into the program.
The pharmaceutical industry may have to cough up more than the $80 billion it agreed to contribute to President Barack Obama’s
health overhaul effort, reflecting pressure from Democrats and their supporters for more money to cover older and low-income
people.
If Congress passes health care reform, more people will become like Juli Erhart-Graves, whose family spends nearly 18 percent
of its income on health insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs.
The St. Vincent Health hospital system has joined with Indianapolis-based Novia CareClinics LLC to set up clinics on employers’
campuses, offering health care for their workers with no insurance companies involved.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana is doling out $3.1 million to Indianapolis-area doctors—its first payments
based on a local quality measuring system.
The $7.8 million medical office building in McCordsville will allow the hospital to tap patients with private insurance.
A government health insurance plan included in the House health care reform bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.
At this point in the health reform debate, you have to take numbers from any side with a grain of salt. That said, Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. has done perhaps the only local analysis of how proposed reforms would affect the cost of health insurance
for employers.
Nearly 60 of Indiana’s 354 public school districts now require administrators to pay more than $1 for their health insurance.
That’s a big shift from a decade ago.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.’s Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsidiary claimed 42.5 percent of central Indiana residents
covered by private health insurance
this year, up from 35-percent last year, according to a market research firm.
WellPoint Inc.’s third-quarter profits soared above analysts’ expectations, but the insurer remains cautious in the face of
the flu and high unemployment.
Some Indianapolis-area doctors fear a bill in the U.S. Senate would botch the way costs for tests and procedures are calculated, and ultimately
lead to a reimbursement system that works worse than the existing system.
WellPoint Inc.’s third-quarter profits fell 11 percent, the company reported this morning, but still soared above analysts’ expectations.
Democratic lawmakers are seeking to stir up competition by stripping health insurers like Indianapolis-based WellPoint of
their protection from certain federal antitrust laws, although experts shrug off the effort as largely symbolic.
Goodwill Industries executive Keith Reissaus has been tapped to run Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, an industry coalition.
Reissaus gained control of health care costs by giving employees incentives to care about their health.
Top Senate Democrats intend to try to strip the health insurance industry of its exemption from federal antitrust laws, according
to congressional officials, the latest evidence of a deepening struggle over President Barack Obama’s effort to overhaul the
health care industry.
Fear of death may be causing Americans to expect too much from our medical system when it comes to prolonging the lives of
the old and infirm.
The health insurance industry’s sudden counterpunch to the Senate version of health reform echoed in Indiana and
opened a key issue for the rest of the debate: Will covering half of the country’s uninsured mean raising premiums for
the 85 percent of Americans who already have insurance?
