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PRICKING up interest: Acupuncture businesses could be on the rise after state drops doctor-referral requirement

A new law that went into effect July 1 says patients no longer need a physician referral before receiving acupuncture treatments. The upshot for a profession that only became legal in the state within the past 10 years is that acupuncturists should benefit from a boost in business. Competition is expected to increase as well, as the favorable conditions could prompt more of them to seek licenses in Indiana. The referral requirement has been a thorn in the side of…

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FUNNY BUSINESS: You’ll know really bad drivers when you see them

A reader recently forwarded an e-mail ranking the worst American drivers by city, along with the suggestion “Make fun of this.” While I usually don’t respond to such directives, this case was different, seeing as how it came from my mother. You know how it is. Anyway, here we go-a column about the worst drivers in America, as ranked by a well-known insurance company and recommended by Mom. The Top 10 “Where-Did-These-People-Get-Their-Licenses?” cities are: Columbia, S.C.; St. Louis, Mo.; Greensboro,…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: The sagest of investors takes drubbing on WellPoint bet

Here’s some news that might be comforting as you fret over your depleted stock portfolio: Even Warren Buffett, the oracle of Omaha, gets it wrong sometimes. At least he’s wrong so far on Well-Point Inc., the giant Indianapolis-based health insurer. His Berkshire Hathaway Inc. began scooping up shares in the company in the first quarter of 2007. By June of last year, it had acquired 4.2 million shares. And by the end of the first quarter of this year-the latest…

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Local law firm fills entertaining niche: Lawyer’s music background helps land creative clients

In the late 1980s, Lafayette native Robert Meitus set off for Los Angeles with his band East of Eden in an attempt to make it in the music business. The group that shared management with Guns N’ Roses [singer Axl Rose grew up in Lafayette] never reached a sliver of its fame, however fleeting. But the experience did give Meitus an introduction to what ultimately would lead to a burgeoning career as an intellectual property lawyer. Capital Records came calling,…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Mike Hicks: What it takes to make our health care system healthy

The U.S. health care policy debate has been strangely quiet the past few months. But the underlying problems grow ever more serious. Here’s some background. First, health care costs are rising rapidly. A huge amount of the increase stems from greater demand for the most costly services. These services include advanced end-of-life care, much more extensive neonatal care, and high-end elective surgery. Higher use of these services represents perhaps the largest single contributor to overall health care costs. Second, we…

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Networks help practices extend their reach:

Outside of Indiana, the local law firm of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP has a nominal presence in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, N.C. Yet, the midsize practice with roughly 130 lawyers in Indianapolis is handling an immigration issue for a fellow firm in India and is encouraged about prospects in Argentina, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Global gigs typically are reserved for larger rivals with an international scope. But scores of firms that want to expand their reach, without the risk…

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Columbus Regional Hospital taps savings to survive flood: Center hopes to open emergency room within weeks

If you’re a hospital and a flood has just shut down your facility for months, how do you survive? Pretty much like a person who’s just lost a job. Put big projects on hold and raid the savings account. Columbus Regional Hospital, evacuated and closed on June 7 because of historic levels of flooding, has tapped $30 million it set aside for building projects. It is now using the money to pay employees while it’s closed. Wages and benefits for…

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Butler’s pharmacy addition just what the doctor ordered: New $14M building will help college meet increasing demand for graduates

Mary Andritz, dean of Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, bursts into laughter when asked how long her department’s been short on space. “I’ve only been here for two years, but I think it’s been for some considerable amount of time,” she guessed. “Probably for 10 years.” Lilly Endowment Inc., however, is filling the prescription in the form of a grant to fund a 40,000-square-foot addition under construction and scheduled to open by the fall 2009 semester. The…

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Local tree-care firms respond to rash of storms: Forestry specialists and arborists work 14-hour days to keep up with sky-high demand in central Indiana

If there’s a silver lining to high winds and torrential rain, it can be found in the bank accounts of companies called upon to clean up the mess. For the dozens of tree cutting, trimming and hauling firms that fill up seven pages in the local Yellow Pages, the storms of late spring came at just the right time. “We didn’t get one call for three weeks prior to the storms hitting,” said Russell Goodman, owner of locally based All…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: $18M nightmare continues for law firm on east side

When a Marion County jury two years ago issued an $18 million malpractice judgment against an east-side Indianapolis law firm, the figure was almost too large to believe. Surely this was the kind of zany jury verdict that an appeals court would swiftly overturn. No such luck. The Indiana Court of Appeals last month upheld the verdict against Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe. And now attorneys for the plaintiff, the Indiana Department of Insurance, are tightening the screws. They’re asking…

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Commentary: HealthNet casts a wide one

Indianapolis is becoming a much more international city. Consider some of the facts: Central Indiana’s Latino population is now 100,000, fifth-fastest-growing in the United States; one in five scientists at Eli Lilly is Chinese; and 2,000 Burmese immigrants live here. These tidbits and mounds of other information about immigration in our community can be found in the International Center’s coffee-table book, “New Faces at the Crossroads: The World in Central Indiana.” The book also contains the stories and beautiful photographs…

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Benicorp cleanup praised: Customers, employees ease through liquidation

When cash ran dry last summer at Indianapolis-based Benicorp Insurance Co., it could have created a major mess. But 10 months later, Indiana insurance regulators have kept all of Benicorp’s customers covered by health insurance and given its employees a soft landing as they make the transition to new jobs. The last of a backlog of claims has been paid off. “No family in Indiana will have an uncovered claim,” said Jim Atterholt, the Indiana commissioner of insurance. “That’s a…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: ‘Cautious’ truck insurer collides with shareholder

Baldwin & Lyons Inc. has been publicly traded for nearly four decades. For most of that span, the Indianapolis company has gone quietly about its business of providing insurance for truck fleets. And investors who went along for the ride generally fared well. But recent months have been bumpy. Baldwin is in the tricky game of setting premiums, then hoping claims come in low enough to ensure a profit. The company’s financial results of late have been worse than expected….

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: One man’s trash is a gold mine for privacy violations

National pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens are not the only ones to experience “dumpster-diving” by investigative reporters. These drugstores were merely the first to be featured in media reports about customers’ personal information being disposed of without being destroyed first, a violation of state and federal privacy laws. Diving in Local reporters have since rummaged through the trash of mortgage brokers, title insurance companies, fitness centers, banks, law firms, hospitals and government organizations. While searching through the trash,…

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Dwindling unemployment trust nears crisis point: Fund that once held $1.6 billion may face insolvency

Indiana’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is running out of money-fast. It opened this decade with $16.6 billion in assets. By the end of last year, it had dwindled to $302 million. And last month, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said the balance was just $80 million. Though DWD in early May received $300 million in taxes collected from employers, the infusion is only a shortterm fix. By year’s end, the fund is expected to be short on cash again….

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Symphony Bank results keep hitting sour notes: CEO hopes to succeed by taking bank ‘to the people’

Symphony Bank’s palatial branch along East 96th Street-outfitted with a copper roof, towering domed ceiling and heated parking lot-was designed to telegraph wealth and stability. But instead, the $5 million Taj Mahal became the most prominent symbol of the bank’s excesses and one reason the startup has lost money every year since its founding in June 2005. The bank, which has no other branches, has torn through two management teams and piled up annual losses of $2 million or more…

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EYE ON THE PIE: There is no joy in latest county data

Cynthia Cyphon called me for “insights” on the latest county statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. “So what’s doing with these numbers?” she asked. “I see Hamilton County, the state’s wealthiest county, is not anymore.” I went out on the deck with my lapdog and my laptop. This was going to be a long phone conversation. “Cynthia, get your head around this,” I said. “Per-capita personal income is used widely as an indicator of economic wellbeing. That’s why…

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Commentary: At BMV, obscurity is sign of success

There are professions in which you are never noticed until you screw it up-the center of a football team when he snaps the ball over the quarterback’s head, the business assistant when he or she brings the wrong set of papers to the closing, and the bus driver who-after 20 years of safe driving-rear-ends the rock star’s limousine. Included in this list is the CEO of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Do you remember Joel Silverman, former commissioner of…

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