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Create-a-job program serving disabled threatened: Federal funding cuts could mean early end for options available through customized employment initiative

Bryan Ballard and Cody Feldman never dreamed they’d end up here, soaking up the sun along Indianapolis’ downtown canal, peddling frozen treats from their very own ice cream cart. They certainly never planned to become business partners when they met as adolescents playing Special Olympics basketball. But it happened anyway, thanks to a federally funded program intended to help significantly disabled individuals find work that fits their interests and skills. What makes the so-called customizedemployment effort unusual is its emphasis…

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Gateway shuts the door on benefits enhancement: Indianapolis company will cease operations Aug. 30; CEO hopes to reopen

Gateway Medical Resource Alliance, a niche health care benefits company, will shut down Aug. 30, more than a month after losing the lone Indianapolis hospital in its network. The company, which has shrunk to six workers, provides employers discounts for certain cardiology, orthopedics and oncology care. In return for fees from the employers, Gateway offers flat, all-inclusive prices for procedures. It also offers prescription and wellness services. CEO Terry Kopp said he still hopes to find another hospital to resuscitate…

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Insurers still dealing with deluge of claims: Good Friday storms among costliest in state history

Property and casualty insurers are taking a financial beating over the spring hailstorm that pounded homes and vehicles in central Indiana. Damage from the Good Friday deluge resulted in a flood of Hoosier insurance claims: 177,000 so far totaling $560 million, making it one of the costliest weather catastrophes in state history, according to the New Jerseybased Insurance Services Office. Overall, Indiana topped the nation in the total amount of insured losses-$658.5 million-during the second quarter, according to the ISO….

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Let’s throw energy into public safety: We ignore crime at our peril

When yet another media story appears about jail overcrowding, it’s tempting to look away, to focus instead on rising gas prices, out-of-control health insurance costs or other pressing problems confronting your company. But make no mistake: Crime is a business issue. And it is escalating. Major offenses reported to the Indianapolis Police Department through April were up 22 percent over the first four months of 2005. Probably fueling that increase are the growing numbers of inmates being released early from…

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New state rule changes annuity landscape: Indiana regulators place burden on the seller to decide what’s right for the buyer

No 75-year-old retiree should drop his or her life savings into an annuity that imposes a 10-year wait before the first payment. Indiana regulators understand this basic investment rule, and they want to ensure that the people who sell annuities follow it as well. The state Department of Insurance now places the burden of deciding whether an annuity is right for a consumer over age 65 on the seller, thanks to a new rule that started July 1. It requires…

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Workers can help lower health costs:

Health care costs keep small-business owners up at night. According to Forbes magazine, the cost of health care is rising at three times the rate of inflation. Because demand for medical treatment will continue to grow as Americans age, insurance premiums will continue to increase. Some small-business owners’ first reaction is to shift rising costs to employees. Others simply eliminate health insurance benefits altogether. While this reduces expenses and raises profit in the short term, it ruins a company’s ability…

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BIZ BASICS: Use new savings accounts to cover medical expenses

And with no end in sight to the cost crunch, the prognosis is poor. Panicked business owners now cite the rising cost of health insurance as their top concern. They know that workers value their medical coverage, but as owners they feel trapped-they must either pass along rate hikes or cut benefits entirely. A relatively new health plan option offers hope. Health savings accounts work in IRA-like fashion to cover out-ofpocket medical costs with tax-sheltered money. An HSA is an…

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FAMILY BUSINESS: Reorganize family business to treat all children fairly

Many family-business owners have children who work with them in the business as well as children who do not. The challenge they face is simply put: How can they treat fairly those children who will not inherit the business? There may not be enough non-business assets to give to the children who don’t work in the business. Life insurance, payable to the non-business children, is sometimes suggested, if the business owner is insurable and the premiums are affordable. Some estate…

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MainSource grabs opportunities for growth: Greensburg-based bank not shy about acquisitions

Honda Motor Co.’s decision to build a massive auto manufacturing plant near Greensburg has the small Decatur County town abuzz with excitement. But a company already entrenched there is making some noise of its own. MainSource Financial Group Inc. has increased assets an impressive 50 percent during the past year largely due to four acquisitions made by the publicly traded bank holding company. “We’re a little opportunistic,” admitted MainSource President and CEO James Saner. “We really want to grow, give…

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Investment firm taps local talent: Riderwood opens office, targets mid-size companies

An East Coast investment-banking firm is opening an Indianapolis office and has recruited three high-profile professionals who bring a wealth of experience to manage operations. Towson, Md.-based The Riderwood Group Inc. wants to help midsize companies raise $5 million to $200 million in capital, a range largely ignored here by outside rivals, firm executives said. “There really is not a national mid-market investment bank [in Indianapolis],” company President Mitchell Fillet said. “This is a place where the big firms have…

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Hitching its wagon to central Indiana: Wells Fargo quietly lassoes big share of local loans

How big is the portfolio? Very big. How does it stack up to its rivals? Nobody knows for sure. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. requires banks to report the deposits they hold at branches, but it doesn’t require banks to spell out how much commercial business they’re generating geographically. “It’s one of the biggest frustrations of the bank information that we [compile],” said Karen Dorway, president of Bauer Financial Inc., a Coral Gables, Fla.-based bank rating service that tracks market…

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Conseco takes fresh look at product development: New strategy emphasizes shared resources, efficiency

Conseco Inc. rolled out a fresh blueprint for product development earlier this year, and it was high time the insurer did so, say analysts who follow the company. The Carmel-based holding company is combining the resources of its subsidiaries and developing a corporate-wide system to pump out products more efficiently for its two main operating segments, Conseco Insurance Group and Chicago-based Bankers Life. It hopes to see results soon. Conseco Insurance Group launched only four new products in 2004 and…

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Indiana midwife debate headed for another round: Committee to study issue; bill set to be reintroduced

A bill that would give women what some say is their right to choose where and how they can give birth has been incubating in the state’s General Assembly for eight years. But hopes are running high for the proposed law that would regulate and expand midwifery in Indiana because it will be studied by a special committee this summer for a possible reintroduction in the 2007 legislative session. Under current Indiana law, only doctors and registered nurses are able…

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Moratorium nearing its expiration date: Experts don’t expect flurry of new specialty hospitals

Health care experts don’t predict a surge in specialty hospital construction after a federal moratorium expires next month. Even so, the rift between competing industry interests is expected to intensify. Moratoriums on new physician-owned heart, orthopedic and surgical specialty hospitals dating back to the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 temporarily stalled the rapid growth of the facilities. In Indianapolis, three such hospitals-the Heart Center of Indiana, the Indiana Heart Hospital and the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital-opened between December 2002 and March…

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VIEWPOINT: Consumers should take charge of health

In an environment where we’re all being asked to pay a larger share of our own health care costs, it’s interesting to see how little time we spend thinking about major decisions that have an impact on our health. Like selecting a primary care physician or any medical specialist, for example. According to a recent Managed Care Weekly Digest survey, 67 percent of U.S. adults ages 18-64 said they spent eight hours or more researching an automobile purchase, yet only…

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Westview soldiers on amid health care explosion: Hospital fares well against larger, newer competition

A touch-screen directory, a grove of potted trees and a muffin-bearing kiosk greet visitors entering the six-story atrium at the new Clarian North Medical Center in Carmel. A much milder scene awaits people walking into Westview Hospital a few miles away, on the west side of Indianapolis. There, a lonely player piano spills soft tunes into a one-story lobby filled with clusters of chairs and pamphlets on volunteering. “Quiet! Healing in Progress” reads a nearby sign. Indiana’s lone osteopathic hospital…

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Bank boss eyes No. 1: New Fifth Third chief plans expansion, faces tough Chase

The view from John Pelizzari’s 14th-floor office in downtown’s Capital Center is a good one. The recently hired president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp’s central Indiana operations can see the rooftops of many of downtown’s landmarks. And he likes it that way. He’s used to the view from the top. From 2001 to 2005, Pelizzari, 50, captained the ship for Fifth Third’s northern Michigan affiliate, which enjoyed a whopping 28-percent market share, more than 10 percentage points higher…

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Work still elusive for people with disabilities: Employment rates remain stagnant even though a wealth of programs are finding success placing workers

The lesson Amy Kurzekwa taught the folks at the downtown Gregory & Appel Insurance agency reaches far beyond what they learned about premiums and deductibles. Since 1992, she has taken the bus to her job there as a clerical assistant, performing such tasks as sorting and delivering the office mail and filling the copy machines. While most anyone can do that, Kurzekwa, 37, is irreplaceable to her co-workers. Her role in opening their eyes to the fact that people with…

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Doctor takes on state over Medicaid payments: Psychiatrist claims he’s being forced out of business

A Franklin psychiatrist has accused the state agency that runs Medicaid of suffocating his practice in a reimbursement dispute that dates back more than a year. Dr. John Lewis said the weekly Medicaid checks that keep his Harmony Center open dwindled to nothing for four straight weeks after he filed a lawsuit in April against the state Family and Social Services Administration over a payment review it imposed. The psychiatrist believes his center may survive only another month, a closing…

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Billing survey puts WellPoint in last: Insurer calls ‘pain in the butt’ index flawed, but some doctors say findings aren’t surprising

A physician-billing service recently gave WellPoint Inc. a virtual spanking over its sometimesstrained relationship with doctors. M a s s a c h u s e t t s – b a s e d Athenahealth Inc. rated the Indianapolis insurer last out of seven national payers in its so-called “pain in the butt” index posted online late last month. The unusual index aims to tell doctors how easy-or difficult-it is to work with each insurer by using data the…

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