Company news

Indiana University Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville stopped delivering babies on Friday and instead will direct pregnant women to IU Health Bloomington Hospital, which is a 30-minute drive farther south. In 2012, only 3 percent of deliveries at Bloomington Hospital were for moms from Morgan County. But IU Health made the change because the hospital in Martinsville was delivering only 218 of the 1,200 annual births in Morgan County, according to an evaluation by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The group recommends a hospital have at least 300 births in order to continue its obstetrics program. The change is also being made because many of the women seeking obstetric services at IU Morgan are high-risk patients and the hospital does not have the facilities to serve them, said Amy Wozniak, IU Health Morgan's director of public relations, in a statement. IU Health Bloomington Hospital delivers about 1,900 babies each year. “We understand this affects our community as well as some IU Health Morgan Hospital employees. We believe, however, that this decision is best for our patients,” said Doug Puckett, CEO of IU Health Morgan Hospital.

Indianapolis-based Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman PC, the nation’s largest health-care-focused law firm, has officially launched a pharmacy practice. Though the practice area is new, several lawyers within the firm have used their pharmacy-related knowledge and experience to serve clients for several years, said John Hall, the firm’s president and managing partner. The lawyers typically counsel retail and mail-order pharmacies, hospitals and long-term-care providers on a variety of issues: regulatory compliance and enforcement support, development and maintenance of compliance programs, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, private-payer reimbursement, fraud and abuse, and litigation. Hall Render’s pharmacy practice is led by Susan Bizzell, a shareholder of the firm, and is the latest addition to the firm's more than 60 health-care-related specialties. The pharmacy practice consists of about 10 lawyers. With 97 local attorneys, Hall Render is ranked as the city’s seventh-largest law firm, according to IBJ’s most recent statistics.

Indianapolis-based Pearl IRB LLC, a life sciences consultancy operating as Pearl Pathways, announced Jan. 29 that it plans to add 38 jobs by 2016 as part of a $355,000 expansion. The company, in Indiana University’s Emerging Tech Center near the Central Canal, will use the investment to lease and equip a 2,000-square-foot facility at 29 E. McCarthy St. Pearl Pathways plans to move in March and is hiring additional regulatory-affairs, quality-compliance and clinical-trial specialists. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said it will provide Pearl Pathways up to $750,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $75,000 in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans. Founded in 2010 by former Eli Lilly and Co. employees Diana Caldwell and Gretchen Miller Bowker, Pearl Pathways provides research and product development services for drug, biologic and medical device companies.

Zimmer Holdings Inc. predicted revenue and profit will pick up steam in 2013 after its fourth-quarter profit fell 2 percent due to large accounting charges. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants said it expects revenue to grow this year 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent, when adjusted for foreign currency fluctuations. It expects earnings per share, excluding special charges, to range between $5.65 and $5.85. Those results would mark growth of 7 percent to 10 percent over last year’s adjusted earnings per share of $5.30. In the fourth quarter, Zimmer’s reduced profits still beat estimates of Wall Street analysts. Zimmer earned $152.8 million, or 88 cents per share, in the quarter. The company took a $96 million charge to write down the value of its U.S. spine business, which it says is pressured by lower utilization and lower prices. Excluding that charge and $69 million in other special charges, Zimmer would have earned $1.51 per share. Analysts expected $1.49, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. For all of 2012, Zimmer’s profit fell 1 percent, to $755 million, from the previous year. Excluding special charges, the company would have earned $932.5 million, an increase of 3 percent. Revenue totaled $4.47 billion, virtually unchanged. Wall Street analysts have said 2013 could be a “breakout” year for Zimmer, which has suffered through several years of slow growth. However, they also worry the company is more exposed than its peers to changes coming in 2014 from the U.S. Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. Zimmer shares have risen 23 percent in the past 12 months.