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Eli Lilly and Co. granted larger bonuses to its top five executives early this year, which boosted the value of their compensation packages 3 percent to 8 percent. John Lechleiter, CEO of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker, saw his overall compensation reduced 10.7 percent because the calculated value of his pension fell. But excluding that on-paper reduction, the actual compensation Lechleiter received for 2012 rose 3.6 percent to $10.2 million. His salary and stock award were unchanged from 2011, but his bonus rose 13.6 percent to nearly $3 million. Chief Financial Officer Derica Rice received a modest increase in salary and a larger bonus. His overall compensation, excluding the pension adjustment, rose 3.3 percent to $5.2 million. Jan Lundberg, the president of Lilly Research Laboratories, enjoyed increases in his salary, stock award and bonus, which boosted his overall pay 8.3 percent to $4.5 million, excluding any pension adjustment.

Hospital officials praised Indiana's medical savings accounts but some consumer advocates panned them March 20 during a public hearing on Gov. Mike Pence’s plan to use the Healthy Indiana Plan to expand Medicaid in Indiana, according to the Associate Press.  The Indiana Hospital Association and officials from hospitals around the state said the Healthy Indiana Plan would reduce the amount of indigent care they must provide to uninsured patients. But critics noted HIP isn't available to everyone, and even when it is, it can prove too costly for some low-income Indiana residents needing medical care. "I do not believe it will do what we need to do to cover people," said Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie. Pence has proposed using HIP to complete a Medicaid expansion for Indiana residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That's a sliding scale that includes $15,856 for a single individual or $32,499 for a household of four. If the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services approves Pence's proposal, it could provide coverage for as many as 400,000 low-income residents. If CMS rejects it, it could end coverage for about 40,000 residents already enrolled in HIP. A decision must to be made by June, six months before the state's current waiver expires. Also, Pence has said he might not sign off on the expansion using HIP even if CMS approves it.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Eli Lilly and Co. filed for FDA approval of a new anti-diabetes medicine, the two companies announced Monday. The drug, empagliflozin, is known as an SGLT2 inhibitor and fights Type 2 diabetes by removing excess glucose through a patient’s urine by blocking the re-absorption of glucose in the kidney. Several large pharmaceutical companies are trying to bring an SLGT2 inhibitor drug to market. In January, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, won the backing of an FDA advisory panel for its drug, called canagliflozin. Other companies in the SGLT2 race are New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca plc. Lilly is helping to develop and commercialize empagliflozin, which was discovered by Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim. The drug is one of five that Lilly hopes to submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year.