Health Care Costs

New WellPoint CEO Joe Swedish thrives on complexityRestricted Content

May 25, 2013
J.K. Wall
Joe Swedish, a career hospital executive, is now two months into his job at the helm of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, the nation’s second-largest health insurer. In his first interview since starting work, Swedish indicated he’s taking his time to learn the people and the culture of the vast organization he now leads.
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Forecast: Cash to reign in health care

May 20, 2013
J.K. Wall
With premiums for health insurance likely to head north next year as President Obama’s health care reform law fully takes effect, both individuals and employers will pay for more health care out of their own funds and buy less insurance.
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Study rebuts hospitals' argument on Medicare, rising costs

May 13, 2013
Rather than raising prices on private health insurers to make up for inadequate payments from the government, hospitals across the country have been raising prices just because they can, according to a new study.
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Medical finance driving major changes in health care marketplace

April 6, 2013
J.K. Wall
Brian and Emily Kahn had virtually identical physical therapy. He paid much more than she did. Why? Because of where the therapy took place.
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IU Health to chop $1 billion off costsRestricted Content

April 6, 2013
J.K. Wall
Even though Obamacare likely will expand health insurance coverage to an extra 500,000 Hoosiers over the next few years, IU Health expects per-patient reimbursements to fall as the federal government, employers and patients all push back on sky-high health care costs.
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MCDONALD: Groups making headway attacking health problemsRestricted Content

April 6, 2013
Bob McDonald
The statistics we hear so often are clear. As a community, we are not in an enviable place. We smoke more, exercise less and weigh more than the national average, resulting in more diabetes than average.
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Indiana's health care transparency laws get failing grade

April 1, 2013
J.K. Wall
Indiana’s laws requiring hospitals to release price information are woefully inadequate, according to a report by two health insurance reform groups. Indiana was among 29 states to receive an "F" grade.
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Senate advances telemedicine payments

March 4, 2013
J.K. Wall
The Indiana Senate voted unanimously last week to require the Indiana Medicaid program to pay home health agencies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers for doing medical consultations, diagnoses and monitoring using videoconferencing, telephones or computers.
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Sequester could sap $200M from Indiana health care providers

March 1, 2013
J.K. Wall
The sequestration plan kicking in Friday will chop Medicare payments to hospitals, doctors and nursing homes by 2 percent, beginning April 1. One study estimates that the cuts could result in 10,000-plus job losses in Indiana alone.
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Legislators struggle to nail down cost of health care expansion

February 24, 2013
Associated Press
The cost of health care for an additional 400,000 low income residents is something nobody in the Indiana Statehouse seems to be able to agree upon this year, even as the crucial decision about whether to expand Medicaid bears down on lawmakers midway through their annual session.
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WellPoint shares tumble on surprising CEO hire

February 13, 2013
J.K. Wall
The Indianapolis-based health insurer saw its stock tumble as much as 4.8 percent Wednesday morning after it unexpectedly named career hospital executive Joe Swedish to be its next CEO.
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Q&A

February 11, 2013
J.K. Wall

Don Kelso is executive director of the Indiana Rural Health Association. The trade group is trying to help its members navigate the changes coming from health care reform and the financial pressures being created by federal budget cuts. The association recently launched a service for its members called SuiteStats, which is data-management software to help hospital executives identify areas ripe for cost-cutting.

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Pressure rises on lawmakers to expand Medicaid

February 11, 2013
J.K. Wall

Up until now, Gov. Mike Pence and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature have been playing a game of poker with the Obama administration over a potential expansion of Indiana’s Medicaid program. But all of a sudden, Indiana’s hand just got quite a bit weaker.

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Community taps Walgreens for health reform help

February 4, 2013
J.K. Wall
In the era of health care reform, hospitals will face two new challenges: They will need to run higher-volume, lower-margin businesses, and they’ll be on the hook financially for what patients do even when they’re not receiving health care. Community Health Network’s new partnership with Walgreens’ Take Care Clinics is designed to help address both issues.
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Health insurance changes daunting for Indiana employersRestricted Content

January 19, 2013
Scott Olson
A portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requiring companies in 2014 to begin offering health insurance to more workers is causing a lot of anxiety.
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Anthem pulling out of Quality Health First

January 14, 2013
J.K. Wall
Since 2009, Indianapolis-based Anthem has doled out $14.5 million in bonuses to physicians based on their scores in quality reports generated by Quality Health First.
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Franciscan, American Health join new ACOs

January 14, 2013
J.K. Wall
Franciscan St. Francis Health and American Health Network continue to get deeper into the accountable care organization concept being promoted by the federal Medicare program under the 2010 health reform law.
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Fiscal cliff deal threatens Indiana co-op health plan

January 7, 2013
J.K. Wall
Last week’s fiscal cliff bargain in Congress dealt a potentially fatal blow to a new health insurance plan, called Remedy Indiana, that was set to launch this year.
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Health care pricing service comes to Indy

December 17, 2012
J.K. Wall

Chicago-based OkCopay Inc. posts prices offered by Indianapolis health care providers, many of which have agreed to give cash-paying patients a price roughly equivalent to those charged to insured customers. The site also includes pricing information from health care providers that do not give cash-paying patients an additional break.

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About 1 in 10 firms plans to drop coverage

December 3, 2012
J.K. Wall
Even as the rising cost of medical benefits has moderated, 11 percent of Indiana employers with 10 or more workers say they will terminate their medical coverage within the next five years, according to the latest survey from the benefits consulting firm Mercer.
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Medicaid expansion could cost $54M a year

November 26, 2012
J.K. Wall

A new set of projections released Monday estimates that expanding Medicaid coverage as called for in President Obama’s 2010 health reform law would cost the state government less than $54 million per year on average over the next decade—far lower than projections issued by the actuarial firm hired by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration.

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Assessment fees benefit Indy hospitals

November 26, 2012
J.K. Wall
IU Health and Community enjoyed net gains of $267 million and $23 million, respectively, from the hospital assessment fee program during the fiscal year ended June 30.
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Indiana employers desperate to improve workers' personal habitsRestricted Content

November 24, 2012
J.K. Wall
Skyrocketing health care costs prompt search for new ways to improve lifestyle choices.
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Deal provides peek at Anthem's narrow networks

November 5, 2012
J.K. Wall
A new agreement in Wisconsin provides a glimpse of the kind of “narrow network” arrangements that Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield might attempt in Indiana.
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Study: Newly insured to be poorer, less educated

October 8, 2012
J.K. Wall
New health insurance coverage created by the 2010 health reform law will attract a lower-income, less-educated and more diverse set of customers than the insurance markets that exist today, according to a new analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers. And that could create challenges for doctors and hospitals trying to care for those patients.
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  1. Irvington is up and coming much like Fountain Square. We would love to have something like this in our neighborhood!

  2. Why do we care who has submitted proposals if we can't review the proposals? It's publicly owned land, but the public has zero say in what gets chosen to be built there. Yep, that sounds about right.

  3. Perhaps May 21 is "Evangelical Day" over at the IBJ?

  4. I don't know what's more depressing: that this passes for a defensible elective in a publicly funded SCIENCE class, or that more than half of the posters here are defending this charlatan. Intelligent design is creationism. Creationism is religion. Yes, we have freedom of religion, which deserves to be protected. Now someone kindly show Professor Hedin his freedom by escorting him over to the Religion department at BSU. Carry on.

  5. I hope people realize that the 'vocal' opposition at the meeting represent the minority of people against this project. As with any controversial project - those who don't want it are the loudest, while those who like it or really don't care one way or the other don't come to such meetings. Unfortunately the same may be true of the survey now being offered by the BRVA. I live less than a 5 minute walk from BR Avenue and can tell you that I and most of my neighbors are support this exciting project, or are ambivalent. And how great that it includes quality apartments - something that BR sorely lacks. This is a first class opportunity that we should embrace (and no, I'm not with the BRVA or the developer.) As for the fellow who owns the Good Earth store, if he doesn't want competition then let him pull together his own investors and out bid Whole Foods to operate the proposed grocery component! Come on folks - let's move ahead.

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