Company news

Clarian Health Plans will add rival Community Health Network to its list of providers approved for Clarian’s Medicare Advantage customers. Beginning Jan. 1, Clarian’s health plan customers are approved to see one of Community’s 700 physicians or receive care at one of its five Indianapolis-area hospitals. Clarian Health Plans, started in 2008 as a subsidiary of the Clarian Health hospital system, administers a Medicare Advantage plan in 32 Indiana counties.

Biomet Inc. narrowed its loss in the three months ended Aug. 31 as sales rose everywhere but in Europe. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants lost $18 million in its fiscal first quarter, down from a loss of $23 million in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding special accounting charges, the company would have turned a quarterly profit of $51 million, a 3-percent increase over the same quarter last year, when special charges also were excluded. Biomet’s total sales for the quarter rose 2 percent to $641 million, with a 5-percent advance in the United State and an 11-percent rise in international markets outside Europe. Sales in Europe fell 11 percent.

Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman and the Indiana Rural Health Association launched the Indiana Telehealth Network last week, a $7 million project that will connect 22 rural Indiana hospitals with fiber-optic broadband communication lines. The network is designed to grow the use of telemedicine, where patients in remote areas could have online consultations with specialty physicians in more populous areas. The Federal Communications Commission will fund 85 percent of the project, with local funds providing the balance. The hospitals in the network are in such towns as Monticello, Tipton, Boonville and Greencastle. Indianapolis-based Clarian Health and Community Health Network will also be connected to the rural hospitals.

INphoton Inc. and two researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have received a $1 million Small Business Technology Transfer grant to commercialize its imaging services for pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. INphoton uses powerful light miscroscopes to analyze and produce 3-D images of activities in living cells within the human body. INphoton is led by former Eli Lilly and Co. executive Steve Plump.