Company news

Employees of public school corporations south of Indianapolis, along with Franklin College and Johnson County government, will be able to get free access to an immediate-care clinic under a new agreement with Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin. Called the Express Care Clinic, the service will be provided by the staff at the JMH Immediate Care Center in Franklin. The schools and county government health plans will pay a fee to Johnson Memorial to provide non-emergency care to all participants in their health plans, as well as their dependents. Such direct-contracting arrangements are becoming increasingly common, especially for public-sector employers. The South Central Indiana School Trust set up a similar arrangement last year with Morgan Hospital and Medical Center.

Indianapolis-based Arcadia Resources Inc. narrowed its quarterly loss to $2.9 million, or 2 cents per share, compared with a year-ago loss of $4.1 million, or 3 cents per share. Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 rose nearly 3 percent to $25.8 million on 44-percent growth in the company’s DailyMed drug management service. The DailyMed services packages the numerous prescriptions taken by some patients into ready-to-take packets marked with the time of day they’re supposed to be taken. Arcadia’s pharmacists also call patients to help them comply with their prescription regimens. The company signed a 3-year contract extention with Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint Inc. to provide the DailyMed service to the Medicaid recipients WellPoint manages in some states. Also, Arcadia signed a new deal with New York-based health plan Touchstone Health, to start providing the DailyMed service to its members on Jan. 1.

Third-quarter profits rose slightly at WellPoint Inc. but soared above Wall Street expectations. The Indianapolis-based health insurer raised its full-year profit forecast by 20 cents per share, excluding investment gains, to $6.45 per share. WellPoint earned $739 million during the three months ended Sept. 30, a 1-percent gain over the same quarter a year ago. The profits were driven by lower-than-expected claims expenses and lower administrative costs. Profits per share totaled $1.84. But excluding investment gains of 10 cents, the company would have earned $1.74 per share, a slight decrease from the $1.78 per share it earned a year ago. Analysts were expecting profit of $1.57 per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Quarterly revenue of $14.6 billion also edged analysts’ expectations, even though it fell 5 percent from the same quarter last year.

A swing in investment results boosted CNO Financial Group Inc.'s third-quarter profits, even as accounting charges depressed the performance of its underlying insurance businesses. The Carmel-based life and health insurer's investment losses and special charges from a year ago turned into slight investment gains this year, allowing it to boost third-quarter profit by 221 percent to $49.4 million. Profit per share was 17 cents, compared with 8 cents in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding charges, the company recorded operating income of 16 cents per share. On that basis, Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 15 cents per share. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 fell 6 percent to $1.05 billion.