Company news

The CEO of Fishers-based Positron Corp., which plans to build a $55 million cyclotron in Noblesville for medical isotopes, faces a lawsuit from the U.S. Secruities and Exchange Commission, alleging he defrauded investors of a hedge fund he operates by secretly investing their money into Positron. CEO Patrick G. Rooney also is founder and managing partner of Oakbrook, Ill.-based Solaris Management. IBJ reported in September that Positron lost $10.9 million last year and at year-end had an accumulated deficit of $102.3 million. Earlier this year, Positron’s accounting firm issued a going-concern warning about the company. The SEC alleges Rooney and Solaris between 2005 and 2008 invested more than $3.6 million of the fund's money in Positron through both private transactions and market purchases of Positron’s common stock. The fund now owns over 1.1 billion shares of Positron, or more than 60 percent of the company. Rooney “hid” the Positron investment and his affiliation with the Fishers company until March 2009, according to the SEC’s lawsuit. At that time “he lied in telling them that he became chairman to safeguard the Solaris Funds’ investment,” the suit states. Rooney could not be immediately reached for comment about the SEC complaint.

Community Health Network plans to move its inpatient rehabilitation facility from its east-side hospital to a new, $23 million facility in the Castleton neighborhood, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced Monday. The new facility, which will include 60 beds in 63,000 square feet of space, is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2013. Construction on or near the Community Hospital North campus will begin next year. Community is partnering with Nashville-based Centerre Healthcare on the new facility, which will provide care for neurological, stroke and traumatic injury patients. Community’s inpatient rehabilitation program, called Hook Rehabilitation, will move its services and staff to the new facility when it opens and close the 42-bed unit located in Community Hospital East. Community, which acquired Westview Hospital earlier this year, is also moving ahead with plans to build a Communtiy Westview medical facility in Speedway. According to the Speedway Redevelopment Commission, the 40,000-square-foot health pavilion would include physician offices, imaging equipment and lab testing. It could also serve as a training facility for osteopathic medical students. If approved by the boards of directors for Community and Westview, groundbreaking for the health pavilion could occur as early as spring 2012.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. won the sweepstakes for XLHealth Corp., which had reportedly included Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. Baltimore-based XLHealth is the latest company nabbed in a string of acquisitions of Medicare managed care companies. The purchase by Minnesota-based UnitedHealth follows purchases of similar companies by WellPoint and Cigna in June and October, respectively. WellPoint acquired California-based CareMore Health Group, which operates clinics for Medicare patients in California and Arizona. Health insurers are trying to expand their businesses caring for seniors in the federal Medicare program, as the baby boomer generation began to flood into the program this year.