Executives at Bloomington-based Cook Group have never been fans of the $2.3 billion-a-year tax on medical-device manufacturers included in the 2010 health reform law. Late company founder Bill Cook even once said the tax could kill 1,000 jobs in Bloomington. Cook Chairman Steve Ferguson won’t go that far, but he insists the law is forcing Cook to grow outside the United States instead of at home. “You don’t want to say to your work force that you’re going to lay people off,” Ferguson told Bloomberg News. “The tax is going to result in growth in another location and not in the U.S.; that’s the way I see the impact on Cook.” The tax will be levied based on each company’s U.S. market share—regardless of how profitable the company is. Supporters of the tax have argued that it will indirectly help medical-device manufacturers do more business, because the 2010 health law uses that money to subsidize insurance coverage for an extra 30 million Americans. But Ferguson said Cook expects to receive no new business from the law. He noted that a large chunk of the newly insured will be young people, who most likely will have no need of Cook’s products. Also, Cook sells to hospitals not to consumers, and in many cases, previous laws have already required hospitals to provide medical devices to uninsured people who need them. “So it doesn’t increase the number of devices sold,” Ferguson said.
Chamberlain College of Nursing is opening a campus in Indianapolis with classes scheduled to begin Feb. 27. It is the first Indiana location for Illinois-based Chamberlain, which operates nine other campuses around the country. “Indiana will not be able to build a strong nursing work force if prospective nurses do not have adequate access to quality nursing education,” said Susan Groenwald, national president of Chamberlain. In Indiana, more than 12,000 additional nurses will be needed by 2018, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The Indianapolis campus, at 9100 Keystone Crossing, will offer a three-year bachelor’s program in nursing. The local campus will be led by Margaret Harvey, who previously served as interim dean of nursing at Davenport University in Iowa.
Indianapolis-based Healthx Inc., a provider of online health care portals to health insurers, medical providers and employers, has received a $22 million investment from a private-equity firm in Charlotte, N.C. Frontier Capital announced the investment on Jan. 5 and said the funding will support the company’s continued expansion. Founded in 1998, Healthx develops self-service communication and data integration portals for the health care and human resources industries. The company, in The Precedent Office Park on the north side, has 65 employees. Healthx President and CEO Greg Bell will continue to lead the company, Frontier Capital said. The transaction closed on Dec. 28.
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