Company news

WellPoint Inc.’s now infamous decision to raise rates on individual customers in California as much
as 39 percent was apparently made over objections by the company’s California president. Those increases by the Indianapolis-based
health insurer were widely blamed for reigniting a dying health reform bill that WellPoint opposed. In an interview with the
Los Angeles Times, Leslie Margolin said she worked internally to prevent WellPoint from raising rates so high and,
once they did, to scale them back. The newspaper reported that Margolin and others voicing concerns about the size and timing
of the hikes were overruled by WellPoint corporate executives. Margolin did not voice concerns about the increases when she
was called before the California legislature to explain them, but the Times said she did apologize in a speech at
Pepperdine University. WellPoint replaced Margolin last month and she told the Times she was escorted from her office
by security guards, without a chance to say farewell to her employees. WellPoint said Margolin’s departure had nothing
to with the rate hikes.

Officials in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration want to use the Healthy Indiana Plan as the vehicle to expand Medicaid
coverage under the new federal health reform law—in spite of Daniels’ earlier comments that the new law would
kill the three-year-old plan. According to the Associated Press, Indiana human services chief Anne Murphy sent a letter to
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services saying the Healthy Indiana Plan is "the natural vehicle" for expanding
Medicaid coverage to Indiana residents in 2014. But when the new health law passed, Daniels described the Healthy Indiana
Plan as a "program whose days are numbered" and asked Murphy to begin planning its phaseout.

Northwest Radiology Network PC recently expanded into Anderson by acquiring Madison County Imaging at St.
John’s Medical Center and affiliating with Central Indiana Orthopedics of Anderson. Northwest Radiology is
now providing its services to St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana. Both St. John’s and the Heart Center
are owned by the St. Vincent Health hospital system, based in Indianapolis.

The complex regulatory process for winning approval of combo medical products is the topic of next week’s Life Sciences
Lunch at the Barnes & Thornburg law firm downtown. Gretchen Bowker, an Eli Lilly and Co. alumna and now chief operating
officer of Pearl IRB Inc. in Indianapolis, will present, as will Julie Dykstra, a Barnes & Thornburg
attorney. The Aug. 17 event, organized by the Indiana Health Industry Forum, costs $10 and starts at 11:30
a.m.