Indiana University leaders believe their researchers can spawn 100 new companies, pump $2.4 billion into the state's economy, help create 14,000 jobs, and generate a $2.25 return for every dollar spends if the General Assembly will invest in their bold life sciences strategy.
Noble Roman’s Inc. executives think they’ve found the recipe to lift their company out of its stock malaise. The Indianapolis company started franchising last year restaurants that feature dual branding with its Tuscano’s Italian Style Subs, and it plans 157 locations within three years.
Gateway Medical Resource Alliance, a niche health care benefits company, will shut down Aug. 30, more than a month after losing the lone Indianapolis hospital in its network. The company, which has shrunk to six workers, provides employers discounts for certain cardiology, orthopedics and oncology care. In return for fees from the employers, Gateway offers flat, all-inclusive prices for procedures. It also offers prescription and wellness services. CEO Terry Kopp said he still hopes to find another hospital to resuscitate…
No 75-year-old retiree should drop his or her life savings into an annuity that imposes a 10-year wait before the first payment. Indiana regulators understand this basic investment rule, and they want to ensure that the people who sell annuities follow it as well. The state Department of Insurance now places the burden of deciding whether an annuity is right for a consumer over age 65 on the seller, thanks to a new rule that started July 1. It requires…
No layoffs. No seven-figure budget cut to sweat through. IU School of Medicine Dean Dr. Craig Brater had many reasons to raise a toast this month, when a new fiscal year began and the school left behind an old one marked by the worst budget cuts in decades. Indeed, Brater said he is breathing a little easier as the school starts fiscal 2006-2007 with a budget of more than $815 million. An increase in clinical revenue and grant money helped…
Conseco Inc. rolled out a fresh blueprint for product development earlier this year, and it was high time the insurer did so, say analysts who follow the company. The Carmel-based holding company is combining the resources of its subsidiaries and developing a corporate-wide system to pump out products more efficiently for its two main operating segments, Conseco Insurance Group and Chicago-based Bankers Life. It hopes to see results soon. Conseco Insurance Group launched only four new products in 2004 and…
Imagine a vaccine that kills salmonella bacteria in chickens long before they reach the food-processing center, possibly reducing the chance of a food-borne illness landing on your dinner plate. That’s one of the possibilities researchers are thinking about on the northwest side of Indianapolis, where Dow AgroSciences has become a pioneer in the new frontier of plant-based vaccines. Earlier this year, the subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co. received the world’s first regulatory approval for a plant-made vaccine from the U.S….
A touch-screen directory, a grove of potted trees and a muffin-bearing kiosk greet visitors entering the six-story atrium at the new Clarian North Medical Center in Carmel. A much milder scene awaits people walking into Westview Hospital a few miles away, on the west side of Indianapolis. There, a lonely player piano spills soft tunes into a one-story lobby filled with clusters of chairs and pamphlets on volunteering. “Quiet! Healing in Progress” reads a nearby sign. Indiana’s lone osteopathic hospital…
A Franklin psychiatrist has accused the state agency that runs Medicaid of suffocating his practice in a reimbursement dispute that dates back more than a year. Dr. John Lewis said the weekly Medicaid checks that keep his Harmony Center open dwindled to nothing for four straight weeks after he filed a lawsuit in April against the state Family and Social Services Administration over a payment review it imposed. The psychiatrist believes his center may survive only another month, a closing…
Indiana hospitals are drawing inspiration from the aviation industry for their latest push to reduce medical errors. The Indiana Patient Safety Center, which opened July 1, will foster a blamefree approach to reporting errors, much like the environment promoted by the Federal Aviation Administration. The result will be a culture that encourages system analysis to fix flaws that lead to an error, rather than one that merely heaps blame on the person who committed it, said Bob Morr, vice president…
A physician-billing service recently gave WellPoint Inc. a virtual spanking over its sometimesstrained relationship with doctors. M a s s a c h u s e t t s – b a s e d Athenahealth Inc. rated the Indianapolis insurer last out of seven national payers in its so-called “pain in the butt” index posted online late last month. The unusual index aims to tell doctors how easy-or difficult-it is to work with each insurer by using data the…
Families want more long-term-care options for their elderly loved ones these days, and Indiana officials are trying to lend a hand. The state will begin a year-long moratorium on nursing home construction July 1, shortly after the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration starts a marketing campaign called Options to let Hoosiers know they have choices outside of stashing Grandma at Shady Acres for a couple of years. Indiana also will boost Medicaid reimbursement for these options, which include assisted…
Concerns about oxygen tanks and noisy delivery trucks have cropped up since St. Vincent unveiled plans last winter for the long-term, acute-care hospital on Township Line Road. “They just kind of stomped in and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do,'” said Beth King, a resident of Spring Hill Place, a 40-home subdivision on the site’s northern border. However, hospital officials, who are preparing for a ground breaking on the $17 million project this month, say they made several…
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning passed on a chance to buy the Carmel estate built for Conseco Inc. founder Stephen Hilbert that’s on the market for a cool $20 million. Pacers forward Jermaine O’Neal also rejected the opportunity a couple of times, real estate broker Dick Richwine said. Nearly a year after it went up for sale, the Carmel property labeled the most expensive home in Indiana is still searching for the right buyer. But a recent flurry of interest and…
Respiratory therapist David Farr claims he lost his job with St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers last year over an infection that never harmed a patient. Hundreds of pornography links found in a computer Farr shared with six other therapists prompted the hospital to fire him. However, Farr said he never knew the links existed, according to a lawsuit he filed in federal court over his dismissal. The therapist blames poor computer security for allowing malicious porn-promoting software from Russia…
Technology experts, doctors and politicians this week will discuss the possibility of interconnecting the handful of computer networks in Indiana that allow doctors to exchange patient information. They say a network reaching every corner of the state could save money, boost care and reduce medical errors while keeping Indiana at the front of the national pack for this technology. However, none of the health-information network leaders who will convene for a summit this week in Indianapolis expects the network to…
Dial One added a new owner, a fresh look and a third word to its name when a Florida company bought the venerable Indianapolis heating, cooling and plumbing contractor late last month. Sarasota-based Clockwork Home Services Inc. also plans to add 30 field technicians and about 10 office employees over the next three years to the newly renamed Dial One Hour, which has roots in Indianapolis dating back to 1908. Now, Dial One Hour employs 189. “We have no plans…
Complaint totals sank steeply last year for many Indiana health insurers, partly because the state insurance department continues to revamp its often-maligned method of tracking them. Regulators recorded 1,232 signed complaints last year, a 30-percent drop from 2004, according to figures published on the consumer section of the Indiana Department of Insurance Web site. The drop from earlier years is even steeper. The department recorded 3,133 complaints in 2002 and 1,848 the next year. Many of Indiana’s largest insurers also…
Standard Life Insurance Company of Indiana has much to celebrate as it passes the one-year anniversary of its sale to Capital Assurance Corp. Profitability, a rating upgrade and product launches all are among the positives the company can tout since it gained new life and left behind old owner Standard Management Corp. last June. Standard Life notched a $15.8 million profit last year, due mostly to a gain from the sale of its life insurance business. Subtract that, though, and…
Gas station and convenience store owners are seeking permits to sell alcohol at an unprecedented clip this year, alarming operators of traditional liquor stores. The Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, which represents liquor stores, counts 102 permit applications in the state so far this year, d o u b l e t h e n u m b e r f o r all of 2005. Speedway gas stations alone have filed 40 permit applications, including 19 in Marion County,…
