The drugmaker has successfully moved experimental drugs into position to win approval by regulators. But only once in the
last four years has a new drug actually made it to market—the industry’s equivalent of getting
across the goal line.
Migraines cost American employers $20 billion a year in decreased worker productivity. Such
a frequent and uncured disease stands as a huge business opportunity for the health care industry, including locally based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
A little lobbying on your lunch break? A consumer group says health insurers WellPoint Inc. and Minnesota-based UnitedHealth
Group pressured their employees to speak to members of Congress against health care reform proposals that the companies disagreed
with, the Associated Press reported. In a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the group Consumer Watchdog maintains
that both companies violated state labor laws. The attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the letter. Indianapolis-based
WellPoint, in an e-mail to employees, asserted that proposed health care legislation could cause tens of millions of Americans
to lose private health coverage and end up in a government-run insurance plan. Other consequences, the e-mail said, could
include limited choice for customers, and increased premiums for those with private coverage due to new mandates and coverage
requirements. "We believe it is important and permissible to provide up-to-date information about health reform to our
associates," spokeswoman Cheryl Leamon said in an e-mail.
Health records are now flying around the
state. At least part of the state. The Indianapolis-based Indiana Health Information Exchange last week began sharing electronic
medical records with two similar organizations across a multi-regional network. Connecting with HealthLINC in Bloomington
and HealthBridge in Cincinnati creates the nation’s first exchange of medical information among such organizations in different
regions, Indiana Health Information Exchange officials said.
Now, for example, if a patient is admitted to
a hospital in Indianapolis, physicians at his or her doctor’s office in Bloomington will be able to access the patient’s medical
information via the Internet, including test results and radiology notes. Together, the three exchanges connect more than
15,000 physicians, 50 hospitals and 12 million patient records. Initially, the Indiana Health Information Exchange will send
medical records to HealthLINC and HealthBridge providers. Full interconnectivity, in which information will flow among all
exchanges, should begin in mid-September.
The Indiana Health Industry Forum will hold a day-long summit on health
reform today. Various panels will address different aspects of reform and its potential impact. Panelists include Dr. John
Fitzgerald, CEO of the Indiana Clinic, Dhan Shapurji, a director at Deloitte Consulting, Bart Peterson, Eli Lilly and Co.’s
senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications, and Dr. Thomas Inui, CEO of Regenstrief Institute Inc. The
summit will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at University Place Conference Center on the IUPUI campus.
Eli Lilly and Co. paid doctors in South Carolina for participating in a speakers’ program in exchange for prescribing the
antipsychotic Zyprexa, according to notes by Lilly sales representatives reviewed by Bloomberg News.
The Indianapolis-based Indiana Health Information Exchange today began sharing electronic medical records with two similar
organizations across a multi-regional network, the group announced this morning.
The St. Francis hospital system has finalized a multiyear agreement with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana, ending
a months-long dispute over insurance-reimbursement costs, the parties said yesterday.
There are cruises to the Antarctic in large luxury ships that go near the islands—close enough to afford
magnificent views. But those ships are too big to get close enough to go ashore.
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Community Health Network has chosen Anthony Lennen as president of Community Hospital South and Dr. Robin Ledyard as president
of Community Hospital East, the health care system announced this morning.
Indianapolis physicians are mixed on the merits of a government-run, "public" health insurance plan. How reforms
might affect their pay is another major concern.
It is time for competent Hoosiers suffering at the end of their lives to have access to all modern medicines
for humane relief.
Companies are helping workers age 65 and above decide whether to forgo their company health insurance and shift to Medicare.
Medicare is becoming more attractive as costs of company policies rise.
It’s no secret that Eli Lilly and Co. is the biggest private employer in the Indianapolis area. But
Lilly also supplemented the incomes of a few dozen local doctors — to the tune of more than $224,000 in just the first
quarter.
In almost every place that two or more Americans gather, health care is debated. Because the bills before Congress are
inaccessible, the debate has shifted instead to principles such as the role of government and individual freedoms. I think this a healthy thing.
We lost a member of the family last month. Casey Elizabeth Maurer died a peaceful death at her age of 105. At the end,
her hearing and eyesight were vastly impaired and she was in constant pain. Her time had come.
One of the biggest challenges facing our nation is health care reform. Despite development of the most innovative and significant
advances in medical treatment, our ability as health care professionals to provide high-quality, cost-effective and continual
patient care too often falls by the wayside as a result of misalignments in our health care system.
In the eyes of Scott Law, Congress is heading in exactly the wrong direction on health care reform.
But the
CEO of Zotec Partners predicts a big bump in sales for his physician-billing management company if current reform proposals
become law.
A panel of five leaders of the state’s life sciences
industry took on a wide range of topics
July 24 at IBJ’s Power Breakfast
at the Westin Indianapolis.
More emerging life science companies have found life in the form of federal
Small Business Innovation Research grants.
Eli Lilly and Co. has blasted past analysts’ earnings projections for two straight quarters. But if Lilly officials
take that as a sign they can breathe easier, they need only flip through a stack of Wall Street research reports on the company.
