Anderson officials said they are excited that companies have been showing interest in some of the industrial or commercial properties left by General Motors that need or are undergoing environmental cleanups.
The Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute Inc. won a $7.8 million award from the federal government to expand a mental health program for seniors throughout Marion County. A pilot of the program at Wishard Memorial Hospital was shown to reduce participating patients’ emergency room visits 45 percent and hospitalizations 54 percent. The program uses home visits, phone calls and e-mails—both to patients and to their family members—to cut out dangerous medications and daily stressors and to boost brain and physical exercise. The new funding, awarded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will expand the program to more than 2,000 Medicare patients at 11 community health centers operated by Wishard.
Anderson-based Saint John’s Health System announced a name change and a new $27 million surgery department to its hospital. Beginning Jan. 1, Saint John’s will be called St. Vincent Anderson Regional Hospital. The hospital system has for nearly a decade been part of the Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health network of hospitals, which is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ascension Health. Hospital leaders said the new name will better reflect that the hospital serves patients from a wider area, which extends beyond Anderson and Madison County. The regional expansion is driving the need for more operating space. So the new surgery department will include at least nine operating suites, which Saint John’s plans to use to bring in newer technology and recruit more physicians.
St. Catherine Regional Hospital of Indiana LLC near Louisville has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell the hospital as an ongoing operation. The 96-bed hospital has $8.3 million in unpaid debts, but less than $1 million in assets. In the 12 months ended in April, the hospital had an operating loss of nearly $1.3 million, according to court filings. According to the News and Tribune of Jeffersonville, St. Catherine is the second hospital in Clark County to declare file for bankruptcy protection recently. Kentuckiana Medical Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2010, but recently announced it has secured $40 million in funding that will bring it out of bankruptcy. St. Catherine has $40 million in annual patient revenue and employs 284 people.
Evansville-based Welborn Health Plans announced last week it would exit the Indiana and Kentucky health insurance markets by year’s end, and recommended that its employer customers shift to Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Welborn said it is exiting the business because changes in health insurance would require significant investments in its staff and systems to maintain a high level of customer service. Welborn insures 30,000 people through its employer clients. The two insurers signed an agreement to help Welborn customers transition smoothly.
The University of Notre Dame received $5 million to fund adult stem cell research from alumnus Michael Gallagher and his wife, Elizabeth, who live in Denver. The gift will fund three new endowed professorships in adult and other non-embryonic forms of stem cell research. Notre Dame already has built a team of researchers focused on adult stem cell research, which it supports over embryonic stem cell research—sparking controversy because the Catholic Church views the destruction of an embryo as destruction of a human life.
Home Health Depot Inc., which ranked as the fifth-fastest-growing company in Indianapolies last year, tacked on even more girth this month by acquiring Fort Wayne-based Medical Mobility LLC. The retailer sells durable medical supplies with a focus on complex rehabilitation equipment. That store will now be consolidated with Home Health Depot’s existing Fort Wayne store. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is Home Health Depot’s third acquisition this year. In February, Home Health Depot acquired a majority interest in Advanced Rehab Technologies LLC, the largest provider of complex rehabilitation equipment in Iowa. And in April, Home Health Depot acquired the assets of RCS Management Corp.’s in-home respiratory and sleep therapy business.
Moral questions abound, from Poland to Penn State.
Charitable giving grew 4 percent nationally in 2011, but the increase was less than 1 percent after adjusting for inflation, according to a report released Tuesday by the Giving USA Foundation and The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
WellPoint Inc. lowered its 2012 profit forecast 23 cents per share, or nearly 3 percent, due to a $90 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit. Lawyers for former policyholders of Anthem Insurance Cos. Inc., the predecessor of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, disclosed the settlement Friday afternoon. Pending approval by a federal judge, the settlement would cover the claims of more than 700,000 former policyholders, whose stakes in Anthem were undervalued, according to the lawsuit, before the company’s 2001 conversion from a mutual insurance company into a publicly traded one. Because of the settlement, Anthem now expects to earn a 2012 profit of $7.57 per share, down from a previous estimate of $7.80 per share.
Hancock Regional Hospital is moving to acquire nearly 50 acres in McCordsville, even though it has no specific expansion plan. According to the Greenfield Daily Reporter, the hospital’s board of trustees approved spending up to $1.2 million for the 48.5-acre parcel in the Villages of Brookside development. Hancock Regional, based in Greenfield, has made a tentative offer for the land to its current owner, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank. The offer hinges on an environmental assessment that is still under way. If the bid is accepted, said Rob Matt, Hancock Regional’s vice president of development, the land could become the location for additional medical office space, another wellness center or another surgery center. But in the short term, the hospital likely would lease the land for farming. “We’re not exactly sure what the future holds, but we think McCordsville is a great location for potential future expansion of a variety of health services,” Matt said. The land was part of a 300-acre development started in 2005. But the sections of the project that were marked off for business and apartments have been slow to develop because of the housing slump, financial crisis and recession.
Eli Lilly and Co. invested $20 million in a Chinese pharmaceutical company in an effort to build a portfolio of branded generic medicines in the fast-growing Asian market. Novast Laboratories Ltd., based north of Shanghai, received a $10 million initial investment from Indianapolis-based Lilly five years ago. The new money, announced June 12, will fund an expansion of Novast’s manufacturing capabilities. Lilly is working with Novast to develop a catalog of generic versions of medicines not created by Lilly that will be branded with the Lilly name. Down the road, Novast also may take on manufacturing responsibilities for new drugs Lilly launches in China and other Asian countries. Since 2009, Lilly has rapidly ramped up sales and research functions in China, and now employs more than 3,000 people there. In June, Lilly announced the opening of a research and development center in Shanghai focused exclusively on diabetes. It employs 150. Lilly's sales in China increased 31 percent last year, to nearly $420 million, according to company officials.
An Indian-born physician fired by St. Vincent Health is suing the hospital network in federal court on charges of discrimination and harassment. Seema Nayak filed her suit June 13 and is seeking past and future pay in addition to other damages for the hospital’s “malicious and/or reckless conduct.” St. Vincent officials did not return messages seeking comment on the suit. Nayak’s suit follows a complaint she filed in October 2010 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which granted her the right to sue. Her employment contract was not renewed by the hospital in June 2010. She began her first-year residency program at St. Vincent in July 2007 in the obstetrics and gynecology department. Though Nayak exceeded performance standards during her first- and second-year residencies, according to the suit, she became the target of discrimination from other residents due to her accent and Indian origin. Later, her suit alleges, St. Vincent also pressured her to return to work quickly after taking maternity leave and then retaliated against her by giving her an especially difficult residency rotation.
I’ve been taking my kids and their pals to Conner Prairie for 15 years. But the most recent visit was the first time they wanted to spend the whole time in Prairietown.
Land at the Waterfront Office Park that sat vacant for decades is now ripe for retail development thanks to the reconfiguration of a west-side interstate interchange.
Median household income fell 13.6 percent—the second-largest decrease in the nation.
Tim Durham’s attorney is hellbent on preventing prosecutors from fixating on the things that made the Indianapolis financier a staple of TV news and gossip columns—his fancy cars, waterfront mansion and other trappings of a lavish lifestyle. Durham’s trial is set to begin on Friday.
Dave Menzer, director of the Sierra Club’s new “Beyond Coal” campaign in Indiana, aims to spark discussion about the health and environmental costs of the state’s bituminous bounty that for years has brought relatively cheap electric rates.
After three years of shrinking budgets, Indianapolis Museum of Art leaders are ready to leave the lean times behind. The IMA’s endowment, which has covered close to 70 percent of operating expenses, is on the rebound and reached $324 million at the end of last year.
Most analysts agree with Eli Lilly and Co.’s prediction that, after tough years from 2012 to 2014, the drugmaker will start growing sales and profits again. But in a new report, BMO Capital Markets predicts Lilly will get stuck at a reduced level of revenue and profit in 2014 and stay there for years. “We […]
Most analysts agree with Eli Lilly and Co.’s prediction that, after tough years from 2012 to 2014, the drugmaker will begin growing sales and profits again. But in a new report, BMO Capital Markets predicts Lilly will get stuck at a reduced level of revenue and profit in 2014 and stay there for years.
The two main retail centers in a northeast-side development area will be at 100-percent occupancy when Uncle Bill’s Pet Express opens in a small space at Binford Boulevard and 71st Street. Binford Area Growth and Revitalization, a super-neighborhood association better known as BRAG, began striving for this milestone in 2005.
