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.
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.
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 is time for competent Hoosiers suffering at the end of their lives to have access to all modern medicines
for humane relief.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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The tool the administration is using to measure waste shows that expenses in Indianapolis might be low enough
not to get whacked. But the region isn’t performing so well that it’s likely to get much praise, either.
The stitching together of doctors and hospitals—two groups that historically have kept each other at arm’s length—is
a trend picking up speed locally and nationally and could accelerate even further if Congress passes health care reform.
Health reform that would cover millions of uninsured Americans would theoretically send a flood of new
patients to physicians. Yet in Indiana and nationwide, there’s already a shortage of doctors.
Rolls-Royce, the British jet engine maker, isn’t taking a position on health care reform, but let’s drag them into it, anyway,
because Rolls-Royce’s business model might interest the crowd advocating for reform via market forces.
The new president of Community Hospital East says her job is all about health—the health of not just patients, but
the entire neighborhood.
