WellPoint Inc.’s woes made for a gloomy day on Wall Street and could turn into year-long gloom for the whole industry. That’s what at least one Wall Street firm said after Indianapolis-based WellPoint sharply lowered its profit forecast late yesterday. Its share price fell 26 percent this morning, to $48.55. Goldman Sachs and Co. slashed […]
On the same day this month when high school boys’ basketball teams compete to advance to the state finals, another event showcasing the talents of Indiana’s youth should be just as climactic. Only this contest emphasizes academics over athletics. The three-day Boilermaker Regional at Purdue University that culminates March 15 will host roughly 40 high school robotics programs, including 26 schools from Indiana. Students will apply their engineering and computer programming skills to design and build task-performing machines. The winning…
Indiana Senate Bill 335 is a poorly crafted public policy that fails to reflect the totality of immigration and the societal and economic issues associated with it. Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, numbering 47 million. About a quarter of Hispanic adults, roughly 11 million, are unauthorized immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated Indiana’s unauthorized immigrant population at 65,000, roughly 1 percent of the population. In 2004, 93 percent of unauthorized men age 18-64 were in the labor force,…
Several local entities, ranging from St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital to the state of Indiana to Indianapolis Public Schools, last year experienced wellpublicized electronic security breaches involving confidential data. While the victims of the lapses and those at fault emerged relatively unscathed, such incidents underscore the ease in which personal information can be lost or stolen in today’s computerized world. With roughly 165 million people tapping into to the Internet nationally, the opportunities for security breaches are plentiful. Throw in the…
Ten years ago, Dan Bardin was exactly where he wanted to be. He was running insurance operations for behemoth American International Group in Thailand, as Asian financial markets collapsed. “I was there right in the middle of the crisis. And that’s what I like,” Bardin said. Today, Bardin has found his way to another crisis of sorts. He’s the new president of the Conseco Insurance Group. During the year leading up to Bardin’s arrival in December, the subsidiary of Carmel-based…
Clarian Health has acquired a controlling stake in a cardiology practice based at the Indiana Heart Hospital, which is owned
by Clarian competitor Community Health Network.
Less than a month after starting a job she didn’t know she wanted, Indiana Black Expo CEO Tanya Bell has big plans for the nation’s oldest and largest group of its kind. Bell wants to diversify the statewide organization’s revenue stream and expand its already-impressive roster of more than 100 corporate sponsors. Doing that will mean raising awareness of the year-round programs that have been overshadowed by IBE’s two signature events: its annual Summer Celebration and Circle City Classic football…
For seven years, real estate investment trusts delivered returns that clobbered the overall stock market. Then, last year, the winning streak came to an end. Between January 2007 and January 2008, REITs as a whole lost 24 percent of their value. An index of the companies took a bigger hit than most every other sector. Among local REITs, Duke Realty Corp. was the hardest hit, with its stock price falling 44 percent, from about $41 to $23, during the one-year…
UnitedHealthcare has signed a three-year contract with the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, bringing the specialty hospital into UnitedHealthcare’s central Indiana network of health care providers. The contract, announced today, took effect on Feb. 1. It gives the orthopedic hospital “in-network” status, which typically means bigger discounts for UnitedHealthcare customers. OrthoIndy, a group of more 60 orthopedic […]
A large group of Bloomington doctors has reached an agreement in principle with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana that will keep the doctors in Anthem’s provider network. The agreement means Anthem customers will continue to receive discounted rates at Internal Medicine Associates, a group of 55 primary care physicians and five nurse […]
A union that’s organizing janitors in Indianapolis and other cities plans to deliver 100,000 candy hearts to Central Indiana Corporate Partnership at noon today to represent the number of people in Indianapolis the union says are without health insurance. Central Indiana Corporate Partnership is a not-for-profit of CEOs of the region’s largest corporations and university […]
Health insurance companies including Indianapolis’ own WellPoint Inc. have been relentless in trying to suppress
spiraling health costs. So relentless, in fact, that doctors are pushing back.
Physician groups in Kokomo, Rushville and other cities are refusing to take new patients…
Paul Gresk, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation of Winona Memorial Hospital, is pushing for a showdown in court
to prove his claims that Winona’s former owner, Leland Medical Centers Inc., illegally transferred more than $4 million out
of Winona.
The next generation of environmental law is coming to a firm near you. Many law firms have existing practices that counsel clients on the complexities of complying with air and water permits or cleaning up contaminated properties. But now that the corporate sector is embracing “green” initiatives quicker than Al Gore accumulates carbon credits, environmental law is becoming as sexy as, say, intellectual property. Two of the city’s largest firms-Ice Miller LLP and Baker & Daniels LLP-recently unveiled so-called “green”…
Truck drivers are accustomed to logging lots of miles on their 18-wheelers, but on their sneakers? They are at locally based Celadon Group, thanks to its “Highway 2 Health” wellness program the trucking firm launched in 2006. Prodding employees to lead healthier lifestyles is a way to help cut escalating health care costs. It’s a challenging task for any corporation, particularly for transporters whose workers are strewn throughout the country hauling freight on America’s highways. Sitting behind a wheel for…
Fifty years ago, a sick or injured worker in a manufacturing plant did not have to leave work to get care-the worker simply went to the plant clinic and saw the company doctor. Today, the idea of the company clinic is making a come back, but with a new emphasis on wellness and prevention. health recommendations and concerns. In some cases, these routine visits can lead to the discovery of potentially serious conditions that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and…
A contract dispute between health insurer UnitedHealthcare and hospital system Community Health Network could upset coverage for thousands of Hoosiers. The two organizations are still in “active negotiations” and are “optimistic that a mutually beneficial agreement can be reached,” according to a joint statement they issued late Friday afternoon. The statement said UnitedHealthcare’s contract with […]
Anxieties about immigration legislation introduced this session are growing. If the bill passes, businesses that “knowingly” hire undocumented workers will face harsh penalties: threeyear probation for companies found to have hired undocumented immigrants; for a second offense, loss of the firm’s license to do business in Indiana. And it would be a misdemeanor to transport, conceal or harbor an unauthorized immigrant; a second offense would be a felony. The law would require the Indiana attorney general to investigate complaints against…
Shares of WellPoint Inc. fell 4.7 percent this morning after the Indianapolis health insurer announced strong fourth-quarter financial performance but also said it failed to attract as many new customers as it expected. The stock was trading near $75 after closing yesterday at $78.75. The Indianapolis-based health insurer added 708,000 customers in 2007, missing its […]
Greg Sipes likens the new executiveservices suite he and his partners opened three months ago to a BMW. Its quality is solid, to be sure, but what makes people want to drive it is its look and feel. It’s an apt comparison for the 2,500-square-foot wing of the new offices of Sipes’ behavioral health practice, Indiana Health Group. A set of boardroom-like double doors leads to a waiting room with shiny hardwood floors, dark wood paneling, plush rugs, overstuffed chairs…
