Clarian Health is launching its own health insurance plan, the boldest of several initiatives at Indianapolis hospitals to
bypass health insurers and provide health benefits directly to employers.
The $33.5 million the Capital Improvement Board is providing the Indiana Pacers is merely a Band-Aid that will do little to
solve serious short-term and long-term issues facing the team.
Nearly four months after President Barack Obama signed a health reform bill into law, businesses are still grappling with its
impact on the health benefits they offer their employees.
Medical device maker Biomet Inc. plans an expansion of its northern Indiana facilities that could add about
280 jobs, according to the Associated Press. Company officials have discussed the plan with Kosciusko County officials as
they've sought tax breaks on the $26 million project. Biomet attorney Richard Helm says the expansion in Warsaw would
retain about 80 jobs and lead to some manufacturing being moved there from New Jersey. The project would also expand Biomet’s
Warsaw distribution center.
Eli Lilly and Co. will cut 170 jobs—mostly in Indianapolis—from its manufacturing and quality
division by the end of the year as it continues its efforts to slim down before losing revenue from patent expirations on
its bestselling drugs. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker’s latest move will cut nearly 5 percent of its 3,600-person
manufacturing work force in the United States. Lilly will ask for voluntary departures, but it also will eliminate the jobs
of others involuntarily. Some jobs have already been eliminated through attrition. Lilly has announced nearly 2,000 job cuts
toward its goal of 5,500 cuts, which the company set in September. The company is also trying to eliminate $1 billion in annual
expenses by the end of 2011. At that time, it hopes to have a worldwide staff of about 35,000. It currently employs 12,400
in Indiana.
Hundreds of patients will be shifted from Indiana's state psychiatric hospitals into community-based care under a plan
that officials say will eliminate more than 500 jobs, according to the Associated Press. The biggest changes and the layoffs
will come at the Logansport and Richmond state hospitals, while units at the Evansville and Madison hospitals will be converted
to care for those with serious mental illnesses. The moves by the Indiana Family and Social Services Adminstration are expected
to reduce the number of patients at the six state hospitals by about 30 percent and save $15 million a year. The Logansport
State Hospital will have 355 of its 900 workers laid off and 80 vacant positions eliminated. The Richmond
State Hospital will lose 106 of its 600 workers.
A medical device company is seeking a property-tax abatement to offset costs associated with a $1.1 million expansion of
its facility at 3735 N. Arlington Ave. in Indianapolis. New York-based Greatbatch Medical Inc. expects to
create eight jobs at an average wage of $12.75 an hour and retain 146 jobs at an average wage of $14 an hour, according to
the abatement request. Greatbatch specializes in cardiovascular products but is expanding into the orthopedics market, which
is prompting the expansion, the company said.
Dr. Tom Inui, the outgoing CEO of Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute, talks about the ascendency of
health information exchange as a solution to health care challenges and what he'll do next for the medical research organization.
A combination of taxes targeting downtown visitors and users of the city’s professional sports complexes are expected to generate
the bulk of the subsidy.
A plan to build a 28-acre sports complex on the southeast side is sparking hopes that a polluted parcel across the street
that formerly housed a Citizens coke plant can be revived as a retail and industrial center.
Eli Lilly and Co. is launching a diagnostics division to produce tests that can winnow out the patients most likely to benefit
from a Lilly drug.
David Hartley pulled $85,000 from his savings six years ago to buy Home Health Depot Inc. Nearly six years later, Hartley
has reinvented the Indianapolis-based home medical equipment supplier, growing from a single office in Greenwood to 12 locations
in Indiana and Illinois—and increasing annual revenue from $300,000 to more than $6.7 million.
Actress and former Indiana Repertory Theatre staff member Megan McKinney has been hired to prepare for the three-year fundraising
initiative.
Our state needs to learn how to effectively engage with the emerging economies of the 21st century in order to be successful.
What do you do when you have little discretionary money and enormous challenges? You might follow the example being set by
Mayor Greg Goodnight in Kokomo.
Here’s the business plan: Expand from hat retailing into two new segments—licensed sports apparel and team-sports
equipment—and benefit from the synergies among them.
Dr. Bill Tierney will replace Dr. Tom Inui on Oct. 1 at helm of Indianapolis-based medical research organization.
Three of the six additions are executives on loan from the Indiana Sports Corp. and the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors
Association.
The Westfield planning commission has asked city employees to further review the 1,400-acre mixed-use project that could include
thousands of homes, shops, a YMCA and a baseball stadium.
Women are leading the movement toward healthful, organic food grown close to home. Farmer’s markets, CSAs, food co-ops are
sign of growing trend.
Roche Diagnostics, which runs its U.S. operations out of Indianapolis, has partnered with IBM to develop a DNA sequencer much faster and cheaper than current technology. Roche and IBM ultimately want to provide a test that performs whole genome sequencing for $100 to $1,000 per test. Such wide access could make genetic sequencing as standard as biopsies, for example, and then allow medical professionals to “personalize” medical treatment based on a person’s genes. As part of the agreement, Roche will fund continued development of the technology at IBM and provide additional resources and expertise through collaboration with Roche’s sequencing subsidiary, Maryland-based 454 Life Sciences. Roche will develop and market all products based on the technology.
Indianapolis-based insurer WellPoint Inc. said its California subsidiary will dial down rate hikes that drew national outrage earlier this year and helped spark a final push for health care reform, according to the Associated Press. WellPoint now plans to raise rates by 14 percent for California individual policyholders. It will cap rate hikes at 20 percent, even though the company said it would lose $100 million on the plans this year. In April WellPoint withdrew increases that averaged 25 percent—and topped out at 39 percent—after consumers and President Barack Obama expressed outrage. WellPoint defended the hikes by saying rising medical costs and healthy people dropping coverage during the recession were forcing it to raise rates. But an outside actuary also found math errors, which prompted last week’s reduction.
About $72 million in construction bids have been awarded so far for the new Wishard Hospital. The contracts total about 14 percent of the entire construction package for the $754 million project, said Matt Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County, which owns the hospital. He said the new hospital is on schedule and slightly below budget. The 1.2-million-square-foot hospital will be built on 37 acres at the west end of the IUPUI campus. Bids that have been awarded include demolition work, as well as work on a parking garage, the hospital’s foundation and utilities. Wishard hopes to award all contracts by January.
