Home » Search

Search Results

14172 results for 'articles'

To refine your search through our archives use our Advanced Search

Company news

Indianapolis-based Strand Diagnostics LLC will receive up to $30 million in investment capital over the next three years from Los Angeles-based NantWorks LLC, a seed-stage investment firm, the companies announced last week. Strand Diagnostics makes the Know Error system, which uses bar coding and DNA matching to make sure biopsy samples are matched to the correct patients when submitted to its labs for testing. The investment capital will help it scale up its operations and sales efforts, the company said in a news release. NantWorks is the same company that announced in January it would sink $85.5 million into a former Pfizer Inc. plant in Terre Haute to produce injectable drugs for use in cancer patients and in critical care situations. NantWorks predicted the plant would employ 234 people by 2016. Strand Diagnostics, which operates a testing lab south of Indianapolis International Airport, launched Know Error in 2009. The company has 58 employees, with 48 of them in Indiana.

The Federal Trade Commission gave the OK to the marriage of Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc., two pharmacy benefit managers that combined employ 800 people in the Indianapolis area. The $29 billion deal, according to Bloomberg News, would create the nation’s biggest manager of prescription-drug benefits for corporate and government clients. But it is unclear how the merger will affect staffing at St. Louis-based Express Scripts' facility near Indianapolis International Airport and Medco’s distribution center near Whitestown. A combined Express-Medco would handle 34 percent of prescriptions in the U.S. this year, according to Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting Inc. in Philadelphia, who is a consultant for Express Scripts. However, that share will shrink to 29 percent next year because Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. switched from Medco to its own pharmacy benefits unit, OptumRx.

Federal authorities charged a Carmel man on Friday with using his Indianapolis business to defraud the Indiana Medicaid program of more than $1 million. Donald Hamilton, 49, allegedly used his company, Hamilton Medical Inc., to generate false invoices showing that compression stockings for another of his companies, Indianapolis-based Compression Etc., cost almost three times what he paid for them. Hamilton sent invoices to the Indiana Medicaid program for reimbursement for an amount much higher than allowed by law, according to charges announced by Joseph Hogsett, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. He said the investigation was a collaborative effort among the Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations unit and the Indiana Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud control unit.

Roche Diagnostics Corp. plans to eliminate about 80 information technology jobs at its Indianapolis-area campus over the next two years. The first round of reductions is to be completed by June 30. The IT workers are actually part of Roche Group’s global pharmaceutical informatics unit, but live in the Indianapolis area, said Roche spokeswoman Julie Bower. Roche employs about 3,000 people at its Indianapolis and Fishers facilities. The company’s worldwide headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland.

Warsaw-based orthopedic implant maker Biomet Inc. agreed to pay $22.7 million to settle allegations that it bribed government-employed doctors in Argentina, Brazil and China for more than eight years to win business with hospitals. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlements March 26. Biomet will pay a $17.3 million criminal penalty but won't be prosecuted by the Justice Department if it institutes strict internal controls to prevent bribery and hires an expert to monitor its compliance for 18 months. Biomet, which operates in about 90 countries, also agreed to pay $5.4 million in restitution to resolve the SEC's civil charges. Biomet is the third medical device company—in addition to New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson and U.K.-based Smith & Nephew plc—to pay a criminal penalty and sign a deferred-prosecution agreement in the government's investigation into bribery by medical device makers of doctors employed by governments overseas.

New Indiana Supreme Court justice takes oath

The newest member of the Indiana Supreme Court has been sworn into office. The court says Mark Massa took the oath to become Indiana's 107th Supreme Court justice during a private ceremony Monday morning.

Wall Street observers blast Emmis plan to ax preferred shares

Emmis Communications Corp.'s effort to strip its preferred shareholders of their rights and avoid forking over about $10 million in unpaid dividends is drawing sharp criticism from top market observers, including a columnist for The New York Times.

People

Dr. Daniel Spitzberg has been named vice chair for adult clinical affairs in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, which is part of the Indiana University School of Medicine. Spitzberg, who will serve under Dr. Louis Cantor, the chairman of the opthamology department, has been a full-time professor at the IU medical school since 2008. Spitzberg earned both his bachelor’s and medical degrees from IU.

Jeff Dill has been promoted to director of reporting and business analytics at Managed Health Services, the Indiana subsidiary of St. Louis-based Centene Corp., which manages Indiana Medicaid patients. Dill had been the MHS manager of data and enrollment.Prior to working at MHS, Dill served as an analyst with actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. Dill holds a bachelor’s degree from IUPUI.

Apartment fire displaces 32 residents

Fire officials believe a lightning strike might be to blame for an apartment fire on the northwest side of Indianapolis that displaced 32 residents. No injuries were reported in the blaze that broke out Sunday about 5 p.m. at Creekwood Apartment complex. The fire caused about $300,000 in damage, investigators said.

Woman charged in hit-and-run

Detectives arrested an 18-year-old Greenwood woman Saturday and charged her with a hit-and-run that sent a 6-year-old boy to the hospital. Gavin Rice was riding his bicycle Thursday about 5:30 p.m. when he was hit in a New Whiteland neighborhood off Country Gate Drive. Rice was in the hospital until Sunday after he suffered a compound fracture to his right leg and other injuries. Chassi Cole, 18, was charged with one count of leaving the scene of an accident causing serious bodily injury, which is a class D felony.

Henryville students back in school

About 500 students are heading back to classes for the first time since a tornado devastated their southern Indiana school a month ago. The Henryville Junior-Senior High School students arrived Monday morning at the Mid America Science Park in nearby Scottsburg, where conference rooms and storerooms have been converted into classrooms, computer labs and a cafeteria. West Clark schools Assistant Superintendent John Reed said the district is trying to help students get back in the academic groove following the March 2 storm. Elementary students returned to school March 21 at a rented church building in New Albany. School officials plan to ask the state to waive the requirement that students must attend 180 days of class.

Express Scripts-Medco deal approved by U.S. regulators

Express Scripts Inc.’s $29.1 billion bid for rival drug benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc. won unconditional approval from U.S. antitrust regulators, clearing the way to create the biggest manager of prescription-drug benefits for corporate and government clients.

You-review-it Monday

For me it was a weekend at the Humana Festival. What about you?

Airlines’ treatment of passengers slowly getting better

Based on traditional yardsticks — lost bags, delayed flights, lousy service and bumpings from full planes — airlines are doing a better job, say private researchers who have analyzed federal data on airline performance.

Tribune Broadcasting says no DirecTV deal

Tribune Broadcasting said there's been no settlement with DirecTV Inc. in their contract negotiations, which means DirecTV subscribers in 19 U.S. markets, including Indianapolis, have lost access to certain programming.

Past support of health care mandate haunts Lugar

Like many Senate Republicans who have spent a few decades in Washington, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was for the individual health care mandate before he was against it. Two decades later, the policy is a near heretical stance among the party’s conservative base, and it threatens to derail Lugar’s reelection bid.

S&P completes biggest first-quarter rally since 1998

More than $3.6 trillion has been restored to U.S. equity values since October amid better-than-estimated earnings and economic data. Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. surged 11 percent this week, as the Supreme Court debated the health care law.

Ener1 exits bankruptcy under private ownership

The company announced Friday that it had completed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring with $86 million in new funding and would continue trying to market its battery technology.

White wins no new job offers, will remain IPS chief

IPS superintendent Eugene White had been among the finalists for the top jobs at schools systems in Mobile, Ala., and in Greenville, S.C. But both districts chose this week to appoint internal candidates to lead their school systems.

Police seize 25 pit bulls from home

Authorities in Muncie seized 25 pit bulls from a mobile home where investigators believe they were being trained for a dog-fighting operation. Police and animal shelter workers removed the dogs Thursday, finding many of them in small kennels along with at least four treadmills possibly used for forced exercise of the animals. Police are expected to seek an arrest warrant for the man believed to be keeping the dogs on the property on the city's northeast side.

People line up for lottery tickets

Hundreds of Indiana residents lined up across the state Friday to get free tickets from the Hoosier Lottery for the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot. About 60 people gathered at the lottery's Indianapolis headquarters to claim one free ticket each for Friday night's drawing. Lottery headquarters and convenience stores in Evansville, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Terre Haute and Zionsville were each giving away 540 free tickets.