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The first half of a short session will close Wednesday, meaning bills must have passed out of either the House or Senate to
stay alive. Legislation regarding unemployment taxes and township-government reform easily met that deadline.
PNC, which operates dozens of bank branches in the Indianapolis area under the National City name, is selling its global investment servicing business to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for $2.3 billion.
Larry Glasscock will retire as chairman of WellPoint Inc.’s board, the Indianapolis-based health insurer said early Wednesday.
Company CEO Angela Braly will assume the position March 1.
Purdue University officials have unveiled a new energy conservation plan that aims to save the school as much as $2 million
a year.
The added exemptions include bars, taverns, tobacco shops and fraternal clubs such as American Legion posts.
The Indiana House has passed a bill that would ban texting or sending e-mails while driving. The House voted 95-3 for the
bill Tuesday and sent it to the Senate for consideration.
As congressional Democrats work behind closed doors to save health reform legislation, they face a persistent obstacle:
super-majorities of employers and employees are convinced reform will raise their costs.
An item in the Jan. 13 Health Care & Reform Weekly should have said Meritain Health, which administers a health plan
for the city of Evansville, is based in Buffalo, N.Y.
An item in the Jan. 27 Health Care & Reform Weekly should
have said Julia Mullholland and Lori Shufflebarger were appointed to the board of directors for the Hendricks Regional Health
Foundation, not the board of the hospital system itself.
The federal Medicare program will conduct a demonstration project using the Indianapolis-based Indiana Health Information
Exchange to examine the impact of a multi-payer quality reporting and pay-for-performance incentives. Medicare will
feed its patient data into IHIE’s Quality Health First program, which combines data from health insurers with patient
medical records to help physicians track the quality of their care. Already, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Indiana is offering bonus payments based on how well doctors do at managing their patients’ health in key areas.
The Medicare program will allow IHIE to share in a portion of Medicare savings achieved once quality of care and cost objectives
are met.
St. Vincent Health made it official on Feb. 1. Washington County Memorial Hospital
in Salem is now St. Vincent Salem Hospital. The 25-bed facility will cost Indianapolis-based St. Vincent $3.5 million
over five years in a lease-to-buy agreement. St. Vincent executives have been managing the hospital for 18 months,
including during its bankruptcy reorganization, which began in June. The Salem hospital is the 18th in St. Vincent’s
statewide network.
The National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute has awarded Teri Belecky-Adams,
professor of developmental biology at IUPUI’s School of Science, a $1.25 million grant to study astrocytes
in the optic nerve. Astrocytes are cells that make it difficult for the brain to heal and to overcome injury or disease. By
understanding what kind of factors regulate certain gene expressions in astrocyte cells in the optic nerve, scientists hope
to gain a deeper knowledge of brain injuries and the brain’s response to disease and injury. The study is a collaborative
effort between the IU Center for Regenerative Biology and Medicine, scientists within the IU School of Medicine,
and researchers at the University of Wisconsin.
Biologics LLC, which makes mobile labs and manufacturing
buildings for biotech firms, will locate its headquarters in Brownsburg, and plans to create at least 50 jobs by 2013. The
company plans to invest $14.6 million in machinery and equipment and lease 7,500 square feet in the Brownsburg
Motorsports Park before constructing a manufacturing plant in 2011. The Indiana Economic Development
Corp. offered Biologics up to $550,000 in tax credits to support the company’s job creation. Hendricks
County and the town of Brownsburg will consider additional property tax abatements.
AMPATH,
a joint partnership between Indiana University School of Medicine, Moi University School
of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, has received another $5 million USAID grant to
expand health care services in western Kenya. AMPATH, which stands for the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare,
received a $60 million grant in 2007 from USAID, or the United States Agency for International Development. More than 100,000
Kenyans receive HIV/AIDS treatment through USAID-AMPATH’s system of community health workers in 23 full-time clinics
and 23 satellite clinic locations.
New Jersey-based Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed on the sale
of its specialty pharmaceutical business, including a plant in Indianapolis, to Italian-owned Sigma-Tau Group. The deal
could be worth up to $300 million. Locally, Enzon’s plant at 6925 Guion Road makes drugs to treat leukemia, meningitis,
fungal infections and the “bubble boy disease” immune disorder. The plant employs about 100 workers, and the manufacturing
operations will remain in Indianapolis, Sigma Tau spokesman Marc Tewey said.
Fourth-quarter profit fell 19 percent,
to $69 million, at Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences as the company spent more on research and marketing
expenses related to its seed business ramp-up. Revenue rose 17 percent, to $1.1 billion, from the same period in 2008. For
all of 2009, Dow Agro, a subsidiary of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., reported revenue of $4.5 billion,
down from $4.6 billion in 2008. Annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped
to $577 million from $892 million.
Beyond the expected plunge for troubled Toyota, U.S. car sales sailed along nicely in January, including a 24 percent surge
for Ford and 14 percent gain for GM.
Richard Shepperd is retiring as president and CEO of Bioanalytical Systems Inc., a
West Lafayette-based provider of clinical research services and equipment. Sheppard already surrendered his position as president,
and the company’s board named Anthony Chilton, the company’s chief operating officer, interim
president. The board said it would conduct a national search for a new CEO. Shepperd, 69, became CEO in September 2006 and
had agreed to stay no later than December 2009. During his tenure, Bioanalytical’s stock lost 85 percent
of its value.
Dr. Michael Langley has joined Carmel-based Anson Group as a regulatory consultant.
Langley retired from Eli Lilly and Co., having served in many roles, including director of regulatory affairs and clinical
research.
Dr. Shanna Bowman and Dr. Stacey Smith have joined County Line Pediatrics,
a new practice on South Emerson Avenue that’s part of St. Francis Medical Group. Both Bowman and Smith earned
their medical degrees at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
The Indiana Health Industry Forum made Kristin
Jones its president and CEO after she had performed those jobs on an interim basis since 2008. Also, the health and
life sciences group named former Roche Diagnostics executive Joerg Schreiber chairman.
An Indiana University prof thinks Indianapolis should anticipate a future without Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and a potentially
reduced Eli Lilly and Co.
The Salvation Army Indiana said Tuesday that it just missed the $3 million mark in its annual Tree of Lights campaign, partly
because the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti diverted the
staff’s attention from the fund-raising effort.
Dr. Kristine Courtney, Eli Lilly and Co.’s senior director of corporate health services, describes
how and why the company spent two years making its clinics some of the first to electronically swap patient records with
a local hospital database.
City-County Councilor Ed Coleman introduced a measure on Monday to allow legally registered guns in Indianapolis parks. The
Libertarian and member of the National Rifle Association pointed out that guns are allowed in every Indiana state park, and
that, beginning Feb, 22, firearms also will be allowed in some national parks. The Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee
is expected to consider the issue as early as Feb. 25.
Security measures for Sunday’s Super Bowl will be extreme, and somewhat akin to those at airports, according to officials.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave her seal of approval during a tour of Sun Life Stadium in Miami on
Monday. The security team features federal, state, and local officers, as well as bomb-sniffing dogs at stadium checkpoints.
The Colts have plenty of eyes watching over them, including a team of deputies to patrol the team’s hotel and a motorcade
for traveling around the city.
Indianapolis Public Schools will delay school for two hours Monday morning. In a news release Tuesday, the district said the
delay acknowledges that some staff might not arrive to work at their usual time, due to the late start of the game. Additionally,
the district’s dress code will be waived on Friday so students can wear clothing to support the Indianapolis Colts. Fox59
will have more at 4 p.m.
Melvin Simon’s daughter, who’s seeking to remove her stepmother from overseeing a trust that holds her late father Melvin’s
fortune, says a corporate trustee is a better option than brother David Simon or family financial adviser Bruce Jacobson.
The uncertainty of health care reform and a bad economy curtailed venture capital flow in 2009. That trend hit Indianapolis,
but the rest of the state actually saw an increase.
The Indianapolis Colts may be the home team, but this Hoosier sits squarely in the New Orleans Saints’ corner.
