Who’s Who in Health Care and Benefits
Every business sector has influential players, whether they are in the public eye or wield their influence behind the scenes. This month, IBJ zeroes in on Health Care and Benefits.
Every business sector has influential players, whether they are in the public eye or wield their influence behind the scenes. This month, IBJ zeroes in on Health Care and Benefits.
With hospitals having scooped up hundreds of physicians in the past three years—putting nearly all of them under non-compete agreements—there are bound to be legal tussles when some of those physicians decide their new matches aren’t exactly made in heaven.
On the last night of October 1963, a propane tank exploded during the final presentation of an ice show. Seventy-four members of the audience were killed.
Angela Smith, an attorney for hospitals and physicians at Indianapolis-based Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman P.C., spoke about Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, a federal initiative that will attempt to shift health care payments from the fee-for-service model to one based on health outcomes. On July 1, hospitals began being scored on their performance in 13 categories, including processes, patient outcomes and patient satisfaction surveys. How hospitals score could boost or diminish all their Medicare payments by as much as 1 percent, beginning in October 2012.
Another physician is leaving Indiana University Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville to join Franciscan St. Francis Health. Dr. Thomas Lahr told the Reporter-Times of Martinsville he will make the move after Nov. 15. “I have turned in my resignation and unless the court says otherwise, I plan to leave,” he said last week. A court could become involved because earlier this month IU Health sued Lahr’s colleague, Dr. Dianna Boyer, saying she was violating a non-compete clause in her contract by moving over to Franciscan St. Francis. IU Health was denied a preliminary injunction last week seeking to stop Boyer from leaving until the case is settled. Both Boyer and Lahr would work at a new medical office near State Road 37 in Martinsville, which is opening Sept. 1. The 9,000-square-foot facility will house Indiana Heart Physicians, which is a part of the St. Francis Medical Group, as well as primary care physicians and nurse practitioners.
Arcadia Resources Inc. plans to let its stock be delisted from the NYSE Amex Equities Exchange as the company focuses instead on selling its home health care business to raise cash. Arcadia, which had been planning a huge expansion in Indianapolis, is running low on cash in part because the ramp-up of its DailyMed pharmacy service has been slower than expected. DailyMed is a service that packages patients’ medications into packets marked by the time of day or the meal at which they are to be taken. The service has major contracts with Indiana Medicaid and Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. DailyMed sales drove up Arcadia’s pharmacy division revenue by 7 percent, to $4.3 million, in the three months ended June 30. Arcadia’s home health care services unit posted $20.4 million in revenue, flat from the same quarter a year ago. Overall, Arcadia lost $3 million in the quarter, or 2 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.7 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago. In June, Arcadia announced that its auditor issued a going-concern warning about the company, because it faces a pile of debt that comes due in April 2012. After the delisting later this year, Arcadia’s shares will trade over the counter, which makes them harder to buy and sell.
Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. is closing a plant in Statesville, N.C., and eliminating 124 jobs, according to Charlotte Business Journal. Employees will start losing their jobs in mid-October until the plant, which makes tourniquets and slings, closes by the end of the first quarter. A Zimmer spokesman said the company is streamlining its operations and will produce goods made in Statesville at other locations.
Profit and revenue rose at West Lafayette-based Bioanalytical Systems Inc. during its third quarter, as the pharmaceutical research company benefited from outsourcing by large drug companies and was also hired by small biotech firms. The company earned $418,000 in the three months ended June 30, up 45 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 5 percent to nearly $8.5 million during the quarter. Bioanalytical also raised $5.5 million during the quarter in a public offering of convertible preferred shares. The new preferred shares resulted in special dividend payments of nearly $4.3 million, which are not included in the company’s profit calculation for the quarter.
Indianapolis doctor tell researchers that hospitals are paying more than $1 million a year to employ some cardiologists.
Yes, for me this is personal. My father, Woodrow Sr., died of lung cancer caused by cigarettes. So did his brother Rufus. So did his brother Alphonso. So did his brother Joseph.
Remember when physicians were highly suspicious of retail clinics in drugstores' stealing business from them? Well, now that docs are employed by hospitals, the clinics are being embraced. Indiana University Health announced last week that its physicians will serve as medical directors for 19 MinuteClinic locations, including 17 in the Indianapolis area, one in Bloomington and one in West Lafayette. The clinics are in CVS drugstores, as the company is a subsidiary of Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark Corp. Signs at the clinics will indicate the affiliation with IU Health. The organizations are linking their electronic medical record systems so that, with patient permission, records could be transferred easily from MinuteClinic to an IU Health physician, especially for patients needing more care than MinuteClinic can provide. However, MinuteClinic nurse practitioners will also send patient records to non-IU Health physicians if the patient wishes. The IU Health deal is the 11th hospital partnership signed by MinuteClinic across the country.
Eli Lilly and Co. could get an earlier-than-expected ruling from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its once-weekly version of Byetta. The FDA said it would render a decision on the new diabetes drug, called Bydureon, by Jan. 28, Lilly announced last week along with its partners, California-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Massachusetts-based Alkermes Inc. Bydureon would be a once-weekly injection of exenatide, the same compound in Byetta, which currently requires twice-daily injections. Byetta has proved effective at controlling blood sugar and even helping some patients lose weight. But concerns about it include causing pancreas problems and then competition from a similar once-daily drug called Victoza, launched by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S. Lilly expected to receive approval for Bydureon in 2010, but the FDA required another study to test its effects on patients’ heart rhythms. When the new requirement was announced in October, Lilly said it expected approval of Bydureon to be delayed until mid-2012. Worldwide Byetta sales last year totaled $710 million.
A $10 million research endowment at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute has attracted seven new researchers to the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Ophthalmology Department. The department will move this month to a new building at 1160 W. Michigan St. The Glicks pledged a total of $30 million to the medical school—including $20 million that went toward the 80,000-square-foot building, which will house clinical research space, a full-service optical shop and the ophthalmology outpatient clinic. The clinic, which is moving from University Hospital, will double in size. The local philanthropists hoped their gift would vault IU into the top 10 for research and prevention of eye disease.
IU Health Morgan Hospital sued Dr. Dianna Boyer on Aug. 3 to stop her from moving her practice to a facility Franciscan St. Francis Health is building in Martinsville.
Carrie Schroeder, a registered nurse, has been named joint care coordinator for the Center for Joint Health at Community Hospital South. Schroeder has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Franklin College and a nursing degree from Marian University.
Dr. Wes Wong has joined Community Health Network as its first chief physician integration officer. Wong was most recently regional vice president and national accounts medical director at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. A neurologist by training, Wong earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Sue Sandberg has been promoted to executive vice president at Community Health Network. She was most recently vice president of women’s and children’s services. She holds a nursing degree from Minnesota State University and an MBA from DePaul University.
Jim O’Donnell has been named Community Health Network’s chief pharmacy officer. He was previously pharmacy director at Community Hospital East.
Dr. Melanie Sanders has joined Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Surgeons with St. Francis Medical Group. She most recently worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she had clinical and residency teaching responsibilities. Prior to that she was in practice with Orthopaedic Medicine of Indiana and OrthoIndy. Sanders earned her medical degree from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine.
Dr. Jessica Nguyen Gillespie has joined Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons of St. Francis Medical Group. She previously served as clinical professor of plastic surgery at the University of Iowa. A native of Plainfield, she received her medical training at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
The CEO of Indiana University Health Goshen Hospital will retire soon, after 16 years with the hospital. Dr. James O. Dague did not specify a date for his departure, saying he would allow the hospital’s board time to find a replacement.
In Indiana, as elsewhere, advocates of medical marijuana use—particularly those aflame with government’s power to “do good”—are blind to unintended consequences and the realities of human motivation and behavior.
You could come up with a clumsier name for a college than Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, but it would be tough.
Victoria Champion, a registered nurse and professor at the Indiana University School of Nursing, has been named associate director of population science research at the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. Champion has conducted research on behavioral oncology that has helped with earlier discovery of cancer.
Dr. Adam M. Paarlberg has joined Beech Grove Family Medicine of St. Francis Medical Group. He most recently worked in the emergency department at Rushville Memorial Hospital and completed residency training at Franciscan St. Francis Health. Paarlberg holds a bachelor’s in religion from Wabash College and earned his medical degree at the IU School of Medicine.
Dr. Tobi Reidy, a colon and rectal surgeon, has established a practice with Kendrick Colon and Rectal Center, which is owned by Franciscan St. Francis Health. She earned her medical training at Nova Southeastern University-College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Dr. Jessica Saberman, a family and pediatric physician, recently joined Indiana University Health Physicians in Fishers. She had been part of the St. Vincent Physician Network in Fishers since 2002.
Dr. Brett Neff, a family physician, will join IU Health Physicians Northside Adult & Pediatric Care, in Carmel, on Aug. 25. Neff also used to be part of the St. Vincent Physician Network in Fishers.
Dr. Jessica Swenberg and Dr. Jama Gail Edwards, both family physicians, are joining IU Health Physicians in Zionsville. Swenberg previously practiced at the Village Doctors in Zionsville. Edwards has been an independent family physician in Zionsville since 2001.
Dr. Laura Calili recently joined IU Health Physicians as a new pediatrician in Greenwood.
Deloitte found that 20 percent of consumers have cut back on health care spending and 75 percent say the economic slowdown has had some impact on their willingness to spend on health care.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s growing reputation for unpredictability is spurring some Indianapolis companies to join counterparts elsewhere and introduce products in Europe. The upshot is that some Americans may never benefit from innovations occurring in their backyards.
A billboard near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway features an image of hot dogs poking out of a cigarette pack adorned with a skull and crossbones. A message warns viewers that "hot dogs can wreck your health."
Dr. Vijay Udyavar Rao has joined St. Francis Medical Group Indiana Heart Physicians. Rao most recently served as clinical instructor in cardiology at the University of California-San Francisco and has also served as a research fellow with California-based biotech firm Genentech Inc. Rao earned a bachelor’s in biology from DePauw University and his medical degree and doctorate at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center added two new researchers: Amber Mosley uses protein mass spectrometry to study gene expression levels; Pierrick Fournier studies the role of the immune system in bone cancers.
Indianapolis-based Senex Services Corp. has hired Brose McVey as vice president of business development. The former political aide and candidate for Congress had been consulting for Senex before his hiring. Senex buys unpaid hospital debts from patients and tries to collect them.