Community Health Network has embarked on a strategy to become a low-cost, high-output machine in order to survive the coming harsh economic environment that an aging population and expanded health care coverage promises for hospitals.
Those who try to predict the future do not tell us their track records, but they do ask us to buy their books.
Central Indiana Cancer Centers sold its five facilities to IU Health and transferred its 150 employees to the Indianapolis-based hospital system. The 16 physicians in the practice will remain independent, but they have signed a service agreement with IU Health that pulls the two entities into a tight embrace.
An economic recovery blowing against their backs propelled some Indianapolis-area companies to scorching growth.
Eli Lilly and Co. is getting into orthopedics. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker signed a deal with Swiss company Synthes Inc. to co-promote the bone drug Forteo to orthopedic surgeons and to license some experimental drugs to Synthes. The companies also will team up to study an additional use for Forteo in fracture healing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Synthes specializes in developing and selling instruments, implants and biomaterials to fix bone and soft tissues. It has agreed to sell itself to New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson for $21 billion. In a separate development, Lilly won the first round in a court battle with another development partner, San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. A federal judge rejected Amylin’s claim that, if Lilly uses the same sales force to sell Byetta, a diabetes medicine made by Amylin, and Tradjenta, a diabetes pill made by Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, it would be anti-competitive. Amylin promised to appeal.
Three weeks after the CEO of Riley Hospital for Children resigned, his right-hand man announced his departure, too. Brett D. Lee, the chief operating officer at Riley, announced his plans June 8 to leave the Indianapolis hospital for a new job in Atlanta. His last day will be July 6. It’s not clear if Lee’s departure is connected to the May 20 resignation of Dan Fink, who had been CEO of Riley for about two years. Fink was replaced as CEO on an interim basis by Marilyn Cox, Riley’s chief nursing officer. Lee was considered a rising star at Riley, which is part of the Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health hospital system. Less than a year after being hired by Riley in April 2010, Lee was named the young health care executive of the year by the American College of Healthcare Executives, in part for his work applying Six Sigma and lean-process methods to the health care environment. Lee will become senior vice president of clinical operations at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the nation’s largest provider of pediatric care. It has three free-standing hospitals, with a total of 520 beds, as well as 17 outpatient facilities throughout the Atlanta metro area.
Carmel-based Woll Enterprises Inc. has won a contract to commercialize three medical products invented by two Florida physicians. Dr. Nevenka Horvat and Dr. Branimir Horvat, of Sarasota, Fla., have developed a medication for relief from psoriasis and eczema; a placental blood extractor; and a sequential lymphedema pump for removing excess fluid from swollen limbs. Woll Enterprises will try to locate funding to move the products toward market approval.
Dow AgroSciences LLC announced a deal to purchase assets from Iowa-based Sansgaard Seed Farms Inc. Indianapolis-based Dow Agro will receive rights to Sansaard’s Praide Brand Seed brand, as well as other marketing assets, land, buildings and equipment. Sansgaard’s Iowa headquarters and staff will remain intact. But now Dow Agro will market its corn and soybean seeds under the Prairie Brand name. Dow has made several acquisitions of seed distributors in the past three years to build a distribution network for its SmartStax genetically engineered seed, as well as future innovations, like its Enlist Weed Control System for corn and soybeans. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Nyhart, an Indianapolis-based actuarial and employee-benefits consulting firm, has acquired Atlanta-based Stanley, Holcombe & Associates, which focused on public pensions and defined-benefit retirement consulting. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Nyhart will keep the existing Atlanta office space as well as retain the entire Atlanta staff. The deal gives Nyhart a base of retirement clients that have more than $14 billion in plan assets.In December, Nyhart announced the purchase of the Kansas City, Mo., operations of retirement consultancy Alliance Benefit Group.
This week, we dealt with the trial of alleged child-murderer Casey Anthony, the tribulations of congressman-cum-confessor Anthony Weiner, the revisionist American history of professor Palin, and assorted other tales.
We do not generally praise doctors who help dispatch their terminally ill patients, as Kevorkian repeatedly and unashamedly did.
A federal experiment of accountable care organizations produced lackluster results, adding to withering criticism of federal rules proposed for ACOs. But local hospital systems like Indiana University Health aren’t backing away from the idea.
RepuCare OnSite LLC hired J. Spencer Milus as executive vice president. Milus most recently ran her own consulting firm focused on employer health and wellness strategies. She previously worked for Indianapolis-based benefits consultancy First Person Benefit Advisors, Community Health Network’s Infinity Employer Health Solutions and health insurer WellPoint Inc. RepuCare and its parent company, RepuCare Inc., provide medical staffing and on-site health care services.
Dr. Charles E. Kinsella has joined St. Francis Medical Group and established a practice with the newly formed Pulmonary & Sleep Specialists in Greenwood. Kinsella most recently was associated with Southside Pulmonary and Sleep Consultants in Greenwood.
Johnson Memorial Hospital named Steve Jarosinski chief officer of physician practices, managing the hospital’s employed physicians. He previously served as the hospital’s vice president of clinical operations.
Johnson Memorial named Richard Kester its new director of specialty ancillary services. He previously served as vice president of clinical services at Rush Memorial Hospital in Rushville.
When customers are few, it’s time for a price cut. With only 177 Hoosiers signed up for the federal Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan created by the 2010 health reform law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided to drop premiums 26 percent. Now adults aged 45-54 can buy into the plan for $284 per month or $295 for a health savings account. The plan was created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. health care reform) to provide coverage to Americans until 2014, when health insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Nationwide, only 18,000 people have signed up for the plan—far below expectations. The department cut prices 40 percent or more in 17 states. In addition, the government will begin paying insurance agents and brokers this fall for connecting eligible participants to the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.
Roche Diagnostics Corp. landed an $11.4 million contract to provide laboratory testing services at military hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area. Switzerland-based Roche operates its North American diagnostic headquarters out of Indianapolis, where it employs 2,900 people. The new contract with the Medcom Contracting Center North Atlantic was awarded May 19 and will run until Sept. 30, but has four one-year renewal options. Roche equipment will conduct tests of blood and other fluids at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as well as the new Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia. Roche Diagnostics sells mid- and high-volume laboratory analyzers, such as its new cobas 8000 machine, to hospitals and academic medical centers. It also sells diagnostict machines for use by physicians in their offices and for other small-scale situations. In all, Roche's professional diagnostics business accounts for one-third of its total North American sales, or about $880 million. Roche Diagnostics also makes tests for diabetes and genetic traits, as well as gene sequencers and other diagnostic equipment. Its North American sales totaled $2.6 billion last year.
International Medical Group Inc., an Indianapolis-based seller of international health insurance policies, had signed a marketing partnership with a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, the New York-based insurance and consulting firm. IMG’s products, which provide coverage for and coordination of medical care to individuals and groups while traveling abroad, will be marketed nationally under the Gateway brand name.
So much for that prediction. A week after a report declared Indianapolis hospitals near saturation on physician hiring, two more deals were announced.
In a monthly feature that runs in the first issue of the month, through October, IBJ is identifying influential players in eight different industry categories. Formidable brainpower sums up the individuals included in our list of Who’s Who in Life Sciences.
Roche Diagnostics Corp. landed an $11.4 million contract to provide laboratory testing services at military hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area.
So far, about 18,000 people have signed up for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, well short of government projections that some 375,000 people would gain coverage in 2010. Rates in Indiana will fall 26 percent.
Indianapolis may be reaching a saturation point for hospitals employing physicians, according to the latest report from the Center for Studying Health System Change.
OrthoIndy, the physician practice that owns the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, was able to open a new outpatient facility this spring by working around growth restrictions in the 2010 health care reform law. But its choices for further growth are much starker—which is why it’s lobbying to repeal that provision of the law.
Indiana University Health is now quietly unwinding the physician ownership of its hospitals in Carmel and Avon—which sparked loud controversy when they opened in 2004 and 2005.
Visiting Nurse Service Inc., a 200-employee agency based in Indianapolis, will operate under the umbrella of Franciscan St. Francis Health, the organizations announced Thursday.
How can practicing medicine prepare you for a CEO post? And why is it smart to continue seeing patients once you get the top job? Dr. Lisa Harris will see you now with answers.
Eli Lilly and Co. is a two-timing lout, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego-based company with which Lilly has developed and co-marketed Byetta, a successful diabetes drug. Amylin’s lawsuit accuses Indianapolis-based Lilly of breaking terms of their deal by forming a similar development and marketing agreement with Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to sell a drug that will compete with Byetta. The competing drug, called Tradjenta, was approved for sale this month by U.S. regulators. Lilly and Boehringer formed their agreement in January. Amylin said it plans to continue working with Lilly, but it wants to keep Lilly from using the same sales force to sell both Byetta and Tradjenta. Its lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Lilly’s top diabetes executive, Enrique Conterno, called Amylin’s suit “without merit.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested new data or new studies from Zimmer Holdings Inc., DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., Biomet Inc. and many other makers of orthopedic implants to see if metal-on-metal hip implants raise the level of metals in patients’ blood, according to Bloomberg News. Zimmer, DePuy and Biomet are all based in Warsaw. Zimmer spokesman Garry Clark wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News that his company was "working to understand the scope of the agency's request."
Ball Memorial Hospital was losing $9 million a year before Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health acquired it in 2009. Two years later, Ball executives say the Muncie hospital has swung to a $6 million gain, according to The Star Press in Muncie. Ball Memorial executives say they reduced costs via an 18-month pay freeze and by taking advantage of IU Health’s greater buying power. “If Ball Memorial is paying $10 a unit but the next day I can pay $7 because of the IU Health relationship, those cost savings are significant,” Ball Memorial chief Michael Haley told the newspaper. He added that the hospital has worked to increase patient referrals by repairing strained relationships with local physicians, many of whom were referring patients to hospitals in Fort Wayne or Indianapolis.
A consumer advocacy group says Eli Lilly and Co.’s Amyvid, an experimental imaging agent to help doctors detect Alzheimer’s disease in patients’ brains, shouldn’t be approved because it could lead to false diagnoses of the disease, according to Bloomberg News. Public Citizen, based in Washington, D.C., voiced its concerns in a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association, criticizing a 35-person study of Amyvid published in January. Amyvid, which Lilly acquired last year in a $300 million purchase of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., was recommended in March by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel—if Lilly developed a training program to help doctors interpret brain scans in which the agent lights up clusters of amyloid plaques, the telltale sign of Alzheimer’s. Currently, such plaques can only be observed in autopsies of deceased Alzheimer’s patients. But Public Citizen wants Amyvid tested by more doctors in more patients, because it says results so far have been unreliable. Lilly officials called the group’s claims “inaccurate.”
