IU Health has decided to still give patients the same “in network” co-pays and deductibles that UnitedHealthcare had negotiated under the expiring contracts, keeping patients’ costs the same until a new deal is reached.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of generous benefactors to the quality of life of this region.
One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent names placed a lot of faith in ExactTarget Inc. CEO Scott Dorsey this year.
Mitch Daniels moved out of the Statehouse in early January after eight years as governor. But he never left the headlines.
In the Christmas spirit of hope, I’m offering a reading list of several optimistic reports about health care reform—even though many of my recent posts, and the mood of the country in general, have been decidedly downbeat.
John Lechleiter, Angela Braly and two other local business leaders have pledged a combined $3 million to United Way of Central Indiana over the next four years. United Way is trying to raise $42.5 million by the end of the year.
“Inside Llewyn Davis” and “American Hustle” among my personal picks for best films of the year. What topped your list?
Hospital executives, in spite of mounting financial pressures under their older business models, are stepping cautiously into the future, with nearly half opting against new accountable care business models touted by Obamacare.
Tom Fischer, chief financial and chief operating officer of Community Health Network, departed suddenly this month. Sources with knowledge of the situation described Fischer’s exit as a firing. But a Community spokeswoman said Fischer resigned in a private meeting with Community CEO Bryan Mills. Fischer, 60, who joined Community as CFO in 2005, declined to comment. Mills and Fischer have been close friends for decades, dating to the time they both worked for the Ernst & Young accounting firm. Now Holly Millard, Community’s chief accounting officer, is serving as interim CFO while Community searches for a replacement. Community is trying to cut expenses 15 percent to 20 percent, including via staff reductions. Community laid off more than 150 employees during the first nine months of this year, many of them part of what it described as a systemwide realignment. Community spokeswoman Lynda de Widt described the staff reductions as part of the normal course of business in an organization that has 13,000 employees. Community reported in late November that it had spent $5 million this year on severance costs.
Because Indianapolis-area hospitals have let go a wave of workers this year, the University of Indianapolis will host a seminar to help nurses and health care professionals search for new jobs. The seminar, “Reinventing Yourself: A Personal Transformation for Healthcare Workers” is scheduled from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11 in UIndy’s Schwitzer Student Center at 1400 E. Hanna Ave. The free event is sponsored by UIndy’s School for Adult Learning, School of Nursing and College of Health Sciences, and will tout UIndy’s health-related educational programs. Also, John Vice, a longtime human resources manager for Eli Lilly and Co., will tell attendees how to pursue new career paths.
Nearly 2,800 Hoosiers selected a private insurance plan on the Obamacare exchange in November, nearly four times as many as did so in October. The faster pace of enrollment was mirrored in the other 35 states that are also relying on the federally run Healthcare.gov web site for online enrollment. The Obama administration worked feverishly in November to correct major technical problems with the website that prevented numerous Americans from enrolling. Even so, the pace of enrollment in the federal exchange will need to be nearly 12 times faster than it was in November if enrollment via the exchange is going to meet a federal projection of more than 4.8 million enrollees by the end of March. According to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 137,204 actually selected a private health insurance plan during October and November, with about 110,000 of them doing so in November. In 14 states and the District of Columbia, which are operating their own insurance exchanges, enrollment also surged in November, to nearly 148,000 people, compared with about 80,000 in October. Enrollment via the state-based exchanges will need to triple its pace to meet an overall federal projection of 7 million enrollees via the Obamacare exchanges.
More than 10,000 low-income Indiana residents who participate in the Healthy Indiana Plan will be able to keep their benefits through April. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced Dec. 10 it is extending for an extra three months its Healthy Indiana Plan to participants who earn between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The move will give members more time to obtain coverage through the federal health care exchange. FSSA Secretary Debra Minott said many HIP members have struggled to enroll in the exchange because of technical issues. The HIP extension could cost Indiana up to $11 million.
Flagship Logistics Group has begun hiring for a customer support center it opened downtown this month, in a historic building at 429 N. Pennsylvania St.
This year, as usual, there were plenty of memorable, human-inspired technology horrors.
The fatwa on gay marriage must end. The state Constitution is no toy for the disengaged to manipulate real love. I’m hoping the Legislature does the right thing: reverse the hatred and disinformation that makes us appear like Iran on an evil day.
Semester end is hectic for college professors. Research papers and final examinations must be graded, last-minute pleas from students who realize they haven’t performed or who feel entitled to special accommodations must be moderated, committees that haven’t completed their assigned tasks during the preceding months must meet—and of course there’s the added stress of the holidays.
Since 1998, there have been more than 100 attempts to develop an Alzheimer’s treatment, and all have failed. Such a product may generate as much as $5 billion annually for Merck, according to analysts
Hamilton and Boone counties are home to upscale communities, but the suburbs are not immune to problems like unemployment, homelessness and food insecurity.
Eli Lilly and Co. on Wednesday will fall off its second “patent cliff” in as many years as its best-selling drug Cymbalta sees its U.S. patents expire.
Indiana University Health hospitals and doctors could fall out of UnitedHealthcare’s discounted network on Jan. 1 if the two entities don’t come to an agreement by then. IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system, and UnitedHealthcare, the state’s second-largest health insurer, have been unable to come to terms on a new set of reimbursement contracts, according to both organizations. The previous contracts end Dec. 31. Such contracts between health systems and health insurers typically shave 30 percent or more off the list prices charged by hospitals and doctors. In notices sent to local benefits brokers late last month, Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare said the two organizations are wrangling over a reimbursement hike by IU Health and over how the new contracts will make more of that reimbursement hinge on measurements of clinical quality. The contract dispute could affect the roughly 400,000 Hoosiers that have employer-based or individually purchased insurance with UnitedHealthcare. That represents about 12 percent of the Indiana commercial market.
Medical workers, military personnel, hundreds of volunteers and a platoon of ambulances transferred 149 patients from Wishard Memorial Hospital on Saturday, the final day of service for the facility that dates as far back as World War I. Those patients were moved to the new Eskenazi Hospital, just four blocks away. The new $754 million hospital replaces Wishard as the county-owned hospital in Indianapolis. Construction on the art-filled, 315-bed Eskenazi Hospital began four years ago.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has joined two other companies to contribute $40 million to an early-stage life sciences venture capital initiative in New York City. New York economic development officials announced the effort to launch more life sciences companies last week. The city of New York will contribute $10 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, and will look to attract venture capital firms willing to put in another $50 million. The initiative hopes to launch 15 to 20 new life sciences companies in New York by 2020. Lilly operates a research and development center in New York focused on cancer, which it acquired in 2008 as part of its purchase of New York-based drug company ImClone Systems Inc. The two other companies contributing money are New Jersey-based biotech company Celgene Corp. and GE Ventures, the venture capital arm of Connecticut-based General Electric Co. The contributions of each company were not disclosed.
Eli Lilly and Co. will end development of the depression medicine edivoxetine as an add-on therapy after the drug failed to meet goals in three Phase 3 studies, according to Bloomberg News. The end of edivoxetine as a potential add-on therapy is another research setback for Lilly, which has had a cancer treatment, ramucirumab, fail in breast cancer patients, and an experimental compound prove unsuccessful in helping people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Edivoxetine had been expected to generate $560 million by 2020, said Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. The decision to end the development as an add-on therapy will result in a pretax charge of $15 million, or 1 cent a share, in the fourth quarter, Lilly said. The company reaffirmed its 2013 forecasts and said it still plans to return to revenue growth in 2015.
Holiday spirit, solid acting, and a great Christmas song, populate this year’s installment of “A Very Phoenix Xmas.”
You can learn a lot about a person by finding out what newspapers they read.
IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system, and UnitedHealthcare, the state’s second-largest health insurer, have been unable to come to terms on a new set of reimbursement contracts.
