U.S. medical device makers have spent the last year urging government officials to approve high-risk products faster, like their European counterparts. A scandal over leaking breast implants made in France, however, may make the argument more difficult.
As an attorney who has practiced labor and employment law for 37 years, I’m concerned by the widespread confusion about the so-called “right-to-work“ bill being promoted by Gov. Daniels.
There is statistical evidence that licensing acts as a barrier to entry into a profession, and also as a barrier to labor mobility (since states have different requirements, licenses are considerably less portable than one might imagine).
Health insurer WellPoint Inc. plans to improve primary care reimbursement and start paying for care management it doesn’t currently cover, changes that could give patients more quality time with their doctors.
Joseph Bilby’s Trafalgar home is listed for sheriff’s sale. He’s filed for bankruptcy protection twice since 1991, and in 2010 he pleaded guilty to three counts of check fraud. Yet leaders of several Indianapolis cultural institutions believed, at least at first, that he was good for multi-million-dollar gifts. The Eiteljorg Museum of Native American and […]
After 15 years of increasing yelps from primary care doctors, WellPoint Inc. is finally launching a plan to pay more for the family doctor’s time. The Indianapolis-based health insurer said Jan. 27 that it will increase the fees it pays to primary care specialists and even start paying for such services as crafting care plans for patients with complex medical problems. It also will offer doctors an opportunity to share in some savings when better patient care leads to a reduction in costs. An example of what WellPoint has is mind is paying doctors to take the time to coach overweight patients who have diabetes to develop an exercise plan and then making sure they stay on it. "It makes the physician the kind of physician their patient wants them to be," Jill Hummel, WellPoint's vice president of payment innovation, told the Associated Press. WellPoint reasons that by spending more at the primary care level, it can cut down on emergency room visits and hospital admissions—which are the most expensive types of care. Primary care doctors say low reimbursement rates force them to cram as many patient visits as possible into a typical day in order to make enough money to stay afloat. That keeps them from spending more than a few minutes with each patient. For a time, physicians made extra money by starting their own imaging and diagnostic centers. But health plans—both governmental and private—sharply curtailed payments to physician-owned facilities, sharply curtailing that source of revenue.
The third time’s a charm. California-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Massachuetts-based Alkermes Inc. succeeded in their third attempt to gain U.S. clearance for Bydureon, a once-weekly version of Amylin’s Byetta diabetes shot. The companies had been developing Bydureon with Eli Lilly and Co. until November. But Indianapolis-based Lilly broke off its partnership with Amylin after the two companies feuded over Lilly’s agreement to sell a competing diabetes medicine with Germany-baseed Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. Amylin also agreed to make a one-time payment of $250 million to Lilly and to pay as much as $1.2 billion in royalties based on future sales of Bydureon and Byetta. In the meantime, Lilly is working to develop its own version of Bydureon, which is called dulaglutide. In 2010, Byetta produced revenue of about $700 million for the two companies, but its market share had been dented significantly by a once-daily version of the medicine, called Victoza, which was launched in 2010 by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S.
Actress Florence Henderson—better known as Carol Brady from “The Brady Bunch”—will star in a series of advertisements for American Senior Communities LLC, an Indianapolis-based chain of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The campaign will debut statewide this week in television, radio and print. Henderson, a native of Dale, currently hosts “The Florence Henderson Show” on Retirement Living Television and recently released her autobiography, “Life is Not a Stage.” Henderson previously served as a spokeswoman for Oldsmobile, Polident, Tang, Rain Soft, Pepsi and Wesson Oil. The advertising campaign was created and produced by Indianapolis-based marketing firm Bohlsen Group.
Kokomo’s Howard Regional Health System has signed a letter of intent to join the Community Health Network less than four months after it broke off a merger deal with Indiana University Health.
Charlie Miramonti, 36, used to be “the long-haired hippie kid who didn’t care about anything.” Then he found something that moved him, someplace he could make a difference: emergency medical services.
As executive director of the Alliance for Health Promotion, Kim Irwin, 38, is a master of bringing organizations together for the common good.
Ryan Kitchell, 38, didn’t expect to be overseeing health plans for Indiana University Health and its 80,000 members. But he’s found himself in unexpected places before, with good results.
John Kunzer, 35, credits his success to a long list of mentors, starting with his grandfather, a chemistry professor who took him to his office on Sundays and stressed the importance of education.
Sometimes your “dream job” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s what Derek Empie, 39, former broadcast sports professional-turned-attorney, discovered after several years working for NBC Sports, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting.
The achievements of Bryan Schneider, 38, in breast cancer research continue to build on each other.
John Ryan, 39, started with Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman P.C. straight out of Indiana University law school and took only 12 years to ascend to president and managing partner of the Indianapolis-based law firm.
A Johnson County man whose home is listed for sheriff’s sale and who has filed for bankruptcy protection twice and been convicted of check fraud managed to convince several Indianapolis cultural institutions that he was good for multimillion-dollar gifts.
Roche Diagnostics Corp.’s North American business, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, posted a 4-percent boost in sales last year on the strength of its fluid analyzer business unit, even though its diabetes sales fell.
The Indiana Health Information Exchange Inc., or IHIE, signed a collaboration agreement with Texas-based AT&T to use AT&T’s clinical message exchange system to help integrate new health care providers into IHIE’s database. The organizations think their collaboration could be used around the country. “Our vision is to establish a model of health information exchange for the nation,” said Harold J. Apple, CEO of IHIE, an Indianapolis-based not-for-profit . “We operate the most advanced system for connecting disparate health care IT systems in the nation, and AT&T is helping us take our efforts to the next level.” In fact, IHIE is launching a services organization to help other health information exchanges and large health care systems establish their own systems around the country. AT&T will also work with IHIE on that consulting effort. IHIE is the nation’s largest health information exchange. It has more than 80 hospital and long-term-care systems, more than 19,000 physicians and 10 million patients. IHIE’s services allow hospitals and doctors to exchange patient records electronically, as needed.
CHV Capital Inc., the venture capital arm of Indiana University Health, and Indianapolis-based Spring Mill Venture Partners participated in a $10.9 million investment in PerfectServe Inc. The Tennessee-based company provides communication software systems that route calls and messages to the right doctor on whatever platform they choose at a given moment: office phone, cell phone, text messaging, pager or e-mail. The “series C” funding round was led by PJC Capital LLC, the private equity arm of Minneapolis-based investment banking firm Piper Jaffray. PerfectServe already serves more than 17,500 physicians around the country, processing 30 million transactions each year.
A lawsuit contends that a Carmel-based health insurer ran a scheme to avoid paying in-home-care claims for potentially thousands of California's elderly, according to the Associated Press. Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, or SHIP, had a claims process "designed to frustrate and confuse policyholders with needless demands for irrelevant information" in violation of its own policies and California law, according to the suit filed Feb. 4 in San Bernardino County Superior Court by the group Consumer Watchdog. The not-for-profit insurer is run by a trust created by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Senior Health Insurance operated as Conseco Senior Health Insurance until late 2008, but Carmel-based Conseco Inc. (now CNO Financial Group Inc.) transferred the unit to an independent trust based in Pennsylvania due to heavy losses. Conseco took a $1.2 billion charge to unload the unit. The new lawsuit claims that SHIP tried to avoid reimbursing policyholders for long-term care by ignoring or taking an unreasonably long time to respond to claims; requiring unnecessary paperwork and medical examinations, and requiring that the care givers have licenses in violation of company policy and California law. The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of Dr. William Hall, 78, of Upland. Hall, a retired chief of medicine at a California hospital, bought a long-term-care policy in 1994 and submitted claims in 2010. SHIP refused to reimburse all but 20 percent of his expenses, the lawsuit claims.
After years of screaming by employers that spiraling health care spending is crimping their profits and forcing them to hold down wages, the economic impact study released last week by Indiana University Health suggests health care spending is an unmitigated blessing to the Indiana economy.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s osteoporosis drug Forteo was used in the first successful human trial of an implantable device that delivers injectable drugs—showing promise for eliminating the need for regular shots. Massachusetts-based MicroCHIPS Inc. implanted wirelessly controlled drug-delivery devices in women with osteoporosis. The devices delivered daily doses of Forteo into the women’s bloodstreams. The device could be helpful for Lilly and its peers, who are trying to develop more biotech drugs like Forteo. Such drugs are typically made up of large proteins, which cannot be reduced to pill form and must instead be injected. Many patients resist taking injectable drugs and many do not fully comply with their prescribed regimens.
A Cicero-based developer plans to build a $15.7 million senior health care center at 16th Street and Arlington Avenue on Indianapolis’ east side. The city’s Metropolitan Development Commission approved the project Wednesday after accepting Mainstreet Property Group LLC’s offer to purchase the property for $912,500. Mainstreet plans to begin construction in July and finish by June 2013. The facility would include 100 beds for skilled care, short-term rehabilitation and assisted-living patients. The facility is expected to create up to 150 jobs, said Zeke Turner, Mainstreet’s CEO. Overall, the company owns or co-owns 13 senior health care centers in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and has six more under development. It plans to break ground on as many as 12 centers by the end of the year, including a $13.3 million facility in Westfield, Turner said.
Marian University is looking to hire as many as 25 professors to help launch its College of Osteopathic Medicine, which is slated to open in August 2013. The school, which would be Indiana’s second medical school, would train 150 physicians each year. Marian, a small Catholic university in Indianapolis, wants to hire as many as three professors in each of seven disciplines: anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, immunology, physiology, pharmacology and pathology.
