The Capital Improvement Board saw revenue of $22.5 million in the first three months of the year, a jump of 28 percent compared with the same three months in 2010. More taxes generated by hotel stays and restaurant visits helped drive the increase.
‘Shrek’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ also on 11/12 schedule
Community Health Network appointed Ronald Strachan as chief information officer to fill the position left vacant by the retirement last fall of Ed Koschka. Strachan held similar roles at various health care organizations in Minnesota, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan. He has an MBA from Central Michigan University and a bachelor’s degree from Davenport University in Dearborn, Mich.
Dr. John Fleming has been named medical director of the Jane Pauley Community Health Center, a part of Community Health Network. The center, located at East 30th Street and Post Road, opened in 2009. Fleming earned his medical training and doctorate in pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Indiana University Health named Betty Stilwell, the longtime chief of the Methodist Health Foundation, to the newly created position of chief philanthropy officer. Stilwell will spearhead philanthropic giving for the entire IU Health system, which now includes 17 hospitals statewide. Stilwell will sit on the IU Health executive team and report to CEO Dan Evans.
Indianapolis-based SonarMed Inc. added James Tyree, president of Abott Biotech Ventures Inc., as an independent director. SonarMed makes breathing tube monitoring equipment for patients on ventilators.
WellPoint Inc. named John Martie president and CEO of its national accounts business. Martie replaces John Langenus, who announced his retirement in April. Martie has been serving as president of WellPoint’s Colorado local group plan. The national accounts business, which serves multi-state employers, covers more than 12 million people.
Recent acquisitions by IU Health and Franciscan Alliance keep up a trend of physicians becoming employees of hospital systems, in preparation for changes under health care reform.
School districts across the state continue to struggle in their attempts to win voter approval for operating money or building projects, which a researcher attributes to continued worries about the economy.
Lineup includes Bernadette Peters (with Michael Feinstein), Sandi Patty (with Michael Feinstein), and Marvin Hamlisch (with Michael Feinstein)…plus more acts without Michael Feinstein.
Legislation that expands charter schools in Indiana also could increase the number of teachers at those schools without licenses, making it easier for educators like Eric Nentrup to take non-traditional paths to the classroom.
Indiana senators and representatives debated a wide range of bills with significant business implications during the 2011 session of the General Assembly, which wrapped up April 29.
Charters and vouchers may have sparked the loudest education-related protests before the Legislature this year, but changes to teacher evaluations are likely to have the biggest impact on Indiana’s public schools.
Proceeds from tribute-band concerts go to athletic programs, music departments and other school offerings that have lost funding.
Earthquakes and flooding took a toll on Baldwin & Lyons Inc.’s first quarter results, the Indianapolis-based insurer announced Thursday morning.
Barnes & Thornburg's entrance into the Los Angeles market earlier this year capped off a string of office openings that vaulted it into an elite national player.
Indianapolis Civic Theatre offers its final production at Marian University, “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” May 6-21. Details here.
Black and white work by a dozen artists makes up “Gray Matters,” opening May 6 at the Stutz Art Space. Details here.
“Reflections: All These Cars” features, yes, photographs of images bounced off automobiles. It’s at Art Bank June 6-30. Details here.
Michael Feinstein performs at the Palladium, May 11. A day later, he tapes a PBS special there. Details here.
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band perform at Conseco Fieldhouse, May 7, with local opener Borrow Tomorrow. Details here.
May 5
Palladium
May 6-7
Hilbert Circle Theatre
There was concern, when the Palladium launched, that it would take arts and audiences away from downtown. Well, that may happen. But for now, it’s interesting to note that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concerts at Hilbert Circle Theatre with violin master Joshua Bell are sold out—but you can still get tickets to see the ISO and Bell at the Palladium. May both venues thrive with great music … and full houses. Details here.
The Association of BellTel Retirees Inc. will press the board of Verizon Communications Inc. to tighten standards for executive pay when the New York company holds its annual meeting in Indianapolis this week.
A small private school that serves gifted and talented students intends to move to a downtown building that has been vacant since a daycare center moved out three years ago.
President Barack Obama plans to make his postponed visit to an Indianapolis auto parts manufacturer on Friday and will use the occasion to talk about plans for dealing with rising gas prices.
West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc. is preparing “conditional marketing” applications to the European Medicines Agency for its lead cancer drug and a companion diagnostic test based on Phase 2 clinical trial data. The European agency approves some drugs even before getting the final Phase 3 trial data if the medicine would treat a life-threatening disease to patients in areas of high unmet medical need. Endocyte's drug, EC145, is designed to treat ovarian cancer that has proved resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy agents. A companion imaging diagnostic, called EC20, would help select the patients most likely to benefit from EC145. Getting a drug on the European market early could provide much-needed revenue to Endocyte, which has no revenue-generating products.
OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc. is the latest employer to open an on-site wellness clinic, making it available to its 1,300 employees based in downtown Indianapolis and their adult family members. The clinic will be operated by Indianapolis-based OurHealth, which last fall opened a similar clinic at the headquarters of Indanapolis-based Interactive Intelligence. OneAmerica will make the clinic the center of its wellness program, allowing employees to regularly check their cholesterol, blood sugar and other indicators of health status. OneAmerica employees can save as much as $300 off their health insurance premiums if they “effectively manage” five key health targets: weight management, blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco use and glucose level. Employees can also make no-cost sick visits to the clinic, which is staffed by two doctors, a nurse practitioner, two nurses and a health coach.
California-based Hycor Biomedical Inc. plans to move its headquarters to central Indiana, creating as many as 20 jobs in the next two years. Hycor, which makes diagnostic products for clinical laboratories, is leasing space on East 98th Street while it lines up a permanent site for its operations. Founded in 1981, Hycor entered the diagnostics market in 1984. It now provides urinalysis, allergy and autoimmune testing products for clinical laboratories, hospitals and doctors' offices worldwide. Company officials said they liked Indiana’s central location, its base of life sciences workers, and $640,000 in tax credits from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
WellPoint Inc.’s better-than-expected profit in the first quarter continued a rally among health insurers this month. Indianapolis-based WellPoint reported Wednesday that it earned $926.6 million, or $2.44 a share, in the three months ended March 31. Excluding investment gains and special items, WellPoint’s profit rose 2.2 percent, to $891 million, or $2.35 a share. On that basis, Wall Street analysts were expecting $1.87 a share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. WellPoint responded by boosting its full-year profit forecast 40 cents a share. On Tuesday, Louisville-based Humana Inc. reported quarterly earnings that soared 63 cents above analysts’ expectations. It raised its full-year profit forecast 75 cents a share and announced it would begin paying a dividend. And on April 21, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group reported first-quarter profit that was 33 cents a share higher than analysts had forecast. The main factor driving the insurers’ healthy profits are that health care spending has been lower than expected and employment has improved slightly, putting more people on the rolls of employer-sponsored health plans. Also, the profit pressure of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has not been as great as many expected.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences on Thursday reported record sales of $1.6 billion in its first quarter, up 17 percent from the same period last year due to higher volume and increased prices. Quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization improved nearly 6 percent to $406 million in the quarter ended March 31. The company attributed double-digit volume gains to new products and good weather that allowed for early application of its herbicides. Research and development expenses increased 10 percent during the quarter.
Warsaw-based orthopedic implant maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. saw first-quarter profit rise a modest 2 percent but still beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts, according to the Associated Press. The company reported profit of $209 million, or $1.08 per share. Excluding charges, the company earned $1.19 per share, well higher than average analyst forecasts of $1.13 per share. During the quarter, sales of reconstructive hip and knee products rose 3 percent to $842 million.
The price to get big industrial firms like Eli Lilly and Co., National Starch and Rolls-Royce Corp. to support the sale of the city’s water and sewer utilities to Citizens Energy Group is at least $1.5 million.
