WellPoint shares tumble on surprising CEO hire
The Indianapolis-based health insurer saw its stock tumble as much as 4.8 percent Wednesday morning after it unexpectedly named career hospital executive Joe Swedish to be its next CEO.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer saw its stock tumble as much as 4.8 percent Wednesday morning after it unexpectedly named career hospital executive Joe Swedish to be its next CEO.
You’ve heard the talk that the bottom-line reason for the General Assembly to meet this year is to fashion a two-year budget that will carry the state through June 30, 2015.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has selected Community Health Network to be the “exclusive provider” for a new kind of health insurance plan—a sharp departure from Anthem’s typical strategy of offering the broadest network of hospitals and doctors.
Manuel Gonzalez has been acquitted of three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering in connection with a scheme that targeted an Indianapolis physician. Former City-County Councilor Paul Bateman pleaded guilty last month to participating in the scheme.
The partnership will create a new board to oversee and coordinate the operations of both systems, according to internal messages sent to Community stakeholders. Community Health CEO Bryan Mills will be the CEO of the new joint-operating entity.
Community Health Network’s new partnership with Wishard Health Services will create a primary-care behemoth that the systems argue will put them in the best position possible to handle the changes coming from federal health reform.
The new partnership between Community Health Network and Wishard Health Services could put a third health care entity in an awkward position: the Indiana University School of Medicine. Virtually all of the nearly 1,100 physicians who practice at Wishard Memorial Hospital and its community clinics come from the IU medical school.
Indianapolis is one of 17 cities in which the YMCA is rolling out a demonstration project to prevent the spread of Type 2 diabetes among Medicare recipients. The program, developed by YMCA of Central Indiana and researchers at Indiana University, offers a yearlong course in exercise, dieting and individual counseling. The program’s success at preventing diabetes for people at risk has drawn financial support from such health insurers as Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare, which piloted a 16-week version in Indianapolis three years ago. According to The Wall Street Journal, UnitedHealthcare spends $20,000 on average per year to treat a patient with advanced diabetes, but just $3,700 on average to treat a patient with prediabetes. So the insurer can save money even after paying the YMCA up to $500 per participant to help keep patients from developing full-blown diabetes.
The city of Carmel has finalized a five-year agreement with Indiana University Health to operate an employee health center, which is scheduled to open in May. The health center will be built inside the IU Health Sports Performance Center at 1402 Chase Court off Carmel Drive. It will provide primary health service free of charge to all individuals on the city of Carmel’s health plan including employees, dependents and retirees. A physician, a nurse manager and medical assistant will staff the center, which will be open 25 hours per week.
The Lung Care Group, a six-physician group of pulmonology and sleep specialists, has joined St. Vincent Medical Group, the physician arm of Indianapolis-based hospital system St. Vincent Health. The Lung Care Group, located at 8330 Naab Road, included Dr. Jerome Barnes, Dr. William Byron Jr., Dr. Thomas Holian, Dr. Brandon Perkins, Dr. Mitchell Pfeiffer and Dr. Praveen Vohra.
WellPoint Inc. will raise its quarterly dividend 30 percent. The Indianapolis-based health insurer says it will pay 37.5 cents per share in the first quarter, up from 28.7 cents in the fourth quarter. WellPoint expects to return about $2 billion to shareholders this year through the dividend and share buybacks. The new dividend is payable March 25 to shareholders of record at the close of business March 8.
Paul Halverson has been appointed founding dean of the new Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI. Halverson, 54, has served as director and state health officer for the Arkansas Department of Health since 2005. Prior to his work in Arkansas, Halverson held several positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Halverson earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in health services administration from Arizona State University. He also earned a doctorate in public health from the University of North Carolina.
Jay Brehm has been appointed senior vice president of strategic planning and business development for Franciscan Alliance, a Mishawaka-based hospital system. Brehm currently is the chief financial officer at Franciscan St. Francis Health, which operates Franciscan’s three Indianapolis-area hospitals. Brehm holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from Ball State University.
Dr. Thomas Wisler has joined Franciscan Physician Network McFarland Gynecologic Specialists on the south side. Wisler received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and a medical degree from Creighton University School of Medicine.
Titus Schleyer has been named to lead the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute. Schleyer is an associate professor of dental public health at the University of Pittsburgh and founding director of the Center for Dental Informatics in the School of Dental Medicine. Schleyer earned doctorates in dental medicine and molecular biology at the University of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. He subsequently received a second dental degree and an MBA in health administration from Temple University in Philadelphia.
Between the new Marian college of medicine and an enrollment expansion at the Indiana University School of Medicine, the state will have 88 percent more med students by next fall.
FINALIST: Community Achievement in Health Care