Shepherd Insurance buys rival DeTrude & Co.
The acquisition of DeTrude & Co. by Shepherd Insurance marks the 13th purchase of an Indianapolis-area benefits brokerage since mid-2007.
Employee Benefits
Articles
Employer costs surge despite low inflation
Employers are seeing their health care costs rise even though inflation is at a virtual standstill.
Fewer firms reimbursing workers for tuition
As corporations continue to dig out from the worst recession in decades, tuition-reimbursement programs are a common
casualty. A survey estimates that 63 percent of companies will
offer undergraduate educational assistance this year compared to 67 percent in 2005.
House passes health care bill on close vote
In a victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed landmark health care legislation
Saturday night to expand coverage to tens of millions who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry. The 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin a long-delayed debate
on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.
WellPoint, Obama administration battle over cost of health reform to employers
At this point in the health reform debate, you have to take numbers from any side with a grain of salt. That said, Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. has done perhaps the only local analysis of how proposed reforms would affect the cost of health insurance
for employers.
Goodwill executive to lead national health care board
Goodwill Industries executive Keith Reissaus has been tapped to run Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, an industry coalition.
Reissaus gained control of health care costs by giving employees incentives to care about their health.
Baucus health reform bill draws fire in Indiana, too
The health insurance industry’s sudden counterpunch to the Senate version of health reform echoed in Indiana and
opened a key issue for the rest of the debate: Will covering half of the country’s uninsured mean raising premiums for
the 85 percent of Americans who already have insurance?
My Health Care Manager lands $3 million investment
The company, which guides working adults and their parents through the maze of decisions and agencies involved in care for seniors, plans to use the money primarily to augment its sales staff and operations.
Maine protest targets Anthem’s rate-hike appeal
Demonstrators on Wednesday backed Maine’s insurance superintendent for rejecting a request from the state’s largest private health insurer seeking an 18-percent rate hike for its individual insurance plans.
Rolls-Royce and health care reform
Rolls-Royce, the British jet engine maker, isn’t taking a position on health care reform, but let’s drag them into it, anyway,
because Rolls-Royce’s business model might interest the crowd advocating for reform via market forces.
Weight-loss challenges at local firms raise money for charity
Employees at five different companies collectively lost 805 pounds over six weeks this summer. They also
raised $805 for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Indiana.
WellPoint CEO defends health insurance business
A health care reform push that aims at the insurance industry misses a much bigger target in its quest to lower rising costs,
WellPoint Inc. CEO Angela Braly said in a speech.
My Health Care Manager looks to grow fast
Indianapolis-based startup My Health Care Manager has signed an agreement with Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. that will eventually put My Health Care Manager’s elder care service in front of the health insurer’s
thousands of employer clients and their workers around the country.
HETRICK: Will we distinguish the faux news from the real?
There was a time, of course, when journalists had the time, space, resources and respect to sort things out for us.
Monarch program persuades young, male workers to care about their health
Indianapolis-based Monarch Beverage is among hundreds of central Indiana companies that
have introduced wellness programs to counteract the rising costs of health insurance and Worker’s Compensation.
HICKS: Health care experts make poor economists
In almost every place that two or more Americans gather, health care is debated. Because the bills before Congress are
inaccessible, the debate has shifted instead to principles such as the role of government and individual freedoms. I think this a healthy thing.
Indianapolis benefits firms merge
Two Indianapolis benefits consulting firms have finalized their merger, the companies announced this morning. Terms of the
deal between Benefit Associates Inc. and Benefit Consultants Inc., in the works since March, were not disclosed.
A.J. Gallagher & Co. strikes again, hires two more benefits brokers
National acquisition-and-merger rage among benefits firms continues as Gallagher swallows groups in Noblesville and Louisville.
Gallagher’s Carmel office grows its client portfolio to 300.
Government-run insurance plan draws mixed reviews from employers
Businesses all want to see reform of the health care system, but they diverge on how much the U.S. government’s entrance into
the insurance market would help or hurt them.
UnitedHealthcare hopes cards bring customers
Dan Krajnovich thinks UnitedHealthcare’s new and improved swipe cards will help his company add more doctors to its network of providers, boosting its competitiveness in the marketplace.