Should IU Health pursue a strategy of mediocrity?
Indiana University Health fell off U.S. News’ honor roll of the nation’s top 1 percent of hospitals. Because of Obamacare and other trends, perhaps IU Health should be happy about that.
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If courts gut Obamacare, Pence will face tough choice
If this week’s D.C. appeals court ruling stands up—declaring the Obamacare tax subsidies illegal in Indiana and most other states—Gov. Mike Pence could face significant pressure, even from traditional Republican supporters, to keep the tax credits flowing.
Will hospitals’ higher facility fees survive health reform?
One of the open secrets in health care is that hospitals are paid substantially more than independently owned health care facilities for the same procedures. But those higher fees are facing unprecedented pressure.
Online insurance brokerage sets sights on Indiana
Obamacare could, according to some health insurance experts, cause most small businesses to end their group health plans. Now a new venture-backed company opening up shop in Indiana is trying to make that prediction a reality.
Indy hospitals continue to see fewer patients. Why?
All of sudden, Hoosiers are buying less health care. Is that because we’ve kicked the habit, sobered up and found religion? Or is it the Great Recession hangover that will pass, eventually, so we can all get back to the party?
Indy patients love their doctors
Indianapolis ranked fifth highest among the nation’s largest cities for the most positive reviews of physicians. On a five-point Patient Happiness Index, the average review by patients scored Indianapolis physicians at a 4.05. San Francisco physicians topped the list.
Doctors’ drug money
Indiana physicians and research organizations reaped more than $25 million in payments from 15 pharmaceutical firms in 2012, according to the most recent data made available by the not-for-profit group ProPublica. Lilly was the biggest spender and the IU medical school was the biggest recipient.
Employees may rebel against Obamacare
The economics of the Obamacare’s exchanges are proving attractive to both employers and workers, but a new poll shows that workers still don’t want to end up in them.
Obamacare generates windfall for insurers
Obamacare’s tax credits are pumping nearly $400 million into the coffers of health insurers in Indiana this year, according to data released by the federal government and the insurance companies.
There will be blood
A new study found that common blood tests performed by hospital-owned facilities in the Indianapolis area were six to nine times more expensive than the same tests at independent lab facilities. Ouch!
How to judge Obamacare
Health care and health insurance were a mess long before Obamacare—and on a path to getting messier. That makes it awfully difficult to figure out how much blame and credit to give the law as it plays out in the marketplace. Here's my approach.
Fishers health analytics firm to expand, add workers
Healthiest Employers LLC plans to move software development to its Fishers headquarters in an expansion that will add up to 90 jobs by 2017.
Why hospitals leave the inner city, in one chart
Since hospitals lose money on just about every patient except those with private insurance, they have been closing inner-city facilities and opening new facilities in the suburbs for the past four decades.
IU Health to merge 2 downtown hospitals
Indiana University Health wants to merge two of its big downtown hospitals—University and Methodist—into one location, meaning either one or both would close or be converted to another use.
No, Community didn’t make a list of 1,000 people to fire
My post on a presentation by Community Health Network CEO Bryan Mills was interpreted in a stronger way than I intended. So let me set the record straight.
The worries of a hospital CEO
In a video presentation to his employees, Community Health CEO Bryan Mills discusses the threats hospitals face from retail clinics and employers—and how Community briefly discussed laying off 1,000 workers last year.
Why Obamacare is likely to fail in Indiana (and most other states, too)
New data show eight out of 10 Hoosiers with private health insurance are covered by employer plans that are exempt from most Obamacare rules. So, rather than being an invasive train wreck, Obamacare may fail because it doesn’t affect enough people.
GOP politico creates health clinic for the Obamacare age
Brose McVey is leading a new health care clinic company that is squarely aimed at helping individuals, the self-employed and even large businesses deal with the new health care reality that is emerging under Obamacare.
The real health care money in this town is at IU Health
While the biggest hospital profit margins are made in the suburbs, the biggest pile of cash—$353 million in 2012—is made at the three downtown campuses run by Indiana University Health. In fact, those hospitals generated 32 percent of all operating gains posted by central Indiana hospitals in 2012.
Why are we so fat? Our food, health care are so cheap
Two new studies show that Americans have every economic incentive to consume too much food and then, when that overeating creates health problems for them, to consume lots of health care to fix it.