Indy’s most profitable hospitals, revisited
On the eve of Obamacare, almost no central Indiana hospitals were having trouble making money. Hip replacements, heart surgery and Hamilton County were the biggest drivers of profits.
Health Care & Insurance
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Health insurers: Payment rates meeting expectations
Top health insurance companies told members of Congress Wednesday that more than 80 percent of people who've signed up under the president's new health care law have gone on to pay their premiums.
Life sciences critical mass elusive in Indiana after years of effort
Attempts to build the sector are making headway, but Indiana still lags leading states.
Bayer’s $14.2 billion Merck buy shows pharma strategy split
Bayer AG’s $14.2 billion acquisition of Merck & Co. is the latest in a series of big pharma deals and it exposes a deepening split in the way drugmakers approach their portfolios.
Insurers say most Obamacare enrollees paying premiums
Three large health insurers including Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and Aetna Inc. say that a high percentage of their new Obamacare customers are paying their first premiums, partly undermining a Republican criticism of enrollment in the program.
Veterans Affairs department rejects call for leader to quit
The Indianapolis-based American Legion, the nation's largest veterans service group, called Monday for the resignations of U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and two of his top aides amid an investigation into allegations of corruption and unnecessary deaths.
Zimmer-Biomet deal could stanch their bleeding at hospitals
Hospitals, which have forced orthopedic implant makers to lower their prices in recent years, may have a harder time doing so when the combined Zimmer-Biomet controls nearly 40 percent of the market.
Time to eat crow and fix my error on Obamacare sign-ups
When I predicted on March 13 that Obamacare would fail to expand individual private insurance coverage in Indiana, I was completely off. It now looks like an extra 30,000 Hoosiers have bought individual health insurance this year.
Endocyte shares plunge 60 percent after drug trial is stopped
Endocyte Inc.’s stock fell more than 60 percent in early trading Friday after the drug it’s developing with Merck & Co.’s backing failed to help patients in a trial for ovarian cancer.
Indiana signups lag for federal health care law
Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that a total of nearly 230,000 Indiana residents were eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan, but only about 132,000 had done so by the March 31 deadline.
St. Vincent and Community to dissolve partnership
The Accountable Care Consortium was envisioned as a vehicle through which the hospitals would eventually funnel all of their roughly $2.5 billion in annual contracts with health insurers and employers.
Drug prices surge as generics, niche treatments eat profit
Since 2007, the cost of brand-name medicines has jumped, with prices doubling for dozens of established drugs that target everything from multiple sclerosis to cancer, blood pressure and even erections, according to an analysis conducted for Bloomberg News.
CEOs launch childhood obesity initiative
Jump IN for Healthy Kids has a budget of $1.5 million and hopes to identify and extend successful efforts to improve diet, activity and healthy choices among children and their families.
WellPoint shares rise after better-than-expected quarter
The Indianapolis-based health insurer increased its profit forecast after Obamacare enrollments boosted quarterly results.
What health care really needs is a full-meal deal
Until doctors and hospitals make a whole lot more headway—or, perhaps, more accurately, are allowed to make more headway—in offering package deals, it’s hard to see major progress on containing out-of-control health care costs.
Roche battles payment cuts while growing diagnostics business
New tests have helped Roche Diagnostics grow its North American revenue, excluding its troubled diabetes care business, 23 percent over the past five years. But the money for diagnostic tests continues to go down in key areas, noted CFO Wayne Burris.
Lilly trade-secret defendants released to home detention
The court noted that after the government filed a second indictment March 12, the trade-secret theft claims against Guoqing Cao and Shuyu Li were changed to wire fraud, and aiding and abetting and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
CNO takes big earnings hit to dispose of old business
Excluding the cost of finally shedding a block of business from predecessor Conseco Inc., CNO's operations were on the upswing in the first quarter.
Indiana lawmakers struggle with ethics system
Eric Turner, the first lawmaker to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee in close to two decades, is under review for his private lobbying against a proposed ban on the construction of new nursing homes.
Think Obamacare will help hospitals? Think again
The typical hospital around the country will see its profits wiped out entirely by the changes coming from health reform and the aging of the population. But in Indianapolis, the hits will be cushioned by this region's fatter commercial reimbursements.