Spiking drug prices punch holes in health insurers’ finances
Spending on prescription drugs has soared 451 percent this year at Indianapolis-based MDwise as new drugs for hepatitis C and cancer soar above $100,000 per patient.
Life Science & Biotech
Articles
Lilly to add 50 employees at R&D center in New York
The drugmaker is trying to beef up its work on using the immune system to fight cancer. Indianapolis will remain Lilly’s main hub for research and development.
Go figure: As patients’ anger over costs spikes, health care prices barely budge
Patients’ anger over high deductibles and high drug prices is spurring presidential candidates to respond—even as the actual prices of health care services are growing slower than at any time since 1990.
Hospital CEO: Telehealth could dampen future health care construction
Bryan Mills, CEO of the Community Health Network hospital system, said a recent pickup in health care construction could slow down if providers can successfully care for patients remotely via the Internet and phones.
The Anthem-Cigna Marriage: A Love Story in Three Acts
A 22-page timeline of events leading up to the $54 billion merger agreement between Anthem and Cigna shows that company executives fell in love early, but the Anthem board made them break up and they chased other lovers. But in the end, they were each other’s only choice.
Lilly Endowment gives $2.9M more to BioCrossroads
Including the latest grant, the Lilly Endowment has given more than $38 million to BioCrossroads since the life sciences business development group was founded in 2002.
Anthem says industry flush with competition, but local experts have doubts
After Anthem CEO Joe Swedish argued that his $54 billion purchase of Cigna Corp. wouldn’t harm competition, execs at some of Indiana’s most prominent health care and health insurance institutions expressed skepticism last week during the IBJ Health Care Power Breakfast.
GOP wanted consumer-driven health care; Obamacare made it happen.
Since President Obama’s health law passed in 2010, deductibles on employer health plans have risen nearly seven times faster than wages and nearly three times faster than premiums, leaving consumers exposed more than ever to the sky-high cost of care.
Analyst: Lilly’s Jardiance diabetes pill could be a $6 billion-a-year blockbuster
It looks like Eli Lilly and Co. finally has a drug that can replace its former stars Zyprexa and Cymbalta. The most bullish analysts think Jardiance can surpass those $5 billion-a-year blockbusters.
Hospital-owned docs send more patients to lower-quality, higher-cost hospitals
When hospitals employ doctors—which is now the norm in central Indiana—more of those doctors’ patients end up going to hospitals with higher costs and poorer quality, according to a new study.
Court blocks use of pesticide made by Dow Agro
A federal appeals court has blocked the use of a pesticide made by Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences over concerns about its effect on honey bees, which have mysteriously disappeared across the country in recent years.
Obamacare pumping more than $2B into Hoosier health insurers
A flood of money from Obamacare—for the expanded Healthy Indiana Plan and for private health insurance purchased on the federal exchange—is boosting revenue and profit among Indiana health insurers.
City to consider selling $75M in bonds for 16 Tech project
The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership wants the city to improve streets, walkways and other infrastructure around the 170-acre project north of the IUPUI campus, designed to attract high-tech businesses and workers.
Community set to go whole hog on new value-based payments
CEO Bryan Mills has set a goal to make 75 percent of revenue—or $1.5 billion a year—be covered by value-based contracts—which means Community would be rewarded for keeping patients out of the hospital. A new venture is Mills’ strategy to get there.
Obamacare, HIP 2.0 goosing hospital profits—for now
More paying customers helped Community Health Network pull in $47 million in second-quarter profits, a story being repeated at not-for-profit hospitals around the country as Obamacare has boosted the number of insured customers to unprecedented highs.
Is Indiana’s lack of ‘narrow networks’ keeping Obamacare premiums high?
A recent study found the number of health insurers offering broad provider networks on the Obamacare exchange was higher than in all but 10 other states and suggests that so long as Hoosiers keep singing “Don’t Fence Me In,” they could keep paying more for health insurance.
Surprising heart study could bring Lilly $1B annually
Eli Lilly and Co. didn’t win approval for a new drug last week. But its latest study of an existing diabetes drug could create a blockbuster in its own right—adding as much as $1 billion a year to the coffers of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker.
UPDATE: Why insurance mega-mergers won’t launch wave of hospital hook-ups
Profits at most county-owned hospitals have grown by 100 percent to 400 percent over the past four years via partnerships with nursing homes that have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in extra federal money.
IU Health brass pledges to boost morale after survey cites problems
According to an internal memo, employees at Indiana University Health “lack confidence in senior leadership” and don’t think they are consistently provided adequate resources to serve patients. IU Health leaders have vowed to fix that.
Indiana health care investments simmer while national market sizzles
Hoosier entrepreneurs in health care and life sciences attracted more than $31 million from investors during the first half of the year. But too few Indiana companies have developed their technology enough to attract venture capitalists or tap stock markets.