Republicans needed to make Obamacare work
Obama’s latest delay of Obamacare insurance rules could sabotage the law’s exchanges. The president must be counting on Republican critics, like Indiana Insurance Commissioner Stephen Robertson, to stop him.
Life Science & Biotech
Articles
Biomet files to sell shares in IPO to pay down debt
Indiana-based Biomet Group Inc., a closely held maker of orthopedic medical devices, had been publicly traded until 2007 when it was acquired by the group of private equity firms.
Health insurance brokers must change to survive
Employees, rather than employers, will soon choose their own health insurers—either through the Obamacare exchanges or through private exchanges. Does that mean health insurance brokers, the people who match up employers with insurers, will no longer be needed?
Dow AgroSciences nears jackpot from genetic engineering
Dow AgroSciences LLC is spending millions of dollars and racking up hundreds of patents as its expands ever deeper in the burgeoning global market for genetically modified crops and pesticides.
Hospital layoffs hardly dented employment growth
Even though the state’s three largest hospital systems–IU Health, St. Vincent Health and Franciscan Alliance–eliminated a combined 2,700 jobs, it created just a blip in the long-term run-up in hospital employment.
Indy hospitals, doctors should start a price war
The choice for health care providers is binary: either limit patient choice through restricted networks or preserve patient choice by making price transparency real and usable. Hospitals and doctors would be better served by the latter.
Life sciences jobs pack 2-for-1 punch
While life sciences companies don’t rack up huge jobs numbers, their relatively high pay means that every job they create is worth two in the rest of the private sector.
What happens if Pence, Sebelius can’t make a deal?
Even if Gov. Mike Pence and Obama’s health secretary can’t come to terms this weekend, there are ideas bouncing around the state legislature that suggest other ways Indiana could expand coverage to low-income Hoosiers.
Lilly drug shows promise as lung cancer treatment
Shares of Eli Lilly and Co. rose as much as 3.8 percent Wednesday morning after the Indianapolis-based drugmaker revealed that an experimental drug boosted overall survival among lung cancer patients in a large trial.
The weightlessness of Obamacare
Rich employer benefits are not always so attractive, sick patients are not always money losers for insurers, and hospitals and doctors are now health care preventers rather than health care providers. This is the bizarre world to which Obamacare has brought us.
Hospitals’ worries about Obamacare plans misplaced
The latest enrollment data from the Obamacare exchanges show that three out of four Hoosiers are purchasing decent coverage—not the super high-deductible plans that concerned hospitals.
Ex-Marcadia execs raise $1.7M to launch drug firm
Fritz French and Richard DiMarchi, the former leaders of Marcadia Biotech, have teamed up to launch the diabetes drug development firm Calibrium LLC.
Generous employer benefits now hurt some workers
Ever since World War 2, when employers started using health benefits to compete for workers, the less employees had to pay toward health insurance premiums the more attractive the benefits. But under Obamacare, this axiom will not always be true.
Deals up, dollars down in 2013 for Indiana life sciences firms
Venture capitalists and angel investors put a combined $31.9 million into 18 life sciences companies last year, with some of the largest amounts going to Nextremity Solutions, hc1.com and FAST BioMedical.
Biomet reaches $50M settlement in hip-replacement case
Indiana-based Biomet Inc. has agreed to pay a base rate of $200,000 each to hundreds of people who received artificial hips that were later replaced.
Purdue, Cook create $12M fund for life-science startups
The Foundry Investment Fund will join with other investors to provide funding for companies that use Purdue-licensed technology or expertise in human and animal health and plant sciences.
Size matters: Big hospitals with largest market shares charge highest prices
A new study of 10 cities, including Indianapolis, gives a picture of how big hospitals have been battling with big health insurers over prices—and winning.
Rival’s lawsuit could delay launch of new Lilly insulin
Paris-based Sanofi sued Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday for patent infringement. That suit triggers an automatic 30-month delay on Lilly’s plans to launch a similar version of Sanofi’s once-a-day insulin Lantus.
Despite exchange roller coaster, WellPoint says it’s all going according to plan
Since WellPoint says it’s not losing money on the exchanges—at this point—that’s encouraging news for those who would like the Obamacare exchanges to remain a viable option.
St. Vincent hospitals not quite as rich as they seem
St. Vincent Health has been sending roughly $50 million to $70 million every year to its parent company, St. Louis-based Ascension Health, to support other hospitals in Ascension’s 93-hospital network.