The individual hospital campuses around Indianapolis saw their collective revenue rise 8 percent and their collective operating profits rise 22 percent from from 2011 to 2013. That’s solid, just not stellar, growth.
In Indiana, Anthem has struck accountable care organization deals with 14 health care provider groups and signed up nearly 2,900 primary care providers to its medical home program. And it’s pushing for more in the future.
For employer health plans, diabetics generate $10,000 more per year in medical bills than non-diabetics. That means the rise in the prevalence of diabetes over the past 25 years is costing Hoosiers an extra $2.6 billion annually.
Anthem Inc.’s brand has taken a noticeable hit since a massive data breach earlier this year, but the impact was blunted by positive perceptions of the way the company handled the breach.
That’s less than one-tenth of 1 percent of what Hoosiers and their health plans spend on hospital care each year. But it’s a step in the right direction.
Hospital system tripled its profit last year by wooing patients to its physicians, trimming hospital and clinical staff by more than 400. The rating agency Moody’s says things look even better in 2015.
A Health Department audit found nurse staffing routinely short on two patient units at IU Health’s Methodist hospital, where nurses are trying to organize a union.
To satisfy patients with high-deductible health plans, Northwest Radiology has introduced flat-rate pricing for its imaging scans. It’s a centuries-old concept among postal services, but for health care, it’s revolutionary.
Things got quiet after a wave of hospital systems' acquiring physician practices swept through central Indiana from 2008 to 2011. But a new wave could start now that Congress passed the "doc fix" last week.
A recent ranking of health care value in all 50 states puts Indiana in the basement. By my rough figures, working-age Hoosiers are paying a couple billions dollars extra for their health care.
A growing number of hospitals locally and nationally hiring scribes to help doctors fill out electronic medical records, which were billed as a time-saver over paper charts.
By subtly threatening the loss of patients via a new “reference lab network,” the Indianapolis-based health insurer has persuaded 63 Indiana hospitals to slash their prices for blood and tissue testing by as much as 80 percent—beyond the discounts Anthem had already negotiated with them.
Hospitals and doctors still aren’t seeing a wave of new patients because rising deductibles in patients' health plans are continuing to delay medical procedures, even though their job prospects are better than they’ve been in years.
Nurses in Indiana are underpaid, relative to their peers nationally. They are not overworked from a sheer number of hours, but the demands of hospitals nurses have spiked recently, reducing nurses’ margin for caring for patients with a human touch. For a business that competes on service and, increasingly, on price, those are big problems.
IU Health had one of its most profitable years ever in 2014, as it cut staff, boosted its physician office visits and improved bill collections. But it is still hoarding cash to be ready for future cuts in reimbursement as well as future building projects.
Think we’re almost done with changes from Obamacare? Think again. Things won’t settle down any sooner than 2017, and they could actually get even wilder after that.
The fact that Assembly Biosciences Inc. and AgeneBio now list New York and Baltimore, respectively, as their headquarters cities doesn’t hurt Indiana and could help the state, says David Johnson, CEO of BioCrossroads.
New research shows patients lose trust and confidence in doctors that take money for travel, but like it when their doctors are paid as consultants during the development of new products.
One-third of Indiana’s buyers on Obamacare exchanges were new to their health plans this year—tying Indiana for sixth among the 37 states using the federal exchange.
For years, employers have focused on preventing huge health bills that can result from their older workers. But now Leonard Hoops, the CEO of Visit Indy, is trying to get employers to focus on the costs of the youngest members of their health plans: premature babies.
