By Bruce Japsen | Providing a boost to Baxter International Inc.’s fast-growing
regenerative medicine business, the medical product giant said it would
buy a London developer of next-generation bone graft material for up to
$330 million.
The Deerfield-based maker of blood therapies and
medical devices, said privately held ApaTech will bring a new business
that makes “synthetic bone repair materials for orthopedic and dental
applications,” as part of its business researching and developing bone
graft technologies, the companies said in a joint press release.
Filed under: Health care
Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Baxter to buy bone graft developer for $300 million
Buffett: Health care a ‘tapeworm’ on U.S. economy
Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks during a television interview earlier this week. (AP)
| Associated Press | Billionaire Warren Buffett says health care costs are a major drain on U.S. businesses and act like an “economic tape worm.”
The head of the holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Monday on Buffett says much of the rest of the world is paying about 9 percent of |
See also • Buffett boasts about profit, outlook • Read Buffett’s annual shareholder letter • Berkshire Hathaway profit jumps 25-fold |
Blue Cross parent to discuss premium increases
By Bruce Japsen | The parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has been summoned with other health insurance giants to Washington next week to discuss premium increases with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The letter to Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp., disclosed on the agency’s Web site, comes as the Obama administration steps up scrutiny of health insurance company premium increases. One idea floated by Obama will be to create a national insurance director with the ability to cap rate increases.
Lawmakers push for delay of Medicaid HMO plan
By Bruce Japsen | Some influential state lawmakers are pushing for a delay in a pilot program that would place some elderly and disabled Medicaid patients into HMOs.
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which runs the state Medicaid program for the poor, has issued a request for proposals by managed-care plans to provide medical care services to 40,000 seniors and adults with disabilities in suburban Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties. The Medicaid patients have to enroll in one of two health plans.
Health care: Obama’s plan will cost $950 billion
By Noam N. Levey |
Four days before his planned health summit with
congressional leaders, President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his
proposal to overhaul the nation’s health care system, building on the
gargantuan legislation developed by Senate Democrats last year.
The proposal, which the White House has posted on its website,
includes all the major provisions backed by congressional Democrats,
including a major expansion in coverage, broad new insurance regulations
and initiatives to make the health care system more efficient.
Medicare Advantage premiums jump 14%
Associated Press | Millions of seniors who signed up for popular
private health plans through Medicare are facing sharp premium
increases this year — another sign that spiraling costs are a problem
even for those with solid insurance.
A study to be released Friday by a major consulting firm found that
premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription
drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase
of only 5.2 percent the previous year. Some 8.5 million elderly and
disabled Americans are in the plans, which provide more comprehensive
coverage than traditional Medicare.
Report: Profits rise for health insurance giants
By Bruce Japsen
| Large U.S. health insurers did well last year, even though they faced higher medical costs and lost customers who had become unemployed. A report issued this morning from Moody’s Investors Service said the insurers’ profits jumped last year “above 2008’s levels.”
Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp, Humana, Inc. and Wellpoint “companies continued to demonstrate strong liquidity, while reducing financial leverage,” Moody’s said.
Health insurer Humana plans to cut 1,400 jobs
Tribune staff and wire | Health insurer Humana says it will eliminate about 1,400 jobs as it pushes to save money and adjust to a smaller enrollment. It is not ruling out some cuts in Illinois, where it has 650 workers, a spokesman said.
Stimulus to link doctors, hospitals in poor areas
By Bruce Japsen | Several
Chicago hospitals say they plan to use more than $7 million in federal
stimulus dollars to link hundreds of primary care doctors in poor
neighborhoods to each other and hospitals throughout the area.
The proposed Chicago Health Information Technology Regional Extension
Center will be the latest of the “regional extension centers” created
as part of an Obama administration initiative to get all medical care
providers in the country using electronic health records.
Protest planned against Aetna in Chicago
By Bruce Japsen | With health care reform legislation stalled in
Washington, advocates hoping Congress expands coverage to the uninsured
are taking to the streets later this afternoon to protest outside Aetna
Inc. offices in Chicago.
Health Care for America Now, which operates locally through consumer
group Citizen Action Illinois, said they are staging events outside of
the health plan’s offices at 1 S. Wacker Dr. in Chicago to highlight
the insurance industry’s large profits at a time the number of
Americans without coverage is on the rise.
Abbott completes Solvay acquisition
By Bruce Japsen | Abbott
Laboratories said this morning it has closed on its $6.2 billion
purchase of Solvay Pharmaceuticals of Belgium, giving the North
Chicago-based drug giant access to a larger cholesterol drug franchise
as well as other medicines.
The deal gives Abbott sole control over the cholesterol drug Tricor and
its successor pill TriLipix. That will help add about $2.9 billion to
Abbott’s reported 2010 annual sales.
Loyola Medical Center in Irish hospital deal
By Bruce Japsen | A Chicago area family plans to build a third hospital in Ireland in a deal that may involve Loyola University Health System as a manager of certain programs at the facility, the family and Loyola confirmed Monday afternoon.
Sheehan Medical, which has offices in Dublin, Ohio and the northwest Chicago suburb of Winfield, is developing a hospital in Cork, Ireland. The group, run by James Sheehan and his father, Loyola University professor and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Sheehan, owns hospitals in Blackrock and Galway, Ireland.
Disabled advocates oppose Ill. Medicaid HMO plan
| By Bruce Japsen | An advocacy group for the disabled is urging Gov. Pat Quinn’s health care team to abort a plan requiring 40,000 Medicaid patients enroll in HMOs.
Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago said it “strongly objects” to the effort by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which runs the Medicaid program for the poor. The department has issued a request for proposals by managed-care plans to provide medical care services to 40,000 seniors and adults with disabilities in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake and Will counties. |
• Illinois seeking private partners to provide care for Medicare patients |
Illinois gets money for electronic medical records
By Bruce Japsen |
Nearly $19 million in federal stimulus money is coming to Illinois to
help develop a statewide health information exchange that will allow
doctors and hospitals to “electronically share health information,”
Gov. Pat Quinn said.
To jumpstart the effort, Quinn signed an executive order to create the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology.
Health insurers profit up 56%, covering 2.7M fewer
By Naom Levey | As the nation struggled last year with rising healthcare costs and a recession, the five largest health insurance companies racked up combined profits of $12.2 billion — up 56% over 2008, according to a new report by liberal healthcare activists.
Based on company financial reports for 2009 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the report said, insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Cigna Corp., Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. covered 2.7 million fewer people than they did the year before.
Read more: chicagotribune.com/health
