Indiana University announces plans for $400 million donation from IU Health
Last year, IU Health donated $400 million to Indiana University’s School of Medicine, and now the school has announced how that money will be distributed.
The Indiana University School of Medicine recently received a $400 million donation from IU Health. The Dean of the School of Medicine at Indiana University, Dr. Jay L. Hess, said that the funds will be distributed over the next three years across several projects like residency and fellowship opportunities for students, with the goal of increasing the number of graduates who decide to stay and work in Indiana’s healthcare industry or academia.
The school of medicine will also be able to use the funds to bolster the coffers of its iDREAM program. The program works to increase diversity of residents pursuing academic medicine careers. A large portion of the money will go toward recruiting faculty who specialize in pathology, radiology, and surgery. Another portion of the funds will go toward expanding disease treatment research within the School of Medicine.
IU School of Medicine spokesperson Christina Griffiths mentioned in an email that since 1997, when IU Health was started, the two organizations have had a partnership. An email she sent out was quoted by The Indiana Daily Student: “Many of our IU School of Medicine faculty are also employed by IU Health, where they provide clinical care for patients. Our students complete clinical rotations at various IU Health hospitals across the state.”
She also mentioned that as IU Health regularly provides funding to Indiana University, this large donation will be the only donation it gives for the next three years. Griffiths said that another place the money will go will be an expansion of the existing MD/PhD program as well as scholarships for existing medical students, mental health services and academic advising. The funds that were partitioned for research will also help pay for laboratory renovations and infrastructure for clinical trials.
Griffiths’ email elaborated more: “As the largest medical school in the country, we look forward to continuing our work providing high-quality medical education for students, residents and fellows. We will also continue being a global leader in Alzheimer’s disease, personalized medicine, traumatic brain injury, LGBTQ+ health and many other areas of research.”
Another IU Health spokesperson, Lisa Tellus, noted in another email that the $400 million donation is emblematic of its commitment to its support of Indiana University’s mission, saying, “To have the best doctors in the nation, and to give Hoosiers access to cutting-edge medicine, we support the education and research mission of the IUSM, including recruitment, diversity, equity and inclusion.”
According to an article from WFYI, Indiana has the seventh most expensive hospitals in the country. The article cited a study done by RAND 4.0 to back this claim. The study also noted that Indiana patients pay almost three times more than Medicare pays for the same services.
IU Health said that over the next three years it will attempt to bring healthcare costs down to that of national averages. Inflation has added an extra pressure; however, Tellus mentioned in her email that the company will continue to work to reduce pricing regardless. She also mentioned that they are working on a multi-year affordability plan.
She also stated that IU Health has received a five star rating in price transparency from the Price Transparency Scorecard from Turquoise Health, saying, “While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to healthcare costs, providers, insurers, regulators and lawmakers must work together to ensure all Hoosiers have affordable access to high-quality levels of care.”
Hoosiers for Affordable Healthcare, an organization that advocates for policy reform when it comes to healthcare costs for Hoosiers, was formed in 2019 after the RAND 3.0 study was made public, and showed how expensive Indiana hospitals are compared to other parts of the country.
Since then, according to Chief Policy Strategist Matt Bell, they have worked to influence legislation that will help lower the cost of healthcare in the state. Once the RAND 4.0 study came out, Bell noted that Hoosiers for Affordable Healthcare has been working to raise awareness among the public of the issue.
Bell did praise the work IU Health is doing in response to his organization’s efforts, saying, “IU Health has probably been the most responsive health system in the state to its credit.”
He mentioned that IU Health has announced a commitment to lowering prices to be in line with the national average in the next three years. IU Health is also the only hospital in Indiana who has made that commitment. Bell praised that decision, saying, “We certainly appreciate the leadership that our state's largest health system is shown. We wish that others would follow them as the market leader.”
Bell said that Hoosiers for Affordable Healthcare has had sometimes adversarial relationships with the state’s hospitals, because his organization is more interested in helping Hoosiers save money, rather than bolster hospital profits.
He went on to say that money would be better spent in the hands of the patients. “Having said that, IU School of Medicine is a tremendous academic institution. We have a low number of physicians per capita in Indiana and IU School of Medicine will be critical to addressing that need,” Bell said.
Indiana University is a large organization that offers over 2,400 different programs and has been around since 1820. Indiana University has several campuses around the state as well as many dedicated medical campuses. More information about Indiana University can be found at the school’s website.