Mark another notch in the belt of Beckman Coulter Inc.’s restructuring under Chief Executive Scott Garrett.
The Fullerton-based company plans to close operations in Palo Alto by the end of 2008 and cut 220 jobs.
Beckman makes medical testing instruments and supplies for laboratories that run tests for doctors, universities and drug companies.
The Palo Alto work is set to move to the Indianapolis area, Beckman said in a release. The company said it’s making the change to reduce costs and help it with recruitment and retention.
“Closing our facility in Palo Alto was a difficult decision because the people there have always done excellent work and we have a long history in the area,” said Pam Miller, Beckman’s senior vice president of supply chain management.
The Palo Alto operations mainly develop and make centrifuges used by drug and medical researchers.
“By relocating our operations to the Indianapolis area, we can work aggressively to manage our costs and maintain our leadership position in centrifugation,” Miller said. “Also, we’re able to take a longer-term view of work force planning.”
Beckman said it doesn’t expect the move to affect its 2006 results and plans to give more details about the change and how it might play out in 2007 and beyond during its upcoming fourth-quarter conference call.
The company’s been reworking some distribution and manufacturing in recent months under Garrett, who took over for longtime leader John Wareham in early 2005.
The moves have included combining six small West Coast warehouses into a new, sprawling distribution center in Chino and outsourcing production of some electronics that go into Beckman products.
Healthcare Software Maker Funded
Enclarity Inc., an Aliso Viejo-based software company, raised $10 million in a second round of venture capital funding. Enclarity’s software is designed to reduce data errors at health insurers.
The investment brings Enclarity’s total raised to $16.5 million since its start in early 2005.
Bain Capital Ventures of Boston, the venture arm of Bain Capital LLC, led the round. Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Wash., which provided Enclarity’s original round of funding, also took part.
As part of the funding, Jeff Crisan, a director of Bain Capital Ventures, joined Enclarity’s board.
“Each year, incorrect or outdated healthcare provider information costs health payers more than $26 billion,” Crisan said in a release.
Enclarity plans to use the funding to continue its expansion, said Sean Downs, the company’s chief executive.
Study: Doctor Productivity Key
Productivity still is king when it comes to doctors’ financial incentives, according to a study from the Center for Studying Health System Change.
The center’s study found the percentage of doctors whose pay was based in part on quality measures jumped from 17.6% in 2001 and 2002 to 20.2% in 2004 and 2005.
At issue is whether productivity-based incentives are better than those based on quality of care.
“Physician practices’ heavy reliance on productivity-based compensation, which reflects the dominant fee-for-service reimbursement system used by payers, likely increases the cost of care by encouraging the provision of more services to patients,” said Paul Ginsburg, the center’s director, in a release.
About half of all participating doctors viewed productivity-based incentives as an important factor in determining their compensation.
By contrast, only 9% of all doctors who were subject to quality-based incentives in their practices viewed them important.
Both public and private healthcare payers have looked at using financial incentives through pay-for-performance programs as a way to encourage doctors and hospitals to improve their quality, the center said.
Orange County is one of 12 areas studied by the center, a Washington, D.C.-based healthcare think tank primarily financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Bits and Pieces:
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Tustin drug developer, said a clinical trial it funded at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center showed that microbubbles targeted to blood vessels supplying a tumor can be used to monitor patients’ response to anti-angiogenesis drugs, a more targeted cancer treatment than chemotherapy. The microbubbles are part of Peregrine’s vascular targeting agent BioLase Technology Inc., an Irvine dental and cosmetic laser company, was granted a U.S. patent last month related to electromagnetic energy devices for therapeutic and cosmetic uses … Patient Care Technology Systems of Mission Viejo, part of Florida’s Consulier Engineering Inc., said it gained eight clients for its Amelior patient and asset tracking software in past months Clarient Inc. of Aliso Viejo said it signed a three-year deal with Natural Selection Inc. of La Jolla to develop in-vitro diagnostics to improve cancer detection. Clarient was granted an exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable license to apply Natural Selection’s algorithms to specific diagnostic analysis and services.
