New collaborative to tackle end-to-end supply chain challenges
Executives from 12 healthcare organizations formed the Healthcare Supply Chain Collaborative to address and solve longstanding supply chain issues. The new organization’s mission is to transform the healthcare supply chain through best practices for processes and data. To address these issues from an end-to-end supply chain perspective, the organization’s leadership includes manufacturers, distributors, providers, and group purchasing organizations. The organization will initially focus on two primary areas: Supply chain visibility and contract administration and pricing. The Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) will provide staffing for the Collaborative. Members of its steering committee include senior executives from: BD (Becton, Dickson & Company), Cardinal Health, Henry Schein, Johnson & Johnson, The Mayo Clinic, McKesson Medical-Surgical, Medline, Medtronic, Owens & Minor, Premier Inc, Quidel, UAB Medicine, and Vizient Inc. The Healthcare Supply Chain Collaborative will host a conference April 17-18, 2019, with sessions focusing on contract administration, e-commerce, and supply chain visibility. Industry organizations are invited to attend and to participate with the Collaborative. To join the Collaborative, or for more information, contact Jeff Girardi at Girardi@hida.org.
JV of Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire hires consulting firm
The healthcare venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase has chosen Monitor Group (Boston, MA), a global consulting firm based, to help develop its strategy for lowering healthcare spending by improving care of chronically ill patients, an unnamed a source familiar with the arrangement told STAT. Monitor Group, the business consulting division of Deloitte, helps companies identify services and technologies that will help them connect with their customers. In addition to working with Monitor Group, the healthcare venture recently hired Jack Stoddard to fill the COO position. Stoddard most recently served as Comcast’s general manager for digital health.
HCA makes $500,000 donation to hurricane relief
HCA Healthcare (Nashville, TN) announced a donation of $500,000 to the American Red Cross to help people affected by Hurricane Florence. In South Carolina, HCA Healthcare has five hospital campuses, including Grand Strand Medical Center, the only Level 1 trauma center in the eastern part of the state, and 38 other sites of care.
47 Oklahoma hospitals meet 96% employee flu vaccination goal
Forty-seven Oklahoma hospitals and specialty units reached the goal set by the Oklahoma Hospital Association to achieve an employee influenza vaccination rate of 96% or more in the 2017-18 flu season. OHA’s Council on Quality and Patient Safety started the employee vaccination challenge for hospitals during the 2012-13 flu season. For the 2016-17 flu season, 43 hospitals met this goal. The American Hospital Association (AHA), as well as other national professional organizations, endorse mandatory flu vaccination policies for healthcare employees. Vaccinating healthcare employees has shown to prevent illness and death in patients and reduce influenza and absenteeism among healthcare providers.
CMS proposes to lift unnecessary regulations, ease burden on providers
CMS announced a proposed rule to relieve burden on healthcare providers by removing unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome Medicare compliance requirements for healthcare facilities. Collectively, these updates would save healthcare providers an estimated $1.12 billion annually. Taking into account policies across rules finalized in 2017 and 2018, as well as this and other proposed rules, savings are estimated at $5.2 billion. Many of the proposals simplify and streamline Medicare’s conditions of participation, conditions for coverage, and other requirements for participation for facilities, so they can meet health and safety standards more efficiently. This proposal ensures continued protection for patient health and safety. A key provision would reduce burden and promote efficiency to support patients who need organ transplants. The rule would eliminate a duplicative requirement on transplant programs to submit data and other information more than once for “re-approval” by Medicare.
Cigna announces Cigna Ventures with $250M to fund transformative innovation, growth
Cigna announced it has committed $250 million of capital to Cigna Ventures to invest in companies across three areas: insight and analytics, digital health and retail, and care delivery/management. The fund builds on Cigna’s existing venture activity, including collaboration with five venture capital partners and an equal number of existing direct investments. Last November, Optum, the health services business of UnitedHealth Group, announced the creation of Optum Ventures, a $250 million venture fund focused on investing in digital health companies that use data to improve consumers’ access to healthcare services and how care is delivered and paid for.
AHA launches center for health innovation
The American Hospital Association (AHA) introduced a center for health innovation to provide hospitals with resources and support as they respond to changes in the healthcare landscape. The center of health innovation will initially focus on developing market intelligence, innovation competitions, cybersecurity services, and “innovation boot camps.” Through the center, the AHA will offer hospitals insights into best practices to address emerging areas of healthcare, such as new payment, delivery and performance improvement models. The center will also test new ideas that improve outcomes and increase the affordability of healthcare services.