General News and Commentary

Carlin: “We Exist Because the Planet Needed Plastic”

by Tom May 9, 2012 General News and Commentary

Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading networking organization for institutions in the healthcare community that have made a commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly practices. Members include hospitals, healthcare systems, GPOs, supplier businesses and other stakeholders engaged in the “greening of healthcare” to improve the health of patients, staff and the environment. Clearly, George Carlin’s (RIP) ideas [...]

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2012 GHX Summit Buzz: The Implantables Supply Chain

by Tom May 9, 2012 General News and Commentary

The 2012 version of GHX’s Supply Chain Summit comes to a close today. The party keeps getting bigger and better each year, an excellent sign and clear indicator of the company’s increasing relevance to the industry. Keep in mind; it’s GHX, so we’re genuinely talking about the whole of the industry –the providers, suppliers, distributors [...]

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Providers Getting their Mojo –Great Timing!

by Tom May 8, 2012 doctors

According to a new study in Health Affairs (not yet available to the public), hospitals are figuring out how to increase their leverage and secure higher prices from insurers. Believe it or not, the American Hospital Association (AHA) takes great issue with these findings. “We recognize no underlying validity to the study,” said Melinda Hatton, [...]

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Google Guilty of Java Infringement in Android OS

by Tom May 8, 2012 General News and Commentary

If you happen to be an Oracle stockholder, you may have just suffered the most hollow of all possible victories. Yesterday, a 12-person jury found Google guilty of infringing on Java –that little ‘ol programming language picked up by Oracle in its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Specifically, it found 9 lines copied (9 out of [...]

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Highmark’s New SCM Entity –ProtoCo to be Full Service GPO

by Tom May 7, 2012 General News and Commentary

Offering further evidence of the seriousness of its mission to build an integrated healthcare delivery system, Highmark, Pennsylvania’s largest health insurance company, launched a new supply chain management company, called ProtoCo. The company will operate under the direction of Bill O’Connor, who will report to John Paul, Highmark’s leader of provider services. There’s a nice [...]

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Spend Matters Site Round-Up and Other News

by Brianna Tonner May 4, 2012 General News and Commentary

Very scary situation. Wash. uses emergency cash to curb whooping cough OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire opened an emergency fund Thursday to help contain a spreading whooping cough epidemic, and officials urged residents to get vaccinated against an illness that particularly threatens infants. Gregoire is making $90,000 in crisis cash available to [...]

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HSCA Keeping the FEDs Happy

by Tom May 4, 2012 General News and Commentary

The congressional hearings of 2004 served as a wake up call –if not a warning— to the entire GPO industry. Its business model was on the line. “Fire in the paint locker” is the expression that comes to mind. With no appetite for the increased levels of federal oversight being debated, the GPOs collectively took [...]

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McKesson Settles Another False Claims Suit –$363 Million

by Tom May 2, 2012 General News and Commentary

There’s a great old Tower of Power song called “It’s Not the Crime” that has a refrain that goes like this: “It’s not the crime and it’s not the thought; it’s not the deed; it’s if you get caught.” If McKesson “committed no crime,” then it may be taking the notion of “cutting its losses” [...]

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GHX Expands Core Supply Chain Exchange Capabilities

by Tom April 30, 2012 General News and Commentary

On the eve of its Supply Chain Summit being held next week in Orlando (May 7-9), GHX announced enhancements to its core exchange offering. Many of the upgrades are deep architectural re-designs that are being implemented to improve its core system performance (e.g. scale-, speed-, and security-related stuff), but not all. It makes sense. GHX [...]

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Healthcare Blue Book –Essential Guide for your Virtual Glove Box

by Tom April 30, 2012 General News and Commentary

I took a lot of flak for my post last week suggesting that the healthcare industry’s refusal to provide honest and comprehensive consumer pricing information amounts to a self-inflicted wound. So I figured I must have struck a useful nerve. Why in the world a provider in a competitive market wouldn’t seize the opportunity to [...]

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