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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Cease Fire in Pittsburgh: UPMC and West Penn Take a Breather

by Tom May 3, 2012 government policy

Editors Note: This is a fifth installment in a series of posts covering the ongoing and very public dispute between UPMC, one of the nation’s largest IDNs and Highmark, one of the nation’s larger insurers. Both based in Pittsburgh, they each hold near regional monopolies for their core services.  And that might work if each [...]

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Is the Airline Supply Chain Analogy Relevant to Healthcare?

by Tom May 3, 2012 government policy

It’s not always about “first mover advantage,” sometimes, being the last entrant into a marketplace can be the winning formula. The airline industry provides the quintessential example of what the phrase “last in wins” means in a supply chain management context. Legacy carriers are at an extreme disadvantage when compared to newcomers because they have [...]

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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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Medical Device Hoarding Syndrome (MDHS)?

by Tom May 1, 2012 Healthcare Providers

Shame on me, I’m not as familiar with MDHS as I probably should be. But when a tight ship like Geisinger Health decides to host a meeting describing how it solved its “hoarding problem” and saved itself a boatload, I decided to pay attention. I’m just hoping the solution won’t involve 12 steps. Someone has [...]

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Getting Serious About Social Media

by Tom May 1, 2012 Healthcare Providers

You say you know what social media is and that you know it works, but can you articulate a coordinated strategy? Having a branded version of your website on Facebook and Twitter feeds are nice, but can you lead a discussion around how your organization can better use social media to enhance brand recognition, drive [...]

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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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Spend Matters Round-Up and Other News

by Brianna Tonner April 27, 2012 General News and Commentary

Have a lovely weekend, all! Definitely a positive read. Billionaires For The Cure Most Forbes Billionaires change the world. Heirs aside, it’s hard for them not to.  To attain that level of personal wealth is impossible without starting something significant; no one gets there by spending their lives working for someone else. To identify a [...]

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