Supply Chain

States should adopt the Medicare competitive bidding payment amounts to purchase medical equipment instead of the higher Medicaid fee schedule amounts, according to a report from the HHS Office of Inspector General.

Healthcare providers must carefully balance the need to control costs against their mission to deliver the highest quality care. One of the multiple paths to this end may be the use of reverse auction services to strategically source and negotiate contracts.

Many hospitals use group purchasing organizations to buy in bulk and keep costs down. But group product purchasing also complicates the product supply trail, often leading to errors that prevent fulfillment, delivery and payment.

A recent Moody’s Investment Service report says that several recent developments will likely have long-term consequences for the generic drug industry.

With healthcare reform a top priority for most organizations, the cost, quality and outcomes movement is garnering some popularity among supply chain leaders at hospitals.

Too often healthcare providers find themselves handicapped when it comes to optimizing business processes because their primary mission is care, and business comes second.

In a landmark ruling this June, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted antitrust scrutiny of brand-name drug companies participating in reverse payment settlements, known as "pay for delay" agreements, with firms producing generic drugs.

In this clip from Health Datapalooza IV, panelists Farzad Mostashari, Dick Foster and Uwe Reinhardt discuss whether or not the private sector is beginning to match government investment in health IT.

Healthcare industry executives around the world understand the need to collaborate but lack of trust among the sectors and unaligned incentives for stakeholders create hurdles.

As healthcare delivery and reimbursement models transition to ensuring quality care versus quantity of care, some sectors of the healthcare industry will benefit more than others.