Volume 29| September 12, 2018
Insights-Trends-Opinions
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John Pritchard
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Mark French of Ochsner named to 10 People to Watch
Mark French
Vice president, Vendor Management and Purchased Services
Ochsner Health System
New Orleans, Louisiana

Born in Hawaii, Mark French moved to Northern California with his family when he was 15. He received a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of California Davis. While there, he worked in a trauma unit, a physical therapy clinic and an Alzheimer’s care facility (for which he ultimately assumed an administrator role). He received a master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. After completing a fellowship and an additional year working in finance at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, he returned to New Orleans and joined the Ochsner Health System in 2000. He began his career at Ochsner as the operations manager in the Department of Renal Services and has served in a variety of leadership roles, including the COO of Ochsner Medical Center – New Orleans.


University of Michigan Health System's record drug diversion settlement
The nation's  largest settlement of its kind involving allegations of drug diversion  at a hospital is the result of a four-year Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into the University of Michigan Health System's practices concerning controlled substances.

So what happened, and what will happen next for the health system? 

The Ann Arbor News, which began reporting on the issue of stolen pills within the health system in 2014, analyzed the settlement agreement between the health system and the DEA. 

Beaumont Health racing to open 30 urgent care centers in metro Detroit
The new centers will help area businesses gain better control over their ever-growing health care costs because employees will have another option besides expensive ERs for non-life-threatening emergencies, said Carolyn Wilson, Beaumont's Chief Operating Officer.

Urgent care centers are less expensive to operate because they are generally not staffed and equipped for the most serious health issues. 
“We’ve been talking to a lot of major employers in the area whose health insurance and premium costs are going up in the 6 to 7 percent range, but their costs around emergency room care is going up double-digits, and they’re very concerned about that," Wilson said.

WellStreet operates 15 urgent care centers in the Atlanta area. Beaumont is partnering with the company for its expertise in running urgent care centers and opening them fast, Wilson said.
Beaumont expects to hire about 150 new employees to staff the centers, including some new doctors. The hospital system anticipates gaining new patients once the centers open. 

Health systems driving prices higher with physician group purchases
Insurance premiums and outpatient prices spiked as California health systems have snatched up physician groups, new research shows. 

In 41 highly concentrated California counties, the percentage of hospital-employed physicians increased from about 25% in 2010 to more than 40% in 2016, according to a new Health Affairs  study

Researchers estimated that the shift in ownership translated to a 12% increase in Affordable Care Act premiums, a 9% hike in specialist prices and 5% boost in primary care prices from 2013 to 2016. 

National Accounts Summit- Registration now open! Space is limited!
The inaugural National Accounts Summit will be held November 13-14, 2018 in Orlando, Florida.

The National Accounts Summit was developed to help National Accounts Executives develop and hone their skills for our ever changing contracting arena.

Registration is now open and space is limited!

Heard of Amazon Business? It’s on track to make $10 billion over 12 months
Amazon is having some luck getting buyers of corporate office supplies to shop like teens armed with a parent’s credit card.

Amazon Business, the company’s business-to-business sales program, is on track to post sales of more than $10 billion over 12 months, assuming the company keeps up the pace it recorded between June and August, Amazon said this week.

That’s up from the cumulative $1 billion sales mark reached before the end of the program’s  first year , in 2016, a sign of the Seattle company’s success wooing corporate procurement offices, and the manufacturers that supply them, to its online bazaar.

Bon Secours, Mercy Health finalize merger
Marriottsville, Md.-based Bon Secours Health System and Cincinnati-based Mercy Health finalized their merger Sept. 5, establishing one of the largest Catholic healthcare systems in the nation.

The combined organization, dubbed Bon Secours Mercy Health, will comprise 43 hospitals in seven states and more than 2,100 physicians. It will be the nation's fifth-largest Catholic health system with $8 billion in net operating revenue and $239 million in operating income.

Stryker to buy K2M Group for about $1.4 billion
Medical device maker Stryker Corp ( SYK.N ) said it will buy smaller rival K2M Group Holdings Inc ( KTWO.O ) for about $1.4 billion, adding K2M’s fast-growing spinal implant technology to its business.

Stryker’s offer of $27.50 per K2M share represents a premium of 26 percent to K2M Group’s Wednesday closing price. K2M shares rose 25 percent to $27.27 in early trading, while those of Stryker were marginally down at $170.03.

“If one were to have asked us where we would have expected Stryker’s next tuck-in deal to materialize, we would have pointed to Spine (division),” Leerink analyst Richard Newitter said.

Intermountain’s Dan Liljenquist talks about his hopes for Civica Rx
Heavy-hitting players in the hospital industry—including Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic, and HCA Healthcare—felt that they had little choice but to ban together to fix what they consider a flawed supply chain for generic medications, says Dan Liljenquist, a vice president at Intermountain who initiated the project.

In a recent interview, Liljenquist tells  Stat  that Intermountain had been dealing with a shortage of nearly 200 drugs for years, a situation that became untenable. The not-for-profit drug company that the hospitals formed is called Civica Rx, which will begin putting 14 generics (yet to be named) on the market by mid-2019. Civica Rx will partner with drug manufacturers. “The drugs we’re talking about have been on the market and a lot of people … know how to make [them],” says Liljenquist. “What’s unique for our model is that we’ll be able to deliver pre-contracted volumes, so it makes it easier for these companies to make a return on investment working with Civica over a period of time.”

HCA Healthcare CEO to retire amid period of expansion, solid financials
R. Milton Johnson will be succeeded by current President and COO Sam Hazen, but will remain board chair through April.

HCA Healthcare CEO and long-time executive R. Milton Johnson will step down from his lead post effective the end of December, the system announced. Milton is a 36-year veteran of the Nashville-based system. 

Johnson will retire as CEO effective December 31, 2018 but will remain chairman of HCA's board of directors through their April 2019 shareholders' meeting.

HCA's current president and COO Sam Hazen will succeed Johnson as CEO on January 1, 2019. The board of directors plans to appoint Thomas F. Frist III, a current board member, as the new board chair. Frist is the son of HCA's founder Thomas Frist, Jr. and has been a board member since 2006. He also chairs the finance and investments committee. The Frist family owns approximately 20 percent of  HCA  Healthcare's outstanding shares.

Intermountain Healthcare names 2018 Supplier Award Winners
Intermountain honors suppliers for their innovation, cost and quality outcomes, corporate social responsibility, and supply chain excellence.
Intermountain Healthcare has announced their 2018 Supplier Award winners. The awards recognize four outstanding suppliers for their work to cooperatively improve and innovate within four categories.
The winners are:

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