April 9, 2020
Hello National Account Executives:

We are all faced with difficult obstacles, changes & challenges, but must continue to do our part as members of our communities to make the right choices in supporting our families, friends, and neighbors as we weather this storm together.

This is a challenging time to be in healthcare. I commend all those who are putting their own health at risk to treat their patients & clients who have immediate health needs. I also applaud those who are selflessly closing the doors to their businesses & practices because they have determined the risk of spreading COVID-19 outweighs the benefits of providing services or care that is not urgent. Both actions are heroic.

As always, thank you for reading our latest edition of National Accounts Weekly.
Be well,

Scott M. Pecore
President, ANAE

Michigan's two largest health care providers have about 2,200 staff members affected by Covid-19
About 2,200 workers in Michigan's two largest health care systems have coronavirus symptoms or have tested positive for the virus.

Beaumont Health, Michigan's largest health care system with 38,000 employees, has about 1,500 staff members staying home because they have symptoms consistent with Covid-19.

In addition, Henry Ford Health System, a Detroit-based health care system with more than 30,000 employees, said about 600 to 700 staff members had tested positive for Covid-19.

Henry Ford's Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Adnan Munkarah said 734 employees -- 2.1% of the health system's workforce -- tested positive for the novel coronavirus since they started tracking healthcare workers coronavirus status on March 12.

Michigan has more than 17,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, the third-most of any state as of Tuesday morning. Over 727 people have died in the state so far.
Amazon launches special section to sell face masks and sanitizer—but just for health care workers
As demand skyrockets for personal protective equipment to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has launched a new section of Prime dedicated to stocking and supplying gear like face masks, thermometers and protective gloves.

Recode writes that PPE will be exclusively sold to hospitals and government organizations, and those interested in purchasing supplies must fill out this form to verify qualifications.

The e-commerce behemoth also said it would eliminate the commission it receives from wholesalers to deliver scarce COVID-19 supplies to besieged health care settings and professionals.
FEMA to Issue Temporary Rule Blocking Export of PPE Supplies
FEMA will issue a temporary rule to allocate “certain scarce or threatened materials” for domestic use so that they are not exported from the U.S. without approval by the agency.

Rule covers five types of personal protective equipment, including N95 filtering facepiece respirators, PPE surgical masks and PPE gloves or surgical gloves.
IDN Insights East Rescheduled
Due to COVID-19, ANAE has made a decision to postpone IDN Insights East, a meeting that was originally scheduled for May 7-8. We have rescheduled this event for December 9-10, 2020 at the same hotel in Philadelphia, PA, which will also serve as a year-end holiday celebration!

This meeting highlights some of the most progressive, largest healthcare systems in the Eastern US. Attendees will learn how large IDNs measure successful contracts, what successful supplier/provider relationships look like, and much more!

We are offering NAW subscribers an additional 10% off your ticket, if you register before April 30th with the link below!


Confirmed Speakers:
  • Jay Kirkpatrick, Vice President, Supply Chain Operations, LifePoint Health
  • Roger Nolan, President & CEO, TPC
  • Manasi Kapoor, Senior Director, Optum/Advisory Board Research
  • Susan Toomey, Sr. Value Analysis Coordinator, Lehigh Valley Health Network
  • Robin Lane, Senior Manager, Value Analysis, UPMC
  • Chris Hannon, Manager, Value Analysis Program, Hackensack Meridian Health
  • Susan Miller, Senior Director, Enterprise Value Analysis, Thomas Jefferson University
  • Barbara Strain, Principal Consultant, Barbara Strain Consulting LLC
  • View the agenda for the full list of speakers below!
10 takeaways: The 'radical measures' health systems are taking to manage Covid-19's cost
The Advisory Board has compiled a list of 10 key takeaways on Covid-19. View the full detailed list at the link below!

  1. Covid-19's 'exponential growth' continues
  2. Domestic death rate continues to climb
  3. Following New York, states hurtle toward peak demand
  4. Hospitals need contingency plans for looming ICU bed shortage
  5. Amid PPE shortages and test backlog, hospitals have to get creative
  6. States poised to face a shortage of critical care physicians
  7. Social distancing is paying off—but it's too early to tell if it's enough
  8. 'Stark' economic effects
  9. The CARES Act aims to support providers
  10. Health systems taking 'radical measures' to field the impact
3M, law enforcement step up efforts to stop N95 scams
3M, Honeywell and other legitimate manufacturers have been working with law enforcement and state attorneys general since the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. became acute and exacerbated shortages of protective medical supplies.

Now, both 3M and law enforcement are becoming more organized in their efforts to fight the fraud. 3M has set up a hotline to help streamline its efforts and is investigating every instance it knows about.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Erica MacDonald, U.S. attorney for the state, on Monday launched a centralized Minnesota COVID-19 Action Team (MCAT) to investigate and prosecute COVID-19-related price-gouging, medical equipment scams, cybercrimes and hate crimes. This action comes after an online retailer began selling "KN95" masks made in China but were advertised as authentic N95 masks.
Trump Administration Uses Wartime Powers To Be First In Line On Medical Supplies
The Trump administration quietly invoked the Defense Production Act which gives federal officials the power to edge out the competition and force contractors to provide supplies to them before filling orders for other customers.

While it’s unclear how many times the power has been used during the coronavirus pandemic, federal contracting records examined by Kaiser Health News show that federal authorities staked first rights to $137 million in medical supplies.

This law forces 3M to fill its contract to the U.S. first. Firms face fines or jail time if they don’t comply. 3M stated in a press release Friday there would be humanitarian implications, since the company supplies a critical amount of those countries’ N95 masks. 3M also warned such a move could create a potential trade war.

“It’s like ‘Lord of the Flies’ out there for states and hospitals as they bid against each other for critical medical supplies and equipment,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in a statement. “Plus, there’s no transparency about what the federal government is doing with the equipment that they purchase when they outbid states and hospitals.”
New National Accounts Today Podcast Released with John Bardis
John Bardis, former Assistant Secretary of Administration for Health and Human Services (HHS), and the founder and former CEO of MedAssets, joins the podcast during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic.

John Pritchard, Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, discusses the strength of collaboration between the public and private sectors in the fight against the virus, as well as his insights on the future of GPOs and National Account Executives.
Mass General, CHOP, Northwestern Med receive federal approval for COVID-19 tests
Massachusetts General Hospital, the Infectious Disease Diagnostics Laboratory at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Diagnostic Molecular Laboratory at Northwestern Medicine, have received federal approval to produce tests to detect COVID-19.

All three organization's real-time tests were cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week for detecting COVID-19 using nasopharyngeal swabs, nasal swabs, and bronchoalveolar lavage specimens.

The slow roll-out of testing for the coronavirus has prompted more hospitals to develop their own diagnostic capabilities, which they say offers them the best chance to mitigate the impact of the outbreak.

It also has given them better control over who to test and expedites the results. However, the Trump administration sent a letter to hospitals requesting that they report their COVID-19 testing data to HHS on a daily basis. Test results are due to HHS every day at 5 p.m. ET.
39 million masks never materialized at hospitals, sparking a federal investigation
The union that represents healthcare workers in California announced it had arranged the purchase of 39 million N95 masks for hospitals and government agencies that badly need the protective equipment.

Among the intended recipients was Kaiser Permanente, which placed orders for 6 million masks.

A week later, none of those masks have materialized, and Kaiser is cooperating with a federal fraud investigation into the deal, a spokesman for the health plan confirmed.

There is no indication that the union is a target of the investigation, and the exact reasons why the masks didn’t come through remain unclear.
HCA Healthcare Teams With Google Cloud and SADA on Data Portal to Help Communities Respond to COVID-19
HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud today jointly announced the COVID-19 National Response Portal, an open data platform built and operated by SADA.

Running on Google Cloud, the platform is intended to enable healthcare providers across the country to safely share and display anonymous, aggregated metrics from hospital systems into a single platform to show a complete and real-time view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data can be submitted each day from hospital systems across the United States and will be focused on metrics such as ICU bed supply and utilization; ventilator supply and utilization; total numbers of positive, negative, and pending COVID-19 test results; and total numbers of healthy patients who have been discharged.
Getinge to further increase production capacity of ventilators in 2020
Getinge is announcing yet another ramp-up in production capacity, to 26,000 ventilators in 2020. The increase equals a growth of 160% compared to 2019, when 10,000 ventilators were produced.

Getinge is ramping up the production capacity at its production facility in Solna, Sweden and is now increasing production capacity to 26,000 in 2020, compared to the previous planned 16,000 unit level that was communicated on March 17.
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Publisher of National Accounts Weekly



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