Amazon among bidders for Signify Health; UPS to acquire multinational healthcare logistics provider; plus Jobs!

August 26, 2022

Hello NAW Subscribers -

I hope you like this issue of National Accounts Weekly.

Join us for IDN Insights East in Philadelphia on Sept. 14-15. Stephen Downey, Chief Supply Chain and Patient Support Services Officer for Cleveland Clinic, will be speaking.

Sincerely,

John Pritchard

President of ANAE

Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting (JHC)

Amazon among bidders for Signify Health

Amazon.com Inc. is among the bidders for healthcare company Signify Health Inc., joining other heavy hitters vying in an auction for the home-health-services provider, according to people familiar with the matter.

Signify is for sale in an auction that could value it at more than $8 billion, the people said. Bids are due around Labor Day, according to the people, but it is always possible an eager bidder could strike a deal before then.

UPS to acquire multinational healthcare logistics provider

UPS announced plans to acquire Bomi Group, an industry-leading multinational healthcare logistics provider. The transaction will add temperature-controlled facilities in 14 countries and nearly 3,000 highly-skilled Bomi Group team members to the UPS Healthcare network in Europe and Latin America.

Since 1985, Bomi Group has provided high value-added services for the Medtech and Pharma sectors with a customized and tailored approach. It is a quality-focused company devoted to healthcare that has built solid and long-lasting business relationships with more than 150 multinational customers worldwide.

Join us for IDN Insights East

Please join us for The Journal of Healthcare Contracting’s IDN Insights East meeting Sept. 14-15 at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. This meeting highlights some of the most progressive, largest healthcare systems in the East. Attendees will hear how large IDNs measure successful contracts, the challenges these health systems are dealing with, what successful supplier/provider relationships look like, and much more!

Confirmed Speakers:

Stephen Downey, Chief Supply Chain and Patient Support Services Officer, Cleveland Clinic
Chris Torres, System Vice President, Supply Chain, Main Line Health
Dameka Miller, VP, Strategic Sourcing and Value Analysis, Trinity Health
Meena Medler, VP, Supply Chain Management, UPMC
Pete Aftosmes, VP, Strategic Supplier Engagement, Premier, Inc.
Raymond Davis, VP, Supply Chain, Universal Health Services
Pam Daigle, Group Vice President, Strategic Sourcing, Premier Inc.
Laura Kowalczyk, VP, Supply Chain and Support Services, UAB Medicine
Brent Petty, Industry Consultant
Kreg Koford, SVP, Supply Chain and Sustaining Care Services, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Clinton Hazziez, VP, Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing, Baylor Scott & White Health

View the agenda here .

How long are my supply chains?

By John Strong, Editor

Frontiers of the Healthcare Supply Chain

“China Begins Live Fire Drills, Effectively Blockading Taiwan” roared the headline on the front page of the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. Then, in their “Review” section, the headline read “The Coming War Over Taiwan.” Should these headlines and opinions stir a reaction if you are a healthcare supply chain professional? Probably.

We learned earlier this year it doesn’t take much to mess up the U.S. healthcare supply chain for commonly used—but vital—products. For products such as contrast media, which in part come from American-based companies, we learned the answers are not always self-evident or easy to understand. A major plant was in Shanghai. Then there was baby formula. Really?

Advocate Aurora posts $600M+ net loss in first half of 2022

Advocate Aurora Health posted a net loss in the first half of 2022 of over $600 million.

The Midwest hospital operator had an investment loss of $666 million in H1, resulting in a total net nonoperating loss of $630 million, a reversal from a nonoperating income gain of $864 million in the year-ago period.

Advocate Aurora Health was formed in 2018 and is headquartered in Downers Grove, IL, and Milwaukee, WI. It entered into a merger agreement with Atrium Health in Charlotte, NC, in May.

(Healthcare Dive)

Providence logs another quarter of major losses

Providence’s dire financial straits continued through the midyear mark as major expense increases and surgical volume declines gouged hundreds of millions from its operations.

The Washington-based nonprofit reported in a press release $424 million in net operating losses for the quarter ended June 30, building on the $510 million net operating loss of the first quarter for a six-month total of $934 million in the red.

(Fierce Healthcare)

Survey: Cancer the “top driver” of employer healthcare costs

Cancer has overtaken musculoskeletal conditions as the top driver of large companies’ health care costs, according to the Business Group on Health’s 2023 Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey. While the top three conditions fueling health care costs remained the same from last year – they include cardiovascular disease, in addition to cancer and musculoskeletal conditions – 13% of employers said they have seen more late-stage cancers and another 44% anticipate seeing such an increase in the future, likely due to pandemic-related delays in care.

A total of 135 large employers across varied sectors, who together cover more than 18 million people in the United States, completed the survey between May 31, 2022, and July 13, 2022.

Scientists discover surprise anticancer properties of common lab molecule

Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have made the surprising discovery that a molecule called EdU, which is commonly used in laboratory experiments to label DNA, is in fact recognized by human cells as DNA damage, triggering a runaway process of DNA repair that is eventually fatal to affected cells, including cancer cells.

The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points to the possibility of using EdU as the basis for a cancer treatment, given its toxicity and its selectivity for cells that divide fast.

New survey from Vizient provides hospital insights in biosimilar adoption

Vizient announced the results of its 2022 biosimilar survey, which demonstrate significant biosimilar adoption to hospital formularies, but lagging utilization in patient care.

The survey of hospital leaders and pharmacy professionals from Vizient member hospitals across the country found that biosimilars are gaining inclusion in hospital formularies, something long seen as a necessity for greater adoption.

The majority of respondents (80%) said they have instituted a system-wide review process for biosimilar adoption to their formularies, while the drivers of adoption were shown to be different: