Amazon opens online pharmacy, Now Hiring, Strategic Account Executive of the Future, CommonSpirit Health reports $800M quarterly profit

November 17, 2020

Good Afternoon NAW Subscribers,

I hope you will join us for our virtual IDN Insights meeting December 9-11 where you will hear from LifePoint Health, UPMC, Penn State Health and more! Check out the agenda and registration information in the post below.

Thank you for reading this issue of National Accounts Weekly!

John Pritchard

President of ANAE

Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting

Amazon opens online pharmacy with prescription delivery

Amazon's new online pharmacy, which opens Tuesday, lets users buy their medication and order refills on their phones or other devices and have it delivered to their doorsteps in a couple of days, just like a book or toilet paper.

Shoppers have to set up a profile on Amazon's website and have doctors send prescriptions to the company.

Most insurance is accepted, Amazon said. But Prime members who don't have insurance can also buy generic or brand name drugs from Amazon for a discount, which the company said will be up to 80% off for generic medications and up to 40% off brand-name medications.

Strategic Account Executive of the Future

Supply Chain Sherpas’ mission is to unlock the bottlenecked healthcare supply chain for supplier and provider organizations. For the past three years Supply Chain Sherpas has surveyed healthcare supply chain professionals to understand what leadership attributes and competencies are most important for the Supply Chain Leader of the Future.

With your help, we will for the first time have data for both providers and suppliers and be able to thoughtfully plan development going forward in service to the healthcare supply chain and our patients and community.

Below is a link to the Strategic Account Executive of the Future survey, which will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. We welcome your candid feedback before November 30, 2020.

Take the survey now

Arkansas hospital reports 55 staff infected with COVID-19; ICU near capacity

Baxter Regional Medical Center (Mountain Home, AR) on Friday reported 55 staff members sick with COVID-19, including 25 who are nurses. As of Friday, there were 24 patients with COVID-19 at the hospital.

The hospital is putting a temporary hold on non-emergency surgeries that would require an overnight stay.

Hospital executives say the hospital has plenty of PPE available for the staff. The hospital has reported about 30 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The intensive care unit has 17 beds total with three open beds at the moment.

Hear from UPMC, Penn State Health, TPC and more at the virtual IDN Insights Meeting

Join us for The Journal of Healthcare Contracting and ANAE's IDN Insights on December 9-11. You will hear how these IDNs measure successful contracts, selling to investor owned health systems, a Washington update, the challenges these health systems are facing through healthcare reform and a pandemic, how best in class suppliers formulate their product, and more!

Tickets, which typically cost over $1,000, are under $300 this year!

Confirmed Speakers:

Jay Kirkpatrick, Vice President, Supply Chain Operations, LifePoint Health
Roger Nolan, President & CEO, TPC
Tim Nedley, VP, Materials Management, UPMC
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
Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Premier, Inc.
Richard Bagley, Senior Vice President Chief Supply Chain, Penn State Health
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

Despite COVID-19, CommonSpirit Health reports $800M quarterly profit

The nation’s largest Catholic system is dealing with a significant increase in supply costs to treat patients who have been infected by COVID-19. Nevertheless, it was able to eke out a 7.7% increase in operating revenues compared to the same period in 2019.

CommonSpirit has also been buoyed by a $527 million jump in investment returns compared to the year-ago quarter. Partly as a result, it reported an $800 million surplus for the quarter, compared to a $285 million deficit during the same period in 2019. For fiscal 2020, it reported a loss of $550 million.

The implication of buyers reacting to false/panic driven demand and how it exacerbates supply disruption

When the U.S. healthcare supply chain experiences panic buying, within the first four or five days, supply is wiped out faster than anyone can imagine. The moment the market signals a shortage, purchases increase tenfold the number of products relative to real demand.

The only thing that stops the panic buy is how quickly a manufacturer recognizes the run on the supply chain and moves into allocation mode. However, even under allocation, there’s still no mechanism to understand real demand.

Rise in COVID-19 cases causing manpower, testing supply shortages at Henry Ford Health System

Adnan Munkarah, Henry Ford Health System's executive vice president and chief clinical officer, said positive COVID-19 tests at the health care provider were in the single digits a few weeks ago, but are now up to about 13% in the last few days.

He said 18 to 20 Henry Ford Health System employees are testing positive for COVID-19 daily. The health care provider employs more than 30,000.

The doctor also said the health care provider's supply of COVID-19 testing supplies is dwindling and causing a delay in results. Previously, staff was getting test results within 24 hours. Currently, it's taking about 36-48 hours to get them.

Premier, member health systems partner with DeRoyal to produce isolation gowns

Premier and 34 member health systems partnered with DeRoyal Industries, a global medical manufacturer, to create a new joint venture dedicated to the domestic production of isolation gowns.

A new entrant in the market, the joint venture will produce isolation gowns in an existing facility just outside Knoxville, Tennessee. Raw materials will primarily be sourced from U.S.-based manufacturers, with backup capacity from Mexico and South America.

To support the venture long-term, health system co-investors also signed multi-year commitments to purchase a portion of the isolation gowns used each year from the joint venture.

Vaccine optimism runs up against distribution challenges

Optimism around two promising coronavirus vaccines is quickly shifting to concerns that there won't initially be enough doses for everyone, and distributing them nationwide will be a massive undertaking.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents state public health officials, told Congress last month that states need $8.4 billion for vaccine distribution — funds they currently don’t have.

Despite those challenges, there is some near-term hope for the most vulnerable Americans, who could start receiving the vaccine next month, assuming it is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration by then.