Report from D.C.
March 12, 2010
Posted by chcablogadmin in : Group Purchasing
I spent last week in Washington, D.C., as part of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Best Practice Forum. As you may recall, the efforts of this group originated from the many hearings about the industry and they have established a rigorous code of conduct under which the nine major GPOs operate. We held PAC meetings with Senators Bob Corker (R-TN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). In addition, several key Senate staffers attended.
Bottom line? A new round of hearings will be planned to focus on answering:
- Have GPOs become fully transparent?
- Small medical manufacturers have concerns about GPO practices. Should there be an independent group to help adjudicate those concerns?
- Does the code of conduct provide enough disclosure, and should it be re-evaluated based on current concerns?
The Senate Special Committee on Aging and Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights will conduct hearings involving a variety of testimony from small manufacturers, regulators and academics. Clearly, we would prefer not to have the hearings. However, the GPOs’ consensus is that we have made substantial progress and if fairly presented, this progress will be positively viewed.
I will keep you posted on the latest developments. Read the statements HGPII and HIGPA released to the health care policy press on Thursday.
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