Good Afternoon, National Accounts Executives!
In addition to the health and economic impacts of pandemics such as COVID-19, confidence typically takes the biggest hit for professionals during a national crisis - and it can be hard to recover. Healthcare executives and clinicians who have their identity completely wrapped up in their field can find it difficult to regain their confidence during trying times. We have a bad habit of making something our everything, and then we put all of our sense of self-worth into that endeavor.
Despite our current logistical challenges with customers and business partners, please exercise patience and continue to work diligently to discover the hidden beauty in a major crisis, and watch life flourish once again!
In the interest of maintaining and building our confidence and sense of community at ANAE, we will increase the frequency of our podcast,
National Accounts Today, hosted by myself and
John Pritchard, CEO of Share Moving Media and publisher of
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting.
All podcasts will be available to ANAE members and select episodes will be available to both ANAE members and National Accounts Weekly subscribers.
We encourage our esteemed ANAE members to reach out to me or ANAE Product Manager Anna McCormick at
amccormick@sharemovingmedia.com to express interest in participating in a future podcast as a special guest or submitting content ideas and questions for inspiring, healthy discussion within our thriving network of national account executives.
As always, thank you for your continued support and collaboration in the interest of healthcare improvement!
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Be well,
Scott M. Pecore
President, ANAE
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Scammers May be Trafficking Counterfeit or Faulty Products During COVID-19
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Healthcare providers are working around the clock to safely care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the last thing they need to worry about is whether their products are reliable, safe and legitimate.
Unfortunately, a grey market is amassing around personal protective equipment (PPE), as unauthorized, third-party sellers hawk masks, gowns and other scarce supplies at a markup. And not all of these supplies are what they appear to be.
The following are ways health systems can protect against COVID-19 scams
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Dail-eNews Podcast – PPE availability during COVID-19
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Dail-eNews
editor Daniel Beaird interviews
Repertoire
editor Mark Thill about the FDA’s letter to healthcare providers on surgical mask and gown conservation strategies and the possible re-use of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hospitals Running Out of Masks, Other Key Equipment
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“Hospitals across the U.S. are running out of the masks, gowns and other equipment they need to protect staff against the novel coronavirus as they struggle to take care of patients, say hospital officials, doctors and others in the industry.
“The Pentagon stepped into the breach by offering on Tuesday to supply up to five million respirator masks, as healthcare officials and workers say the situation is dire.
“…One U.S. hospital system is now burning through 14,000 respirators each week, up from 2,000 before the coronavirus began spreading through local communities, says Chaun Powell, an executive with Premier Inc., which negotiates contracts for medical products on behalf of hospitals…”
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What Coronavirus Treatment Could Cost You
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Americans with employer-based health coverage could be hit with high out-of-pocket costs if they're hospitalized for the coronavirus.
To project costs tied to coronavirus treatments, researchers analyzed pneumonia hospitalizations from a claims database of 18 million people enrolled in large employer health plans in 2018.
The analysis shows that the average pneumonia hospital admission for a person with major complications or comorbidity cost $20,292 in 2018, though costs varied across the U.S. These types of patients spent an average of $1,300 in out-of-pocket costs.
For people with less serious complications or comorbidities, the average hospital stay was $13,767, while people without these issues saw an average cost of $9,763. They had out-of-pocket expenses that were $1,365 and $1,464, respectively – only slightly higher than for people with more complex pneumonia cases.
President Donald Trump said last week that health insurers had agreed to "waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing." But the industry quickly clarified that insurers planned to waive out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus testing, not treatments...
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AHRMM advice to supply chain leaders: Review and Implement CDC Strategies
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To help answer questions on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the U.S. healthcare supply chain,
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
reached out to Michael Schiller, CMRP, senior director, Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association (AHA).
Schiller provides insights into what is going on at a national level in the U.S. healthcare supply chain and answers the following questions:
- How is the government coordinating with providers, GPOs, associations, etc.?
- What are the conversations like? What product categories are most effected by COVID-19?
- What do supply chain leaders need to know about the supply and distribution of the coronavirus text kits?
- How are you advising hospitals and health systems to navigate any supply disruptions?
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Coronavirus outbreak: Beaumont Health starts testing
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Beaumont Health has joined several other hospitals in processing a limited number of COVID-19 tests in its own laboratory.
"We must conserve our testing supplies. That’s why we’re only processing our own tests for certain patients who meet COVID-19 testing criteria and are admitted to our hospitals or are receiving treatment in one of our emergency centers” said Dr. Barbara Ducatman, chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for Beaumont Health.
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Amazon to stop accepting all products other than medical supplies and household staples to its warehouses amid coronavirus crisis
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On Tuesday the company told sellers and vendors that it would accept only shipments of "household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products" to its warehouse until April 5 to deal with the high demand of those products amid the coronavirus crisis.
That means sellers who use Amazon's storage and delivery network for a fixed fee, through a program called Fulfillment by Amazon, will no longer be able to ship nonessential products to Amazon. The same restrictions apply to vendors who wholesale their products to Amazon, who then resells them at a markup.
The move follows huge increases in orders of certain products on Amazon, like face masks and toilet paper, as more shoppers flocked to e-commerce sites like Amazon for their shopping. That's put huge strains on Amazon's supply chain, resulting in shipment delays, technical glitches, and labor shortages.
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Health Systems Canceling, Postponing Surgeries
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With the coronavirus spreading across the U.S., some hospitals and health systems are canceling elective surgery to prevent the spread of coronavirus as well as dedicate resources to its coronavirus response.
The American College of Surgeons recommended hospitals and health systems review scheduled elective procedures and plan to minimize, postpone or cancel them. U.S. Surgeon General tweeted on March 14: "Hospitals & healthcare systems, PLEASE CONSIDER STOPPING ELECTIVE PROCEDURES until we can #FlattenTheCurve!"
Here is a running list of hospitals and health systems that are canceling or postponing elective surgeries due to the coronavirus outbreak.
1. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is deferring appropriate elective and non-urgent care, according to a statement provided to Becker's.
2. NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City indefinitely postponed all elective surgeries beginning March 16. The hospital will remain open and urgent and emergency procedures will continue, according to a statement from the health system.
3. Northwell Health in new Hyde Park, N.Y., began canceling elective surgeries and procedures at its hospitals on March 16. Elective surgeries, endoscopies and other invasive procedures at the system's outpatient facilities will continue if they are deemed clinically necessary; however, they will be postponed or canceled if they are deemed non-essential. The new policy is applied to surgeries through April 15.
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How the World of Health and Tech is Looking at the Coronavirus Outbreak
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In an interview with the
New York Times at the beginning of March, World Health Organization (WHO) official Dr Bruce Aylward said China first reorganized its medical response to the outbreak by moving half of all medical care online.
In England, NHS bosses recently asked GP surgeries to start carrying out more remote consultations in an effort to mitigate risks.
MobiHealthNews recently reported on the rise in digital epidemiology tools, chatbot helpers and other technologies aiming to help stakeholders tackle the crisis.
Some have said that the coronavirus outbreak could be the ‘tipping point’ for nay-sayers to realize the potential of telehealth. Dr Ahmed warns that although this could prove to be an inflection point, it’s too early to tell how it will impact the implementation of new technologies to better care for patients.
Co-founder of VR education company Medical Realities, Dr Ahmed is an outspoken supporter for the use of technology in healthcare. Back in 2016, he became the first surgeon to livestream a surgical procedure in VR.
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Hillrom Company- Los Angeles, CA
Strategic Account Executive, Care Communications
Philips-Sales, Account Executive- Virginia
Boehringer Ingelheim Company Baltimore, MD
Key Account Manager
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John Pritchard
Publisher of National Accounts Weekly
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