Supply Chain
For many larger healthcare organizations, group purchasing has yielded significant savings. Physician practices are also mulling whether or not they can achieve savings through aggregated procurement.
Portable chest X-rays are the most common diagnostic exam in intensive care units. But pricing for portable X-ray systems varies, and can range from $40,000 to over $235,000, depending on a variety of factors.
Purchased services can drain a lot of money and time from an organization because it is so diverse, but a value analysis approach can clean up the disorder.
Driven by an aging population and an expanding pool of younger patients, bone-graft substitutes are a $2.5 billion market, which should continue to rise as a result of minimally invasive procedures.
Medical device company Medtronic will catapult into the market’s stratosphere with its $42.9 billion bid to purchase rival Covidien.
The breakthrough hepatitits C drug Sovaldi has brought the high price of specialty pharma to recent public attention. But less examined are proactive approaches that could be used to curb the growth trend without depriving patients of needed therapies.
Bariatric surgery has experienced a 16-fold growth in the U.S. within the last 15 years. Reimbursement for gastric band placement and gastric band removal/replacement -- the main types of bariatric procedures -- will increase by 4.5 percent and 6.8 percent respectively in 2014.
How can healthcare supply chain leaders make sure supply chain rises to the top as one of the major priorities within a healthcare organization? Here are some tips to help place supply chain concerns in front of C-level decision-makers.
Back in January, U.S. hospitals began to experience a serious shortage of intravenous saline solutions, caused mainly by a spike in demand during the beginning of the 2013 flu season. Fast forward to May, and hospitals are still struggling with the shortage.
CMS has just released a proposed rule that would require Medicare prior authorization for certain Medicare Durable Medical Equipment items that the agency characterizes as "frequently subject to unnecessary utilization." The decisions would not be subject to appeal.