(or, I May Be a Daydream Believer)
The bell has rung. Round one of the great healthcare reform debate is over. But I get the sense this fight was more like a preliminary heat where the boxers dance around the ring, practicing their footwork, and probing their foes with light jabs to the jaw. My gut tells me we're suiting up for a battle royale where device manufacturers, big pharma, payers, AMA, AHA, trial lawyers, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all duck under the ropes to land their best haymaker on healthcare reform.
EHR came out a winner with some $19 billion allotted to encourage its adoption. For the healthcare supply chain, that will become interesting if there is ever some overarching set of technology standards that glue together – from hospitals all across the U.S. – procedure information plus supplies used plus clinical outcomes from hospitals all across the U.S.
Can you imagine? I would love to arm MediClick users with this data when they walk into their value analysis team meetings. I would love to see them put medical device sales reps on notice that manufacturer-sponsored clinical trials and outcome data isn't enough to get their expensive new product in the door. I would love to finally get information parity when negotiating with supply vendors.
I may be a daydream believer – this won't happen anytime soon – but I can see why the device manufacturers get their dander up when they hear talk of "comparative cost-effective analysis" enter the great healthcare reform debate. Until we get there, let's just make sure we're making the best use possible of contracting and price analysis tools available now when negotiating agreements with our suppliers.
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