Supplier Strategies Track
 
Sweeping changes in healthcare have changed the way IDNs do business in almost every area, including how they source and purchase supplies in this new landscape.  The demand for quality-driven healthcare outcomes requires providers to more effectively demonstrate value in every purchasing decision.   As a result, suppliers must demonstrate their willingness to be partners in this effort.  Sessions in this track are designed to help you gain a better understanding of what today’s IDNs are looking for from their suppliers.   Topics will include IDN consolidation, best practices for selling to IDNs and shared risk programs.
 
 
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm          Healthcare Supply Chain Trends
                                              Grand Canyon 8
 
                                              Moderator:  Frank Cirillo, Vice President, Business Strategy, Acurity, Inc.
 
                                              Presenters:  Ed Hardin, Senior Vice President Supply Chain Management, Beaumont Health; Ed Hisscock, Vice President Clinical Sourcing
                                              and Informatics, Transformation Officer, Non-labor Spend, Trinity Health; and Eugene Schneller, Ph.D., Professor, WP Carey School of
                                              Business
 
The 2016 Health Supply Chain Trends Study carried out by CAPS Research revealed five items which, year-after-year, have been top of mind for supply chain executives; (1) M.D. Engagement & Employment, (2) Collaboration, (3) Unique Device Identification, (4) Health Reform and (5) Supply Chain and Clinical care.  The report also identified “big data” and “metrics” as evolving themes that are impacting healthcare supply chain. 
 
This year’s survey considered current and “near future” issues influencing IDNs as well as suppliers including integration, management, organization of supply chain, supplier relationship management and value-based purchasing. Part one of this session will explore the differences in provider and supplier attribution of importance and the difficulty in solving supply chain collaboration efforts.  Key factors for improving supply chain performance will also be discussed.
 
Then hear from two supply chain executives who will share information about a new trend in lean supply chain as a result of increased and coordinated collaboration.  Trinity Health and a few select suppliers' S&OP and Supply Chain teams have engaged in discussions to lean out their trade relationship. With the introduction of Trinity's self-distribution strategy, the trading partners are white boarding ideas and designing experiments to test new, more efficient exchanges of information, product and cash.   Hear details about how these collaborative partnerships were formed and ways that such partnerships can work for you and your organization.
 
Learning Objectives:
  1. Analyze the supply chain trends affecting healthcare executives today.
  2. Identify key areas for improving supply chain efficiencies.
  3. Discuss the benefits of and the best ways to implement lean supply chain efficiencies.
 
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm          Panel: Getting A Foot in the Door and Earning A Seat at the Table: Best Strategies for Selling to an IDN
                                              Grand Canyon 8
 
                                              Moderator:  Michelle O'Connor, President and CEO, CMR Institute
 
                                              Panelists:  Steve Huckabaa, VP Supply Chain, Avera Health; Anthony Slonim, President and CEO, Renown Health; and Tony Ybarra, SVP
                                              Supply Trust, Community Hospital Corporation
 
Larger health systems present significant challenges to vendors and suppliers. Buying decisions are often decentralized, and often it is difficult to even know who is making the decision, or decisions may come from a central office far from the point of sale. Complex requests for proposals are bid on by dozens of vendors, and work may be awarded to many. Academic medical centers might have stricter purchasing guidelines, specific compliance issues that must be addressed, research-based initiatives that require restricted procedures, and/or individual policies that are guided by a mission statement. Large national systems may have corporate or regional agreements that limit local initiatives. This panel will discuss the challenges of selling into and working with IDNs and strategies for success based on past experiences.
 
Learning Objectives:
  1. Differentiate how buying decisions are made based on various types of health systems and the unique challenges of selling to each.
  2. Determine how to identify key influencers and decision makers for purchasing decisions.
  3. Define methods to achieve success by developing sales strategies to meet the changing needs of customers.
 
 
4:00 pm – 5:15 pm          Panel:  IDN Consolidation
                                              Grand Canyon 8
 
                                               Moderator:  Maria Hames, Partner, HealthCare Links
 
                                               Panelists:  Hector Boirie, SVP/Chief Resource Officer, Providence St. Joseph Health; Michael Dankwerth, Executive Director,
                                               AllSpire Health GPO, LLC and Roger Larkin, Director, Supply Chain, Maury Regional Health
 
Despite some fluctuations in activity, the overall trend is toward providers coming together for increased efficiency and productivity. Hospitals and health systems today face an array of disruptive forces, including rising demand for ambulatory and virtual care, flat-to-declining inpatient utilization, increasing consumerism and price sensitivity, and the emergence of non-traditional competitors. As the pool of smaller, independent hospitals and health systems shrinks, more transactions are occurring among larger organizations that are opting to partner to help meet evolving demands and bolster market power.
 
Some healthcare provider organizations looking to expand and collaborate have elected to pursue joint ventures and partnerships rather than mergers and acquisitions. Such arrangements are increasingly popular today because of the important advantages of scale and a broader "footprint" in a world of fewer payers and pressures to achieve value-based delivery of health services. Joint ventures also afford both parties the relative ease of negotiating and completing deals on defined services, assets or operations, as opposed to a full transfer of assets and ownership.
 
Learning Objectives:
       1.  Analyze current data on mergers and acquisitions, as well as less formal structures such as joint ventures.
       2.  Compare case studies on successful partnerships.
       3.  Identify the pitfalls of mergers or partnerships that did not work out.
 
 
 
All information is subject to change.  Last updated 08/21/17.