What We’re Watching: May 21, 2019

ANOTHER ONE (WELL, FIVE, ACTUALLY)

Last week, Premier announced another important step in our efforts to eliminate drug shortages. Premier’s ProvideGx, in collaboration with Fresenius Kabi, is now supplying and ramping up the production of 5 more critical shortage drugs: injectable thiamine, lidocaine, diphenhydramine, hydromorphone and morphine sulfate.

What we’re saying: All five of medications are currently on the FDA and/or the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) shortage lists, and used for a variety of lifesaving events – from helping burn victims manage pain to saving people from deathly allergic reactions. Our work with Fresenius follows our partnership with Baxter to supply metoprolol, which we announced earlier this year. Through ProvideGx and with our health system members, we’ve identified and are going after approximately 60 critical drugs that are key to patient care.

CNBC HEALTHY RETURNS

Susan DeVore, Premier’s CEO, will be speaking at CNBC’s Healthy Returns conference in New York City ON May 21.

What we’re saying: Susan will be co-hosting a lunch session, titled “Cost, Value and Transparency in Health Care,” with Dr. Rajaie Batniji, the co-founder and chief health officer of Collective Health. CNBC’s Angelica LaVito will be moderating. We expect that the increasing popularity of direct-to-employer contracts will be a main point of discussion. My colleague and I will also be at the conference, if you’d like to meet up and learn more about Premier.

LET’S TALK ABOUT MSSP

Southeastern Health Partners saved $7.4 million for Medicare in their first year of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).

What we’re saying: The MSSP has brought a lot of success to the industry as health systems look to integrate care, make meaningful use of claims information, lock in lower benchmarks and develop high-value networks. Learn more about how Southeastern Health Partners achieved success in the program during a webinar next Thursday, May 30. Their experts will discuss how they fostered integration between multiple health systems and community providers, and how their efforts to date have generated a lower cost of care for their beneficiaries while maintaining a high level of quality.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Gaining Ground in the Regulatory Battle to Lower Drug Costs
• Premier’s ProvideGx™ Subsidiary and Fresenius Kabi Collaborate to Address Drug Shortages for Five Critical Medications
• Premier's ProvideGx enlists Fresenius Kabi to tackle drug shortages
• ProvideGx to hike production of 5 generic injectables in short supply
• Five Ways to Sustain the Gains from High Reliability

What We’re Watching is a weekly blog focused on the current events Premier is following and their relevance to the work of Premier and its members. Check out last week's update.