The Economic Outlook from GPO Premier

Premier, the large alliance and Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), just released its latest Economic Outlook report titled The Globalization of Healthcare. This is a useful (and free) report that you should download.

I had never read Premier's Outlook report before, but came away very impressed with both the quality of the content and the high level of production value.

Below are the highlights that caught my eye. BTW, the report comes out twice a year and is always available for free to non-members. I'll mark my calendar for the Fall edition.

The report is chock full o' useful articles. Some highlights:

• Eric Coldwell of Robert W. Baird on globalization trends for pharmaceutical wholesalers
• Best global supply chain practices for pandemic preparations (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)
• Useful data on import/export trends for medical supplies and equipment
• Survey perspectives on what executives at healthcare providers are worrying about. (Hint: Costs.)
• Survey data on drug shortages at Premier members
• A nice overview of the factors behind rising commodity prices

The report also provides a "Inflation Summary" that compares supplier inflation estimates to Premier contract escalations.

As you can see, pharmacy inflation was by far the biggest area of increase. Premier tells me:

"It is the goal of Premier and its pharmacy program to make our members as competitive in their marketplaces as we can be. To that end, we have aggressively sought concessions from our business partners in terms of lower base prices and aggressive performance programs that offer lower up-front discounts or rebates. There is still a volume of pharmaceuticals purchased by our members from companies that feel no need to negotiate with GPOs."

'nuff said.