Healthcare Group Purchasing Organizations: Critical Partners in the COVID-19 Response Effort

GPOs worked tirelessly with traditional and non-traditional suppliers to help expand capacity of critical medical supplies, thereby increasing access by healthcare providers and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Several leading GPOs worked with contracted suppliers to proactively communicate projected demand surges and patient volumes and to arrange swift transport, expanding capacity for PPE and other vital supplies, including test kits and swabs, with one GPO’s efforts resulting in 17 million N95 respirators, 57.5 million isolation gowns, 2.1 million face shields, 25.8 million 3-ply adjustable cotton masks, 3.5 million bouffant caps and 3.5 million shoe covers.
• Leading GPOs worked with ventilator manufacturers and healthcare providers to share information on volume demands and shifting geographical “hot spots” in critical need of ventilators and associated supplies.
• Multiple GPOs expanded partnerships beyond traditional healthcare vendors into non-traditional and adjacent industries such as distilleries, textile manufacturers, steel manufacturers and automobile manufacturers to develop innovative solutions that filled supply gaps for essential products such as hand sanitizer, face shields, isolation gowns, shoe covers, surgical caps and nasal swabs.
• One GPO partnered with a manufacturer to help produce syringes that would meet small dose needs for pediatric care to help ensure infants in the NICU were able to be receive the medication they needed at the small doses required.
• Multiple GPOs compiled and identified lists of essential medications whose absence would threaten the ability of hospitals to provide immediate and high-quality patient care, and shared with various stakeholders, including government authorities, working to prioritize supply. One GPO identified 200 essential medications, including 77 acute and chronic life-saving drugs, that have no alternatives in the event of a supply disruption.
• In these unprecedented times, several GPOs made their programs and services available to non-healthcare entities such as schools, parks and public-facing agencies as they worked to reopen safely.

Many GPOs took steps to strengthen the resiliency of the supply chain, established programs to promote domestic manufacturing and rapidly added new manufacturers and suppliers to contracts in order to increase supply.

• Multiple GPOs launched programs aimed at increasing supply chain resiliency and redundancy to help prevent shortages of critical products, with one GPO’s program resulting in the availability of an additional units of a sedative that may be used to intubate and maintain patients on ventilators.
• Several GPOs added numerous new manufacturers to contracts, with one GPO adding 40+ new manufacturers of COVID-19 related supplies, including new domestic entrants of N95 masks, to its national contracts using an expedited review process to rapidly increase options. Through this process, the GPO signed more than 100 new contracts with manufacturers and evaluated supplies from more than 2,500 brokers.
• A number of GPOs launched programs to invest in domestic and geographically diverse manufacturers to ensure a robust and resilient supply chain, entering into strategic partnership agreements with a number of domestic manufacturers. Since establishing these agreements, these companies have expanded production capacity and increased GPO member hospital access to sought-after PPE.

GPOs leveraged their unique line of sight across the entire healthcare delivery system and their visibility into extensive supply chain data to track inventory, identify hot spots and surges in demand and provide insights to key government and private sector stakeholders.

• GPOs created various analytical tools such as surge demand trackers that model COVID-19 case surge impact across local populations and apply capacity considerations for provider planning, and calculators that helped hospitals accurately predict the amount of additional medication needed to treat COVID-19 patients on ventilators and more.
• Multiple GPOs provided data to the Administration and federal agencies regarding surge demand, clinical utilization and barriers to providing care and improving healthcare delivery during the pandemic. This work resulted in numerous waivers, regulatory flexibilities and guidance documents that were critical during the public health emergency to increase access to care, increase availability of PPE, other medical supplies and more.
• Throughout the pandemic, GPOs conducted surveys on the supply chain, payment and more, which kept governments informed in real time of on-the-ground situations and ultimately led to the creation of private sector initiatives that accelerated product delivery to providers with the greatest need.

GPOs have served as a significant line of defense, providing extensive vetting to help prevent purchases of counterfeit or inferior products, alerting authorities to hundreds of fraudulent sellers and protecting American hospitals and patients from supply chain bad actors.

• Multiple GPOs have worked to vet gray market suppliers, with one GPO having vetted more than thousands of leads and determining fewer than 10% were legitimate; and another GPO reviewed and vetted more than 2,400 new manufacturers to confirm registration with the FDA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
• GPOs have provided member providers with concrete guidance on navigating the uncertain secondary market for PPE that emerged, including creating resource pages and virtual trainings on how health systems can protect against supply chain scams and how to safely vet unsolicited secondary market offers.
• One GPO worked with members and various other state authorities to assist in vetting hundreds of potential vendors to ensure taxpayer money was legitimately spent, including creating an intake questionnaire for all vendors as part of the GPO’s rigorous vetting process and accountability tracking.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, GPOs have worked closely with healthcare provider partners to provide them with the latest information, operational support and logistical guidance necessary to enable providers to provide consistent, quality care to patients.

• Several GPOs have held planning calls and created online resource centers with information on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, including publishing educational materials regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccines so that providers could effectively and confidently advise patients.
• Multiple GPOs established centers and initiatives with best practices, including conservation education initiatives to help inform members on best practices for conserving PPE.
• Multiple GPOs created resources regarding the feasibility of innovative products, concepts and processes, and summaries of federal guidance on alternative practices such as PPE decontamination.

GPOs have zealously advocated for policy solutions that increase competition, strengthen resiliency, remove barriers to care and ensure providers are equipped to continue to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

• HSCA member GPOs worked with the White House and government agencies on a regular basis to get needed products to healthcare providers and advocate for sensible improvements, providing recommendations to the Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regarding regulatory flexibility around telehealth and alternate payment models, excluding key medical products from tariffs, improving supply chain visibility, supply strategies for PPE and more. Many of those recommendations were implemented over the ensuing months.
• Multiple GPOs engaged with other supply chain stakeholders to create a Private Sector Supply Chain Coalition, which met regularly with the various federal agencies to respond to their requests for information and provide them with valuable insights into the challenges members are facing and opportunities for further collaboration. TheCoalition worked with the Administration on strategies to gather data, preserve inventory, increase available supplies, allocate based on needs and bring new suppliers to market.
• GPOs have successfully advocated for more flexible FDA and USP sterile compounding guidance, increased quote allocations by the Drug Enforcement Administration to provide added flexibility for controlled substances and avoid bottlenecks, permission for pharmacists to order and perform lab tests granted by HHS, regulatory reforms around drug compounding and recommendations to support the Strategic National Stockpile, many of which were adopted by the Administration.