Welcome to the Journal of Healthcare Contracting’s annual listing of the Ten People to Watch in Healthcare Contracting, each of whom was selected based off of suggestions from readers.
LeAnn Born
Vice president of supply chain
Fairview Health Services,
Minneapolis, Minn.
Steve Cashton
Director of Contracting and Purchasing
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, Boston, Mass.
Mark T. Faulkner
Director of strategic supply chain
management & sourcing
Partners HealthCare, Boston, Mass.
Cheryl Harelstad
Vice president supply chain management
& clinical equipment services
Allina Health, Minneapolis, Minn.
Gene Kirtser
President/CEO, ROi, the health care supply chain company founded by Mercy, the
nation’s eighth largest Catholic
health care system, St. Louis, Mo.
Kathleen Krueger
President, ProMedica supply chain
ProMedica, Toledo, Ohio
Jim Olsen
Vice President, materials resource management Carolinas HealthCare System,
Charlotte, N.C.
James Szilagy
Chief supply chain officer
University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, Pa.
Joe Walsh
AVP, procurement
Intermountain Healthcare,
Salt Lake City, Utah
Alan Weintraub
Director, materials management
Enloe Medical Center, Chico, Calif.
LeAnn Born
Vice president of supply chain
Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, Minn.
1,627 staffed beds; provides a continuum of services through 40+ primary care clinics, specialty services, home care and senior services, the University of Minnesota Medical Center – Fairview, Amplatz Children’s Hospital, and six other community hospitals. Annual supply spend of $560 million; community contributions of $500 million; $3 billion in total revenue.
LeAnn Born joined Fairview Health Services in 2010, as vice president of supply chain. She oversees the centralized administration of sourcing, contracting, value analysis, acquisition, logistics, inventory management, procure-to-pay, instrument sterilization, new technology assessment, vendor management, business enterprise system (PeopleSoft) support teams and sustainability.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
LeAnn Born: Through a surgical services project, we targeted significant savings based on a potential product conversion in a high preference category. Because I was relatively new with Fairview, this project allowed me the personal opportunity to establish relationships with physicians at different sites and engage those physicians as champions for the project. Through collaboration with the physicians, we concluded that the original product category was not the right opportunity to pursue at that point in time. The physicians helped us discover that even greater savings were available from a complementary product category. The project was rewarding because the physicians were engaged and ended up influencing the final direction we took as an organization.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Born: We are in the process of creating a clinically integrated supply chain through price reduction contracting strategies and standardization savings. New value will be created by using rich data that we have about clinical variation in the use of products, as well as by using data that helps us determine how the use of certain products drives different outcomes for patients. We have achieved great savings by utilizing data to understand our purchasing trends and how they compare to other health systems across the country. It will be important for us to continue to pursue these cost savings measures, however, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to take it to the next level and make sure we are using the right products, in the right amount, in the right setting, at the right time to deliver the right outcomes for patients.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Born: Empathy – not necessarily the feelings side of empathy, but the ability to identify with and understand our situation.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Born: Relationships between health systems, physicians, suppliers, GPOs, commercial payers and the government will move us past the traditional way of contracting for a product category, based on volume purchased and commitment. Patient outcomes and total cost of care will become new components of what we address in future contracts.
Steve Cashton
Director of Contracting and Purchasing
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Mass.
Annual supply spend of $175 million; 631 licensed beds, including 429 medical/surgical, 77 critical care and 60 OB/GYN; 819 full-time physicians; in addition to the main campus, there are two suburban acute care hospitals.
Steve Cashton joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in May 2012, after serving as director of supply chain at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He oversees contracting for all categories of medical supplies and equipment, including purchased services, and is also responsible for contracting, procurement and systems support.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Steve Cashton: The most challenging and rewarding project I have been involved in was in my recent position at Tufts Medical Center, where I worked on the rollout and expansion of electronic transactions with our vendors. A major challenge in expanding electronic transactions is finding the time and resources to onboard the vendors, while still performing manual tasks. Once you have achieved a significant volume of electronic transactions, enough time is freed up to focus on onboarding the remaining vendors. Once we completed [that process], the purchasing staff could focus more time on providing its customers with support, product sourcing, and cost saving opportunities – activities that provide value to the hospital. This was a major initiative that resulted in my hospital receiving an award in 2011 from GHX as the best performing hospital in the United States.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Cashton: I look forward to implementing similar levels of automation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, along with a contracts database that will ensure compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Cashton: I look for suppliers that really understand the unique industry that they are in and the challenges facing hospitals – now and in the future. I look for companies whose products and services reflect that understanding.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Cashton: I see greater scrutiny of contracts and relationships by industry regulators and, therefore, a need to ensure that contract terms and conditions clearly comply with all standards and guidelines. This is one of the areas where vendors can show their understanding of a challenge facing hospitals, and structure their relationship and contracts so that they assist hospitals in their compliance efforts.
Mark T. Faulkner
Director of strategic supply chain management & sourcing
Partners HealthCare, Boston, Mass.
3,435 licensed beds, net patient revenue of $6.6 billion, annual revenue of $8.9 billion, and a supply chain expense in excess of $1 billion. The system is comprised of nine acute care facilities and has over 5,000 physicians and multiple affiliations with other healthcare facilities in the area.
Mark Faulkner joined Partners HealthCare’s corporate materials management team in 2001. Today, he has found his niche as director of strategic supply chain & sourcing. His current responsibilities include managing the corporate contracting departments, (IT, vendor management, capital & leasing, minority & small business enterprise, etc.), managing the health system’s business partnership with VHA/Novation and overseeing its contracting and procurement-to-payment cycle.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involvedin recently?
Mark T. Faulkner: Partners HealthCare is entering into the second year of a three-year strategic plan to reduce expenses by $300 million. The health system continues to be very strong financially, but in order to keep pace with healthcare reform, [we must] continue to be innovative in managing the supply chain. We are working closely with our physicians and administrators to overcome these challenges. The Partners HealthCare corporate materials team, in partnership with the entity’s business leaders, has saved the system in excess of $40 million in the past two years.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Faulkner: We are targeting the cost savings opportunities on multiple fronts, including physician preference items, purchased services, IT software and perioperative services, to help us better prepare for the expected reduction in the Medicare reimbursements. One strategic goal is to standardize vendors and/or products to gain better pricing. We are also implementing a commercial contract management tool for supply chain contracts [with the intention of improving] customer satisfaction, increasing organizational efficiency for our contract managers, and promoting transparency and improved operations.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Faulkner: Vendors must align their priorities and incentives to meet our needs, understand our goals and strive to assist with any challenges in the supply chain continuum. They must provide a quality product or service at a competitive price [and] ultimately do what is right for the patient. We have a few business partners in this class, such as Covidien, Owens & Minor and VHA/Novation.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next
five years?
Faulkner: I believe the industry is going to see more transparency in pricing, data analytics and overall technology changes in the supply chain. These are key factors for driving costs out of the supply chain and making each organization more efficient. We are in a change management mode, where the supply chain has become more and more essential to each organization’s success. Effective supply chain leaders understand how to drive costs out of operating budgets.
Cheryl Harelstad
Vice president supply chain management & clinical equipment services
Allina Health, Minneapolis, Minn.
11 hospitals, 90 clinics, 1,797 staffed beds, 23,000 employees and $3.1 billion in revenue. Provides specialty medical services, including hospice care, oxygen and home medical equipment, emergency medical transportation and central lab.
Cheryl Harelstad joined Allina seven years ago as vice president of supply chain management, after years of leading a management consulting practice that focused on business process reengineering, system selections and implementations, and supply chain optimization. In 2010, she assumed responsibility for Clinical Equipment Services as well. She is responsible for the health system’s sourcing of supplies, capital and purchased services, as well as its materials management functions, including warehouse, inventory, distribution and MMIS. She chairs Allina’s centralized medical equipment committee and oversees its Clinical Equipment Services.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Cheryl Harelstad: It has been very rewarding to lead a group of talented staff that consistently create new and better ways to support our care providers and patients, while reducing costs. We have implemented many new and challenging improvements in the last 12 to 24 months and have plans for additional projects. Past examples include the automation of supply fulfillment and charge capture for many areas of patient care; collaborating with our service lines and physicians for physician preference contracting; and extending supply chain management and Clinical Equipment Services to affiliates of Allina.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Harelstad: The ability to summarize and compare case data from our electronic health record system and EDW has enhanced our level of data sharing and decision making with our caregivers. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our clinical service lines and care councils to review products and reduce unnecessary expense in supplies, and to highlight best practices. Having accurate data to support this work is very exciting.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Harelstad: We value suppliers who take the time to understand our needs and are open minded and creative when developing solutions. There are real opportunities to reduce overall supply chain costs. Great things happen when we take the time to discuss our collective challenges and mutually work toward solutions that meet patient, provider, and supplier needs. Improving health outcomes and patient experience, while reducing cost, is attainable if we work smarter together. We have several suppliers that fit this profile and we value them as partners.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Harelstad: The need to reduce cost will continue to mount and we will need to scrutinize every aspect of providing products for patient care. Purchase price is an important element of supply cost, but it cannot be our sole focus. Opportunities through SKU rationalization, product standardization, demand planning, system integration and evidence-based product adoption will be a focus.
Gene Kirtser
President/CEO
ROi, the health care supply chain company founded by Mercy, the nation’s eighth largest Catholic health care system, St. Louis, Mo.
Total contractable spend of nearly $1 billion, including supplies, drugs and purchased services. 31 hospitals, 300 outpatient facilities, 4,400 beds and 38,000 co-workers.
Gene Kirtser joined ROi/Mercy in 2007 as chief operating officer, bringing with him 16 years of supplier experience. In 2011, he also became president. His team leads an integrated supply chain model, and manages its own GPO, as well as distribution and transportation of medical and pharmaceutical supplies, sourcing of private label products, manufacturing of custom packs, surgical instrument repair, drug repackaging, record storage and print services.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Gene Kirtser: On May 22, 2011, an F5 tornado struck Mercy’s Joplin, Mo., hospital and the ROi supply chain team needed to respond. [With communication lines down], we implemented our disaster recovery plan, mobilizing all of ROi’s resources for the response. Within several hours, an ROi truck pulled into Joplin with emergency medical supplies. A hospital tent was erected within several days and surgeries were performed within a week. While the recovery was an unbelievable challenge, I’ve never been prouder of our team, which worked tirelessly to help those in need.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Kirtser: I’m very excited about our future plans in the physician preference item (PPI) space. We intend to bring new service models to market that can reshape how we operate in many PPI categories in the future. ROi has built a broad private label product line over the years, which we intend to expand beyond commodities. Re-thinking how we do business with PPI suppliers is leading to very interesting and collaborative conversations with our physicians. I’m interested to see how our suppliers respond to these new models and am hopeful that they will think out of the box and partner with us to deliver quality care at a lower cost point.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Kirtser: If we are to truly partner with a supplier, we must develop a shared vision and common goals that both organizations can get behind. We want to share risk and rewards and co-develop new products or delivery models. We need to focus on the short-term needs to drive cost savings as we face reduced reimbursement, while remaining committed to changing how care is ultimately delivered.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Kirtser: Providers will accelerate their local contracting efforts and continue to form regional collaboratives. Some will start their own GPOs if they have scale and access to talent. Local contracting and regional collaboratives are a direct response by the provider community to drive costs down, [given its] belief that their GPO’s pricing is not good enough.
Kathleen Krueger
President, ProMedica supply chain
ProMedica, Toledo, Ohio
11 hospitals, 306 individual sites, 2 ambulatory surgery centers, and over 400 physician group providers. Approximate annual purchasing products and services volume exceed $500 million.
Kathleen Krueger joined ProMedica in 2010 as president of its system supply chain operations. Today, she is responsible for the direction and oversight of all supply chain functions, including clinical value analysis, product and service sourcing/contracting, purchasing, and materials management throughout the health system’s acute and ambulatory services.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Kathleen Krueger: We recently developed a strategy to transition our supply chain design from a functional support structure to a strategic framework that aligns with organizational goals. This resulted in the realignment of supply chain functions and staffing by focusing on several guiding principles: identification of our customers, [service and value we provide], and [gauging] that we are meeting customer expectations. We also have developed and launched the clinical value analysis department, which connects the clinical outcome value of product utilization with the business case of cost. And, we have rearranged contracting and sourcing according to service lines and organization categories.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Krueger: I look forward to continuing the transition of ProMedica’s supply chain to a clinically integrated system by advancing the role of clinical value analysis coordinators across clinical service lines. We also will continue to focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chain departments through process improvement initiatives. We are extending these initiatives to include key service providers in order to position ourselves as a low-cost customer [and enable] our suppliers to reduce total supply chain costs. ProMedica [plans to] recognize suppliers that demonstrate outstanding support for our organization, as we are planning a pilot program with collaborative suppliers to create a performance-based payment relationship, which will connect supplier product quality to clinical outcomes.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Krueger: A supplier best serves an organization like ProMedica by first understanding its client’s unique needs. This allows the client to successfully collaborate with the supplier to transform the business relationship in support of overall objectives. Healthcare reform makes it essential that healthcare industry suppliers be willing to adapt their business models to accommodate changing client needs. Two companies that exemplify these qualities are Seneca Medical, ProMedica’s distribution partner for medical-surgical products, and Perry Corporation, a local document and printing services firm.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Krueger: As product and service selection will likely no longer be a decision made solely on the basis of marketing to clinicians, suppliers will be challenged to shift to different business models. In supply chain management, it is necessary to identify which suppliers are able to adjust [their] business models to fulfill customer needs.
Jim Olsen
Vice President, materials resource management
Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, N.C.
Over 600 care sites in North and South Carolina, including 33 acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, behavioral health facilities, physician practices, etc. Annual purchases exceed $1 billion.
Jim Olsen joined Carolinas HealthCare System as vice president of materials resource management 15 years ago. For the past eight years, he has also been the senior vice president and COO of Carolinas Shared Services. He oversees contracting for the entire Carolinas HealthCare System, including supplies, equipment, pharmaceuticals and purchased services. Additional responsibilities include corporate compliance for the materials management functions; value analysis; procurement; transportation, linen and mail services for the health system’s facilities in the Charlotte area; the central distribution center; distribution to the hospitals; and distribution within the hospitals in the Charlotte area.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Jim Olsen: We were one of the first members of the Premier Large Integrated Delivery Network (LIDN), which was created to gain the benefits of sole source contracting by several of Premier’s largest IDNs. Considering the group’s annual purchases of over $4.5 billion, there is significant volume to interest suppliers. This has challenged us to make the LIDN process work smoothly with our process enhancement product standardization teams and ensure clinical acceptance and support.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Olsen: We are [just getting] information on the relative quality of the medical products we use, in terms of the patient outcomes they deliver. Using that information to make better purchasing decisions and to work with physicians and surgeons is something that I have been looking forward to for most of my career.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Olsen: We look for a company that deals with customers on the basis of a strong business relationship, where both sides have commitments that must be met and are rewarded for delivering on those commitments. CR Bard and American Product Distributors are suppliers in that category.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Olsen: The biggest, most dramatic, change (to be defined as time goes along) will be seen in healthcare financing. The impact on contracting will be a deepening of the forces we see today, including the following:
• Greater focus on delivering high quality healthcare that can be accurately measured.
• Focus on reducing the cost of healthcare based on the financing available.
• The ability to effectively balance cost vs. outcomes in the products we purchase.
James Szilagy
Chief supply chain officer
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, Pa.
$10 billion nonprofit integrated global health enterprise; 3,000+ physicians; over 20 academic, community, and specialty hospitals, with over 4,500 licensed beds; more than 400 outpatient sites, long-term care and retirement facilities and a growing international and commercial division. UPMC’s Insurance Services Division offers commercial, Medicare, Medical Assistance, CHIP, behavioral health, employee assistance and workers’ compensation products.
James Szilagy joined UPMC in 2005. His diverse work background (industries such as consumer electronics, automotive, and metals) has provided him with a unique perspective for his current role as chief supply chain officer. He is also accountable for developing and executing UPMC’s global supply chain strategy, which includes effectively managing the system’s $2 billion-plus annual third-party spend. In addition, Szilagy is president of Prodigo Solutions, a supply chain technology and consulting services company wholly owned by UPMC and focused on improving procurement process efficiency and compliance in the healthcare industry.
Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
James Szilagy: The transformation of UPMC supply chain management, including the conversion of the nearly $10 billion dollar multi-faceted, complex organization from a completely paper-based procurement process to a fully centralized electronic supply chain. Automating the procurement process allowed for the migration of resources to strategic sourcing activity, which is instrumental in driving year-over-year supply cost reductions across all major spend categories while improving availability of supplies and customer satisfaction. Automation is driving high levels of supply chain operational efficiency with effortless procure-to-pay and distribution processes that drive compliance to our contracted pricing.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Szilagy: I am particularly excited about our company, Prodigo Solutions, which creates and incubates technology solutions for internal use, and offers these products to healthcare supply chain organizations. We focus on technology that will drive improvements in productivity, efficiency and customer experience for UPMC and our external customers. This is a passion of mine, as I want to do my part in driving the advancement and value of supply chain in healthcare.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Szilagy: Trust. We look for a genuine desire and ability to work with us as business partners to solve operational and financial challenges that benefit both entities. This requires a level of transparency [enabling us to] negotiate solutions that meet both partners’ goals. We need suppliers who will work with us to challenge current business processes and contracting strategies in an effort to find new ways of delivering value to UPMC and our patients.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Szilagy: Provider mergers and affiliations will drive additional spend consolidation. The migration from cost-to-value-based contracting will require more sophistication from healthcare supply chain organizations. Collaboration between payers, providers, and suppliers to drive product standardization could present a considerable opportunity.
Joe Walsh
AVP, procurement
Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah
22 hospitals; 185 clinics; 2,800+ licensed beds; and over $1.3 billion in annual purchased supplies, services, software and equipment.
Joe Walsh joined Intermountain Healthcare in 2008 to lead its non-clinical strategic sourcing team. Today, he oversees sourcing/value analysis, contract management, and purchasing and supplier relationship management. In addition, he is the system-wide lead for linen and facilities management.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Joe Walsh: We engaged Accenture in January 2011 to conduct an assessment of our procurement infrastructure. We then implemented the recommended improvements to our skills, processes, technology and governance over a series of structured project phases. I am proud of the team for delivering such tremendous operational results. This project changes our definition of success, requires additional competencies and demands more process rigor while we continue our high level of commitment to internal customer service.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Walsh: We have made tremendous progress over the last number of years with physician preference items, which represent nearly 50 percent of the total addressable spend at Intermountain Healthcare. I am excited to explore additional progressive strategies in collaboration with our clinical and physician leadership over the next couple of years. Through the use of rigorous strategic sourcing, we can shift the cost curve for our system without dramatically reducing the product choices available to our physicians. We also know that can dramatically improve our utilization rates by reducing supply consumption patterns, reducing practice variation (related to supplies) and improving clinical efficacy of targeted products. Intermountain Healthcare is committed to evidence-based medicine, and we have the unique potential to link products to care process models to outcomes.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Walsh: We believe that supply partners should be considered an extension of our resources for the purpose of reducing our mutual supply chain cost and improving our outcomes. Therefore, the values that apply to our employees should also apply to our best supply partners. These values include trust, accountability, excellence and mutual respect.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Walsh: Our industry is at an inflection point, with the convergence of two mega trends. Value-based purchasing is shifting our focus from volume to value, and the evolution of the ACO model is shifting our focus from fee-for-service to population management. Each of us in healthcare contracting needs to recognize this business model shift and develop contracting strategies that support both the delivery of care and prevention of illness. We need to open channels between our best supply partners and our insurance providers, clinicians, physicians, administrators and business leaders. This will facilitate the development of wellness solutions and prevention strategies, and will enable improved clinical outcomes. We also need to transparently share information throughout the value chain.
Alan Weintraub
Director, materials management
Enloe Medical Center, Chico, Calif.
Expansion underway to 433 beds, three hospitals, four health centers, a homecare/hospice/DME division, and nine assorted clinics with various specialties. Approximate annual spend of $90 million in supplies, pharmaceuticals and purchased services.
In 1998, Alan Weintraub left a small community hospital in suburban Los Angeles to join Enloe Medical Center as director of materials management. He was met with a decentralized, paper-based supply chain with minimal GPO penetration. From the automation and restructuring of supply chain, to the centralization of various medical campuses and standardization, he gradually helped Enloe become the organization it is today. Currently, he oversees the health system’s central purchasing and distribution center, inventory management and logistics, and value analysis. He also has oversight of environmental services and plays a key role in the contracting process.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Alan Weintraub: Our value analysis program. We installed a process that combined an ongoing, retrospective review of existing consumable technologies with evidence-based evaluation of new technology requests. It’s been exciting to watch the program grow and expand. We’ve incorporated utilization analytics and benchmarking, project facilitation, lean principles and revenue enhancement analysis in the program. Our CEO and senior leadership team are very supportive and routinely participate in program oversight. We have used it to improve alignment, decision-making, and strategic contracting as an organization. Since early 2010, our cost of care (using supply expense per adjusted patient day) has decreased by approximately 3 ½ percent.
JHC: Describe a project that you are excited to implement in the near future.
Weintraub: I am making a presentation to our board and leadership team, highlighting changes to our capital budgeting process. We have established a multidisciplinary capital committee, which will use an objective scoring process to evaluate requests. The scoring rubric will allow us to grade each request in a number of categories, such as strategy and mission; physician impact; market and growth potential; quality, outcomes, and patient safety; finances; and consistency with our facilities and IT master plans. We are excited about the objectivity and collaboration that the redesign brings.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Weintraub: Trust. I need to be confident that there is alignment between Enloe’s and the supplier’s core values, and confident that the supplier will perform. Despite our best efforts, there will always be ambiguity in the business we do. I need to trust my business partners to do the right thing every time we are in that gray area. Over the years, I’ve experienced this with Cardinal Health.
JHC: What is the biggest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Weintraub: The landscape is changing. [However], it appears that we are pushing toward better alignment between hospitals and physicians. I’d like to see hospitals, physicians and vendors consistently align, rather than [resort to] divisive tactics.