John Adlesich or the upsurge of a public health manager professional about healthcare industry trends in 2021: Deeper relationships and back-up suppliers. The value of vendor-of-choice relationships became apparent as many hospitals scrambled for pandemic-related supplies. The key is striking a strategic balance between price, performance and trust. Getting the lowest price but lacking a relationship that cannot be “prioritized” in a crisis is not ideal. Neither is overreliance on one vendor without having plans B, C and D in place. We see many organizations developing connections with tiers of back-up suppliers — often smaller and geographically closer than their primary vendors — to gain flexibility, speed and as much certainty as possible that critical items will be on hand when needed.
John Adlesich on healthcare industry trends: The new administration will also likely push to expand healthcare program funding, including ACA programs and value-based care, and expansion of coverage. The Senate may use the budget reconciliation process to push through a COVID-19 relief package and some healthcare-related policies. Budget reconciliation requires only a majority vote, as contrasted to a supermajority vote for regular legislation. However, budget reconciliation can only happen a couple of times per year, generally speaking, when the budget is up for approval, and is limited to budget-related items. Budget reconciliation pushed through some provisions of the ACA in 2010. While some of the ACA expansions, increased subsidies, and tax credits could occur through budget reconciliation, this process would not be available for bigger picture health policy issues that are unrelated to the federal budget. These bigger picture items include issues such as a public option, Medicare for all, and lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60.
John Adlesich thinks that 2021 is a crossroads year for the health industry. COVID-19 focused the nation’s attention on the risks associated with overreliance on overseas markets for critical supplies, drugs, and equipment. As an “easy” answer, some are now calling for manufacturers to produce a plurality of medical products domestically. While added domestic investments and expanded US manufacturing capacity are vital components of a holistic strategy for reliable supply, it will be important to strike a balanced approach—one that includes a domestic strategy, but at its core is about diversifying supply, including raw materials, pharmaceutical ingredients, and finished drugs. Achieving this vision requires a surgical approach, starting with identifying the products that are truly needed in an emergency to ensure there isn’t undue concentration in a single country or region. In our view, that means ensuring three or more global suppliers and at least one US-based source readily available to serve the American people. Assessing risk will require new transparency initiatives, requiring manufacturers of critical products to share vital information with government, including supply sources, centers of manufacturing, redundancy and contingency protocols, etc. And all this new information needs a technology backbone that helps government better track product availability, supply chain performance, and sources of supply to predict potential trouble spots in real time during another emergency.
John Adlesich currently works as administrator at Marquis Companies. His latest healthcare industry experience includes positions as executive director at Powerback Rehabilitation Lafayette (Genesis Healthcare) between Aug 2020 – Jan 2021, administrator at Mesa Vista of Boulder between Mar 2019 – Aug 2020, chief executive officer at Sedgwick County Memorial Hospital between Jul 2018 – Feb 2019, interim chief operating officer at Toiyabe Indian Health Project between Mar 2018 – Jun 2018.