Exposing GPOs
& PBMs
Books, Studies & Reports
"Most troubling is that some GPOs are funded by suppliers rather than solely by hospitals. The fees that suppliers pay, which would normally be considered illegal kickbacks, are allowed by the 1986 amendment to the Social Security Act. Thus, buying groups may serve the interests of the suppliers that provide their funding, not providers, thereby undermining value-based competition. While the extent of this bias is contested, the potential for conflict of interest is indisputable."
"To enable value-based competition, every buying-group practice should be consistent with open and fair competition. There is no valid reason for buying groups to accept financing or any payments from suppliers: if a buying group adds value, the customers (hospitals) should voluntarily pay for it."
Michael E. Porter, professor, Harvard Business School, & Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, professor, Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science"
"Porter & Teisberg, "Redefining Health Care," Harvard Business School Press, 2006
* * * * *
"The Dirty Secret of Drug Shortages"
Policy Brief, American Economic Liberties Project
Oct. 19, 2023
READ REPORT
"At War with Corruption": A Biography of Bill Price, U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma"
(Material on Price's advocacy for GPO reform on pages 375-9)
Michael J. Hightower
University of Oklahoma Press, 2021
BUY BOOK
"Reimagining Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) Supply Chains"
Healthcare Anchor Network, Nov. 18, 2020
"Monopolies Suck"
CHAPTER 2 on GPOs and other Health Care Monopolies: "Monopolies Gouge You When You're Sick"
Sally Hubbard
Simon & Schuster, New York, 2020
BUY BOOK
"Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power"
CHAPTER on GPOs: "Why Salt and Water in a Bag Became Scarce"
David Dayen
The New Press, New York, 2020
READ CHAPTER
"The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care and How to Fix It"
Marty Makary M.D. M.P.H.
Bloombury Press, New York, 2019
BUY BOOK
"The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition"
Jonathan Tepper with Denise Hearn
John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2018
BUY BOOK
"An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business And How You Can Take It Back"
Elisabeth Rosenthal M.D.,
Penguin Press, New York, 2017
BUY BOOK
"Premier Inc. [PINC] Accounting Analysis"
Sohn Investment Conference
Cavendish Fund Management
May 4, 2015
"Medicines Shortages in European Hospitals"
European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
Oct. 2014
READ REPORT
"Outbreak of Serratia marcescens Bloodstream Infections in Patients Receiving Parenteral Nutrition Prepared by a Compounding Pharmacy"
Clinical Infectious Diseases, Aug. 24, 2014
READ REPORT
"Report of the 2014 Drug Shortages Summit"
Aug. 1, 2014 (date of meeting)
"Drug Shortages: Crisis and Opportunity"
Pharma Ci USA Conference
Sept. 17, 2013
"Policy Recommendations for Improving Patient Access to Drugs in Shortage"
Congressman (now Senator) Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-LA)
Keynote Address to Interphex
April 23, 2013, New York
READ PRESENTATION
"Report of the 2013 Drug Shortages Summit: Evaluating Long-Term Solutions"
Apr. 18, 2013 (date of meeting)
READ REPORT
"Economic and Technological Drivers of Generic Sterile Injectable Drug Shortages"
Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Feb. 2013
READ STUDY
"Revisiting Supply Cost Strategies"
Advisory Board Company, 2013
READ REPORT
"Medicare Meltdown"
Rosemary Gibson & Janardan Prasad Singh
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York, 2013
BUY BOOK
READ EXCERPTS ON GPOs
'The Drug Shortage Crisis: When Generic Manufacturers “Just Say No”'
Oregon Law Review, 2013
READ ARTICLE
"Healthcare Intermediaries: Competition and Healthcare Policy at Loggerheads?"
Diana Moss PhD, American Antitrust Institute
May 7, 2012
READ REPORT
"Report 7 of the Council on Science and Public Health: Drug Shortage Update"
American Medical Association
2012
READ REPORT
"Connecting the Dots: How Anticompetitive Contracting Practices, Kickbacks, and Self-dealing by Hospital Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) Caused the U. S. Drug Shortage"
Patricia Earl, principal/CEO Secure Pharma Distributors Network & Phillip L. Zweig,
financial journalist, author & independent consultant
Jan. 4, 2012
READ REPORT
"Drug Shortages: A closer look at suppliers, products, and volume volatility"
IMS Institute for Healthcare Infomatics
Nov. 2011
READ REPORT
"An Empirical Analysis of Aftermarket Transactions by Hospitals"
Journal of Contemporary Health Law & Policy, Fall 2011
READ REPORT
"Report 2 of the Council on Science and Public Health: National Drug Shortages"
American Medical Association
2011
READ REPORT
"Drug Shortage Summit Summary Report"
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
Nov. 5, 2010
"Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction"
Barry C. Lynn
John Wiley & Sons 2010
BUY BOOK
"Group Purchasing Organizations: An Undisclosed Scandal in the U. S. Healthcare Industry"
Prof. S. Prakash Sethi
Palgrave/Macmillan 2009
"Group Purchasing Organizations' Distributor Fees Formula Requires Scrutiny: Current Practice Fails to Meet New Standards for Transparency, Ethics, and Integrity in GPO Contracting"
Report by the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA)
Sept. 2007
READ REPORT
"Redefining Health Care"
Professors Michael Porter & Elizabeth Teisberg
Harvard Business School Press, 2006.
BUY BOOK
READ EXCERPTS ON GPOs
"Group Purchasing Organizations: An Evaluation of their Effectiveness in Providing Services to Hospitals and their Patients"
Prof. S. Prakash Sethi, Center for Corporate Accountability, Baruch College, City University of New York
July 20, 2006
READ REPORT
"Defining and Measuring Product-Based Cost Savings in the Health Care Supply Chain"
Lynn James Everard, healthcare supply chain strategist
2004