HSCA
BY KHATEREH CALLEJA
The Healthcare Landscape in 2021 Key trends to watch healthcare industry, HSCA has an intimate understanding of the challenges the healthcare industry will continue to face as it enters the 2021. Here are a few of the trends we are seeing as well as areas of focus and policy priorities that HSCA will continue to pursue in the coming year:
Supply chain resiliency
1 and diversification
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of having a resilient and diverse healthcare supply chain. HSCA supports solutions that strengthen supplier resiliency and redundancy to help prevent disruptions to supply. The global The COVID-19 pandemic placed enormous pressure on hospitals, other
nature of the supply chain should be
healthcare providers and the communities they serve in 2020. Healthcare stakeholders
leveraged to build in redundancies, shor-
and public health authorities worked tirelessly to help address and prevent the spread of
ing up domestic manufacturing as well as
COVID-19 while continuing to also provide patient care on non-COVID issues. Poli-
sourcing across the globe to help prevent
cymakers on Capitol Hill pursued swift solutions to help support COVID-10 response
supply disruptions for raw materials or
efforts as well as solutions to a variety of healthcare issues ranging from drug pricing to
finished products. Previous shortages due
the drug shortages. With a new Administration taking over and the COVID-19 pandem-
to manufacturing issues or natural disas-
ic still ongoing, healthcare issues will once again be at the forefront in the year ahead.
ters like Hurricane Maria make it clear that it is important to have sourcing and manufacturing capabilities both domesti-
The Healthcare Supply Chain As-
vast majority of the 68,000+ long term
cally and globally to help ensure multiple
sociation (HSCA) represents the nation’s
care facilities, surgery centers, clinics,
suppliers and the ability to scale up as
leading healthcare group purchasing
and other healthcare providers. Given
needed. Increased redundancy will also
organizations (GPS), the sourcing and
our unique line of sight over the entire
reduce the risk of bottlenecks and severe
purchasing partners to virtually all of
healthcare supply chain and our experi-
disruption in the case of regional events
America’s 7,000+ hospitals, as well as the
ence working on the front lines of the
or other issues impacting manufacturing.
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February 2021 | The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
