By Michael J. Alkire, President and CEO, Premier Inc.
Premier applauds Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Richard Hudson (R-NC), Lori Trahan (D-MA), David McKinley (R-WV), Carolyn Bordeaux (D-GA), and Troy Balderson (R-OH) for introducing the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act of 2022. This bipartisan bill will enable for the first time, real-time data on the entire supply chain for critical medical supplies needed during emergencies—from manufacturing, to distribution, to state and national stockpiles, to hospital inventory. This information will allow healthcare providers, manufacturers, distributors and the government in an emergency to assure critical products get to providers most in need, identify and address product shortfalls, coordinate access to products in state and national stockpiles, and help reduce waste and supply chain inefficiencies.
America scrambled for the first year of the pandemic to ensure product was available for healthcare providers in need. As a result, there was enormous waste and lives harmed due to unavailable and counterfeit products and uncertainty about product availability. To help cope, the nation created a stopgap, largely manual system to collect information. This legislation will create an automated system that can be “turned on” in an emergency.
We urge Congress to expeditiously pass the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act so that we can eliminate supply chain vulnerabilities once and for all and ensure greater transparency and resiliency for the next pandemic and beyond.
