FAH Conference 2020: Key Takeaways

My compliments to Kerry Price and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) team for a great conference in Washington, D.C.! Each year, the Federation of American Hospitals Conference is at the top of my list of industry events to attend, and this year did not disappoint!

I was excited to get up to the conference, but the ongoing coronavirus outbreak made for a strange and solemn atmosphere at the Atlanta airport Sunday morning as I was catching my flight. Many travelers were wearing masks, which was a bit of an unsettling visual (and the fact that most many of those masks weren’t N95 rated was unsettling on a whole different level). It made me question whether they were sick, or just trying to protect themselves.

I have been to over 20 of these conferences throughout the years, and I remember vividly during the swine flu era the amount of people coughing, sneezing and sniffling through the plenary sessions. It was very different this year. Fortunately for those in attendance, it seemed like anyone who wasn’t feeling well made the wise choice to stay home.

While I didn’t see anyone at FAH wearing masks of any type, I did notice that many people were wary of making too much contact with others, opting for a nod or elbow bump instead of a handshake or hug. Hopefully this kind of thinking will become a widely accepted norm.

I’m glad I was in good health and able to attend, because this year’s conference was great! Here are some of takeaways from the meeting that I found were interesting, important, or new:

1) The political atmosphere in D.C. is gloomy.

Shocker! While this isn’t a surprise, here are some contributing factors:

• We have a very divided country, and it doesn’t seem that unifying is at the top of President Trump’s to-do list. He’s focused on two things: 1) completing his agenda, and 2) his re-election campaign.
• Pelosi’s defining agenda objective will be addressing drug costs.
• President Trump’s Executive Orders on healthcare are to:
  • Dilute the ACA
  • Erode Medicaid
  • Attack high drug prices
  • Expose hospital pricing
  • Push Medicare Advantage

2) Nurses, doctors and hospitals are all viewed favorably, while insurance and drug companies are viewed unfavorably.

This is interesting if you think about it. The front-line caregivers are well-liked by Americans, but the big profitable insurers and drug makers are not. Hospitals are still viewed favorably, but are slipping, because Americans are starting to associate hospitals with rising healthcare costs.

3) The presidential election will be decided by 300,000 to 400,000 people in about 10 regions of the country.

These few swing regions are key to deciding whether President Trump gets another term.

4) Ken Kuiper of Medical Strategies International did a great job presenting the Corris Boyd Award to Kevin Price, senior director, supplier diversity at Novant Health.

The award honors the late Corris Boyd, whose vision of building a better way to live and work through leadership and diversity was embodied in the many accomplishments for which he is known. The Corris Boyd Leadership and Diversity Award honors an individual or company who has made an outstanding contribution in fostering leadership and workplace diversity in the healthcare industry.

For 14 years, Kevin Price has supported and featured historically under-utilized businesses. In 2019, Novant’s support of these businesses reached over $1 billion in spend.

Congrats to Kevin on the award, it is well deserved!

5) Value Analysis is here to stay, and suppliers planning to gain market share need to find a way to make Value Analysis a competitive advantage.

The providers presenting on Value Analysis emphasized that sales and marketing collateral is not what they want in an information packet. The (literal) million-dollar takeaway on Value Analysis is that every IDN in the country does it differently, so suppliers have got to know each of their clients and prospects very well in order to succeed.

6) The new leasing regulations are a big deal for capital suppliers.

How IDNs book acquisitions of capital has big consequences on their operating expense budgets, capital budgets, and balance sheets. Suppliers who can help IDNs understand the Pros and Cons of the buy-versus-lease decision in the era of these new regulations will certainly be viewed as a trusted advisor.

If we connected in D.C., it was great to see you! If not, lets plan on it for next year!

All the best,

– John Pritchard