Archive for December, 2008
Fee or Free
Discussions about vendor credentialing in healthcare often include hyperbolic claims of cost and expense. So what if we took cost to the vendor out of the equation? What if hospitals paid for the cost of vendor credentialing, allowing vendor reps to register for free? What would be the outcome? If it were free, would the reps register? If it were free, would they maintain the needed corporate or personal information?
Well, it had been free. Until recently, hospitals had borne the cost — direct and indirect — of tracking and credentialing vendor companies and representatives. The result was disjointed, incomplete, and repetitive data sets that provided little value. Policies that were only followed on paper, not in practice.
3 comments December 10, 2008
Bankruptcy Is Not An Option
Bankruptcy protection is a uniquely American construct. In most countries if a business goes backrupt, the workers go home and the doors close. End of story. The American bankruptcy process gives failing enterprises an opportunity to retrench, re-tool debt and other obligations, and re-emerge as viable entities.
But the New York Times recently wrote that corporate bankruptcy is not the option it once was. According to the Times, for bankruptcy to work, the failing business needs credit to bridge from the bankruptcy moment to success. That credit comes from banks and other lending institutions. If banks continue to tighten the credit offerings to even the most solid borrowers, banks certainly aren’t loaning to the bankrupt.
The implication for businesses today is that a supplier going bankrupt today is more likely to cease operations — not just slow down or keep flying like the airlines have. For the buyer, it means looking into your suppliers financials is more important than ever.
Add comment December 3, 2008
