Still, it’s important to recognize and acknowledge the contributions made by Robert Betz, Ph.D., HIGPA’s founding executive director, and his team. After all, he played an integral role in establishing and developing HIGPA from the start, uniting GPOs under a common bond. Prior to HIGPA, GPOs functioned largely as competitive warhorses, more willing to thin the herd when one ran into financial, legal or regulatory trouble than to at least demonstrate a public show of support and unity. Betz and company also helped to create a code of conduct for the industry to serve as a blueprint for competitive, ethical and fair business behavior even in the face of criticism for not going far enough by those who obviously didn’t understand HIGPA’s charter and regulatory limitations. In 1986, Betz and company also drafted the amendments that eventually legalized the group purchasing industry’s exemptions from the Medicare and Medicaid anti-kickback statute. While some will argue that that represents the root of the problems GPOs face today, no one can deny that the efforts enabled organizations like VHA, Premier and others to profit and proliferate in their quest to save hospital members’ money.

Say what you will about his Southern gentleman demeanor that can morph into a refined attack dog mode for a passionate cause (even the venerable Giuliani has his critics), Betz stepped up to the plate and accomplished tasks no one else seemed willing to do. Maybe Major League Baseball (another organization facing perennial antitrust charges) would be willing to court his expertise or even make him commissioner.

STOCKING STUFFER. With all the celebrity-oriented, "reality"-themed television shows these days (e.g., ABC-TV’s "Dancing With The Stars," cue the chirping crickets now) it’s time for healthcare to get into the act. How about a show to generate publicity for and interest in healthcare materials management? "Stocking Shelves With The Stars." Each week a C- and D- or Z-list film, music, sports, television or pop culture star teams up with a materials management professional to juggle the supply demands of doctors, nurses, GPOs, vendors, administrators and just about everyone else up and down the chain that gives them grief during the daily grind. I, for one, would love to see Donald Trump negotiating a supply contract for a physician preference item. Watch Lizzy Grubman drive a forklift through the storeroom by way of sterile processing!

For those of you interested in my periodic updates of the growth of little Rix, Rhys and Ramsay Barlow, the triplets celebrated their first birthday on July 26, smack dab in the middle of the AHRMM conference in Anaheim. Here’s a recent photo of them wearing T-shirts from the alma mater of my wife and me. Suffice it to say that should they choose to attend the fine collegiate institution I’ll have to double up on my editorial production for the next 18 years and take a second mortgage out on the house…for the first year alone. Shiver.