The Trade Agreements Act, or TAA, applies to GSA contracts which are vehicles for selling products on a federal, state, or local level. GSA contracts include pre-set terms, conditions and pricing that make the sales process more simple. The products that are discussed as part of these GSA contracts must comply with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA). All health products and other related products that fall under the GSA contracts apply.
When a health product is being considered for the Trade Agreements Act, that product needs to have been completed on a manufacture level in an approved country, otherwise compliance does not occur. There is an approved list of locations that fall under this category and these products can then become part of an approved GSA contract. The list is pretty extensive, making this process a bit simpler than it may originally sound.
In addition to health products, other related services apply to the Trade Agreement Act. What is taken into consideration is where the legal address of the company is located rather than where the services themselves are provided. As long as that address is located in an approved country or location, TAA compliance is secured.
The government attempts to provide strict enforcement when it comes to these GSA and TAA related products. While there may occasionally be a product or company that is located in a non-approved TAA country, a large percentage of the products and services are compliant. There are currently more than 20,000 contracts and products that are part of this act. Steps are being taken to improve upon the process of checking and enforcing compliance. Often times, when companies or products are overlooked by the GSA, reports are made by other compliant businesses that are unhappy with their competitor’s non-compliance. An investigation then takes place and if necessary, the products or services are removed. Confidentiality is ensured when a report is filed in order to protect the integrity of the other party that filed the report.
While the Trade Agreement Act, or TAA, relates to a wide variety of different products and services, health-related products fit onto this list as well. Achieving compliance on a GSA and TAA level allows health product companies to take their business to the next level and secure some pretty large clientele. Gaining leverage with the Department of Health and some other big organizations can bring in far more revenue than occurs when just sticking with smaller, privately owned companies.
The Trade Agreements Act of 1979 was passed by Congress to serve several purposes. Firstly, it aims to foster international trade and expand the United States’ ability to engage in trade deals. Secondly, it hopes to further define and better enforce trading rules and regulations. Finally, the act also approved agreements made in a previous act in 1974.
In reference to surgical trays, the part of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) that is most applicable is the goal of opening international trade deals because it defined various products as compliant if they are manufactured in the United States or in one of the other countries listed in the agreement as a “designated country”. Designated countries include places the United States has an existing free trade agreement with, countries that participate in the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement, “least developed countries”, as well as Caribbean Basin countries.
Due to the requirement put forward by the TAA that all goods and services procured by the federal government (or any government-funded agencies including most hospitals) must be manufactured in either the United States or a designated country, it can be difficult sometimes to insure compliance if there is uncertainty about where products like surgical trays originated or were actually constructed.
On occasion, the TAA will run a compliance check and investigate the origin of an acquired product or service. In these instances, a company or hospital in fact, may have to provide evidence that their surgical trays have been manufactured in the United States or a designated country, or they will be subject to punishment under the rules and regulations of the FAA.
In the specific case of surgical trays, the easiest and most obvious step toward compliance would be simply to make sure that the trays you have purchased originate from one of the countries specified in the list of designated countries. However, surgical trays present a unique issue that may also come up under the FAA: sometimes the customized items contained on surgical trays are new or unavailable from one of the designated countries. CPT Medical, Inc. provides a solution to this issue: “You need to know that the vendors of the tools you’re purchasing have updated the part numbers for their products in the DAPA Management System.” This insures that the part numbers for any pieces on your surgical trays are registered and thus are able to be tracked or investigated by the FAA. CPT Medical, Inc. further has internal procedures that includes verification from manufacturers of place of product production.
In the health profession, every emergency surgical procedure performed requires different medical instruments and tools. An emergency can be life-threatening where time is of the essence, or the situation is still an emergency, but there is time to treat the patient.
It makes no difference if the individual is already a patient in the hospital or awaits care in the hospital emergency room; time is of the essence in any urgent medical situation.
Each emergency requires a different set of medical tools and equipment to meet the emergency situation at hand. For instance, if the patient needs stitches the doctor would not use the same instruments for a patient requiring a tracheotomy. A surgical pack necessitates care in the following atmospheres.
Individualized and specialized tools found in a surgical pack expedites the patient’s treatment. If it were not for a particular surgical pack already made up and designed for specific emergency situations, the professional would have to hunt for each tool to meet the situation at hand.
A surgical pack allows for all tools in one single sterile package. The medical professional does not have to hunt for and gather the needed tools together when time is of the essence.
The benefits to having a sterile surgical pack ready for hospital personnel are as follows.
Years ago hospitals sterilized all of their medical tools and equipment through a process called autoclaving. A sterilization room with autoclaves was where these packs were put together to store in moment’s notice.
These days’ medical manufacturers receive orders from health facilities to design and put together a particular surgical pack for all sorts of medical emergencies. The manufacturer is always looking to the medical community for support on how they can put a surgical pack together more efficiently, in a cost-effective manner.
It is through the efforts of the health community and health manufacturer they can provide to doctors and nurses the right surgical pack for the right time and place.
A pre-packaged surgical pack is all set and ready to go with all the necessary sterilized tools needed to meet all emergencies. Those appointed the responsibility of ordering a surgical pack no longer have to account for every item or order each item individually as that person can now order the complete surgical pack.
The list of sterile tools that medical professionals use every day is enormously wide and varied. The list below is just a few of the items found in a surgical pack.
Thanks to the combined efforts of medical professionals and manufacturers, a surgical pack has all the tools for the medical professional to meet the surgical needs of all patients.
In the health profession, every emergency surgical procedure performed requires different medical instruments and tools. An emergency can be life-threatening where time is of the essence, or the situation is still an emergency, but there is time to treat the patient.
It makes no difference if the individual is already a patient in the hospital or awaits care in the hospital emergency room; time is of the essence in any urgent medical situation.
Each emergency requires a different set of medical tools and equipment to meet the emergency situation at hand. For instance, if the patient needs stitches the doctor would not use the same instruments for a patient requiring a tracheotomy. A surgical pack necessitates care in the following atmospheres.
Individualized and specialized tools found in a surgical pack expedites the patient’s treatment. If it were not for a particular surgical pack already made up and designed for specific emergency situations, the professional would have to hunt for each tool to meet the situation at hand.
A surgical pack allows for all tools in one single sterile package. The medical professional does not have to hunt for and gather the needed tools together when time is of the essence.
The benefits to having a sterile surgical pack ready for hospital personnel are as follows.
These days’ medical manufacturers receive orders from health facilities to design and put together a particular surgical pack for all sorts of medical emergencies. The manufacturer is always looking to the medical community for support on how they can put a surgical pack together more efficiently, in a cost-effective manner.
It is through the efforts of the health community and health manufacturer they can provide to doctors and nurses the right surgical pack for the right time and place.
A pre-packaged surgical pack is all set and ready to go with all the necessary sterilized tools needed to meet all emergencies. Those appointed the responsibility of ordering a surgical pack no longer have to account for every item or order each item individually as that person can now order the complete surgical pack.
The list of sterile tools that medical professionals use every day is enormously wide and varied. The list below is just a few of the items found in a surgical pack.
Thanks to the combined efforts of medical professionals and manufacturers, a surgical pack has all the tools for the medical professional to meet the surgical needs of all patients.
The question is,
“Do you understand the Affordable Care Act?”
“Does anyone understand this health care act?”
This law is one of the least understood legislation in Government history. Government officials do not understand this law.
The Affordable Care Act or Obama Care was signed into law before anyone even reads this law in full. While Obama Care was a promise of a better health care system, it has not proved true.
This law has been complicated and confusing to all who try to understand what it says. You probably found this law confusing and frustrating, found costs rising, and in the end decided not to buy into a plan at all and go without health care coverage risking a penalty of at least $600.00
Every part of the medical community is affected by the Affordable Care Act in negative ways. Thousands of custom procedure trays used every day see rising costs.
One thing is for certain, and that is this law significantly and negatively impacts all medical supplies, like custom procedure trays.
There is an incredible mound of paperwork, making up this law. This hard to understand law affects everything and everyone medical, including custom procedure trays.
Two Bright spots to the ACA
The ACA signed into law so that you could get low-cost health care coverage. You may never find a plan that fits your needs or budget, so you do not buy anything.
The biggest drawback to this plan is if you do not purchase a plan you pay a penalty of up to at least $600.00. If you cannot afford this health care coverage, you certainly cannot afford the penalty.
Originally, each state had to complete the Affordable Care Act process. Some states were confused, and many lacked the understanding of the law forcing the government to step in and complete their process.
The Affordable Care Act is not uniform across all states. While this scheme helps some Medicaid recipients in some states, it does not help Medicaid recipients in other states.
For businesses everywhere who offer health care plans it meant,
Lots of Facts and Myths
Will Things be Worse or Better in 2017?
You can only hope that an Obama Care replacement as promised by the new 2017 Government happens.
The Trump promise is,
Even Custom Procedure Trays are Affected
The medical community strives to improve patient care, lower facility costs, and increase the quality of care. For instance, developing on-site custom procedure trays and cut the cost from a middleman.
These new rules affect everyone in the health care field, from doctors to hospitals, to clinics, dentists, eye care, medicine, medical equipment such as custom procedure trays, essential to quality patient care.
President Elect Trump promises to make health care simpler, easier to read, and genuinely affordable for everyone, lowering costs for medical supplies like custom procedure trays, and medicine, by replacing this hard to understand ACA.
Custom surgical trays are highly famed for their convenience. Their ability to bundle multiple functionality onto one tray not only makes them theater friendly but also makes the easier to transport and dispose. Since custom tray designers will always have packing and racking in mind, they will put them in the best packing options possible.
that clinic management has to instill when storing and preparing traditional trays.
This extends over to disposal. The custom tray can go back to the packaging it came in or you can slip them into clinical bags ready for disposal. If you are lucky, choose something that allows you to repackage without posing a biohazard. This will help you tap deeper into the benefits of custom trays.
Packaging a custom tray stock might sound like a complication to anyone who was used to traditional surgical supplies and trays. However, the fact that the manufacturer has adapted everything to suite your use case means that the trays will store away almost naturally.
This is why custom trays more of a convenience. They are a perfect way to increase efficiency in the operation room by limiting the number of procedures needed to get the right equipment from the store, use it and dispose it off safely.
Image is from HHS.gov
The question is,
“Do you understand the Affordable Care Act?”
“Does anyone understand this health care act?”
The ACA signed into law so that you could get low-cost health care coverage. You may never find a plan that fits your needs or budget, so you do not buy anything.
The biggest drawback to this plan is if you do not purchase a plan you pay a penalty of up to at least $600.00. If you cannot afford this health care coverage, you certainly cannot afford the penalty.
Originally, each state had to complete the Affordable Care Act process. Some states were confused, and many lacked the understanding of the law forcing the government to step in and complete their process.
The Affordable Care Act is not uniform across all states. While this scheme helps some Medicaid recipients in some states, it does not help Medicaid recipients in other states.
For businesses everywhere who offer health care plans it meant,
You can only hope that an Obama Care replacement as promised by the new 2017 Government happens.
The Trump promise is,
The medical community strives to improve patient care, lower facility costs, and increase the quality of care. For instance, developing on-site custom procedure trays and cut the cost from a middleman.
These new rules affect everyone in the health care field, from doctors to hospitals, to clinics, dentists, eye care, medicine, medical equipment such as custom procedure trays, essential to quality patient care.
President Elect Trump promises to make health care simpler, easier to read, and genuinely affordable for everyone, lowering costs for medical supplies like custom procedure trays, and medicine, by replacing this hard to understand ACA.
When it comes to surgical procedures, there is normally a lot of time lost in equipment preparation, which include acquisition, sterilization, and arrangement of surgical trays. This time lost could translate to higher operational costs, and even loss of lives.
hance of human error in the collection process.
Given the fact that custom surgical trays are pre-packaged and sterilized, your staff don’t need to assemble. This improves infection prevention, thanks to fewer touch points.
Besides saving time, there are other benefits that come from the implementation of custom surgical trays. They include:
With increased efficiency, you can perform more procedures in a day, since the time for preparation is substantial. Moreover, the waiting time for patients can be significantly reduced, and their procedures performed earlier.
Since one custom surgical tray contains all the equipment you need you’ll save the money that would otherwise be spent on contacting many suppliers, as you can get the surgical kit from one supplier.
The use of custom surgical trays can reduce the number of clinical waste bags by about 50% since only the necessary instruments are provided.
Before the introduction of custom procedure trays, a theatre used to store up a massive supply of surgical equipment. Today, with procedure trays being delivered just-in-time, you can utilize the storage space in your theatre for other purposes.
Customized surgical trays save time and money, and because of these two factors, they can also save lives. This translates to more time for a surgical procedure and more money for equipment and training. This in turn leads to successful operations, which build your reputation as a medical practitioner. However, you need to always use top-notch medical equipment, and hence you have to ensure that your customized procedure trays are from a supplier with a responsible repute.
A custom surgical pack contains single-use devices that are necessary when medical clinicians are carrying out procedures. All these devices are packaged in a sterile pack that is delivered into surgeries. The medical device industry works with doctors and other medical clinicians in designing and delivering surgical pack in a timely and efficient manner. A surgical pack has a selection of components that includes; drapes, surgical swabs, sutures, surgical blades and wound dressing. Specialized devices such as cardiac catheters and implants can also be included. There are many benefits that come with using customized surgical packs, below are five reasons why you should consider a customized surgical pack.
The amount of waste generated by units can be reduced by up to 50%. The increased efficiency means that more procedures can be done in one day since the time for preparation is considerable. The waiting time for patients can be reduced, and their procedures carried out earlier.
rol leaving patients less vulnerable to Healthcare Associated Infections.
4. Environmental
5. Improves Efficiency
Custom trays are not only important for medical practitioners, but they are also important for anyone who needs to perform a medical role. The most important thing with your medical custom trays is understanding that if at any time someone actually does need something, they need to have what works the best and they need to have what is going to be the most efficient from every step of the way. With custom trays medical professionals can have just that, however, you need to be aware of a few of the following items.
ine regardless of who delivers them and who packs them, you also have to consider the general service you receive. When there are questions you need answered, changes in the order and packing preferences, or even just contact that you need to have in order to retain a strong relationship with your supplier, there are more than enough reasons why any business relationship needs to have strong communication. There are more than enough reasons to ensure you have strong communication and a great reputation with your suppliers, but at the end of the day you want to make sure you are simply receiving a quality product with the service that actually backs it up as well with your custom trays.
Not only do you need to be aware of the product in general, but when it comes to custom trays you also have to understand you are getting a product certified by the professionals. There are more than enough players in the medical community, but there are absolutely more than enough ways to get checked out as well. When it comes to having top quality custom trays in the medical and surgical community as well, there are reasons you want to be known and one of those reasons is by the partnerships you have and the endorsements you have earned for your product.
Image is from ROi
Qualified experts in cost management for Operating Rooms agree that the most cost effective innovation within the medical arena that has also been most productive in increasing quality of treatments plus eliminating waste is the implementation of surgical custom trays. Waste reduction is achieved by reducing overstocking, a custom trays improvement that also saves in personnel duties. The consequent reduction of medical hazard waste improves minimalizing of our carbon footprint while simultaneously increasing the treatment success for individual procedures and the more complicated surgical procedures.
cedure that is undertaken.
Sterile materials which are required for single use are packed in efficiency boosting single use individual custom trays. Compact custom trays save time and prevent unnecessary waste in performing those specific single use Operating Room procedures, and the custom trays are also quickly available for any repetitive procedures performed.
Your facility’s carbon footprint reduction and securing sustainable environmental practices without undermining any and all safety factors represents both a local and global importance. Custom surgical tray implementation always will drastically reduce the amount of packaging material and waste issues when compared to the use of individually packed and arranged instruments for your procedures. Packaging material weight due to the Operating Room’s implementaton of custom trays alone is reduced by 58%, usually resulting in one less waste bag in the Operating Room’s larger medical procedures. That reduction of one waste bag results in a reduction of the hospital’s global carbon footprint as well as your facility’s operating costs.
The combined and assessed impact of custom trays’ utilization in reducing excess procurement stocking while effectively diminishing the carbon impact of medical waste can only be estimated, but the estimation suggests that the green earth improvement caused by this one professional innovation of custom trays in the Operating Room is of monumental global importance.