This week, the Coalition for Government Procurement resumed its annual member meeting with officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Acquisition Center in Chicago, which manages healthcare supply and services contracts through the VA Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) program and the National Contract Service (NCS). We are very grateful for the opportunity to finally gather in person again for this important dialogue with the VA for the first time since the fall of 2019. The support for this event from the VA and our members was exceptional, with approximately 180 participants in attendance.
At the meeting, opening remarks were provided by Christopher Parker, Associate Executive Director of the Strategic Acquisition Center and Acting Associate Executive Director of the NAC. In addition, the agenda featured two panels consisting of VA FSS and NCS Chiefs, led by VA FSS Director Dan Shearer and NCS Director Fran De Rosa, who provided key updates from their programs. The Coalition sends along its thanks to the following panelists:
VA FSS Panel
- James Booth, FSS Chief, Medical/Surgical A Division
- Deborah Zuckswerth, FSS Chief, Medical/Surgical B Division
- Trevor Martin, FSS Chief, Pharmaceutical/Dental A Division
- Diana Lawal, FSS Chief, Pharmaceutical/Dental B Division
- Lydia McKay, FSS Chief, Program Management & Resource Support Division
- Bob Satterfield, FSS Chief, Services Division
VA NCS Panel
- Regina Blair, Chief, HTME Ordering
- Marissa Wright, Chief, HTME Contract Administration
- Erika Moreno, Chief, Pharmaceutical Division
- Ronald Jenkins, Chief, Prime Vendor
- Frank Zacchigna, Chief, PACS and Laundry
In total, we were fortunate to have over 30 representatives from the VA in attendance, including front-line contracting personnel who were there to meet in-person with industry. Throughout the event, members had the opportunity to engage in Q&A as well as network with the VA staff and other industry participants in order to collaborate and build connections.
We sincerely thank the VA for its support of the industry dialogue on the VA’s contracting programs. We would also like to give a special thank you to member law firm Mayer Brown for generously providing their facilities to host this event.
The Coalition looks forward to continuing the dialogue at our upcoming Spring Training Conference – Procurement Watchwords for 2023, on May 2 – 3. We are pleased to confirm that on May 3, four VA FSS Chiefs, Dan Shearer, Lydia McKay, Diana Lawal, and James Booth, will be in attendance to lead the “Ask the FSS PMO” table. This table allows conference attendees to schedule one-one-meetings with FSS leadership to ask questions about the program or their contracts. The Spring Conference provides multiple additional opportunities for attendees to learn from leadership and engage with the VA on programs including MSPV, Pharmacy Benefits Management, Prosthetics, Supply BPAs, and Pathfinder.
We strongly encourage all of our members to check out the latest conference agenda to learn more about the variety of sessions offered at the conference. If you haven’t already, you can register for the conference here. If you have any questions and/or topics that you would like to be addressed by our Government speakers, please send them to Aubrey Woolley at awoolley@thecgp.org.