HHS is establishing a departmentwide forecast of its personal protective equipment demand, which the department said is the first official, recurring process to identify, consolidate and publish anticipated agency purchases of PPE covered by the Make PPE in America Act.
First reported in Axios and in an HHS news release Sept. 18, every HHS division will be required to maintain a current PPE forecast covering known acquisition requirements along with anticipated recurring purchases, annual replenishment, seasonal demand, emergency stock replenishment and potential surge requirements. The forecasts will account for PPE bought through contracts, orders, government purchase cards and other authorized methods.
Forecasts will be updated quarterly, with the first department-wide update due Oct. 15 and subsequent updates due Jan. 15, April 15 and July 15 each year. HHS will publish the consolidated information through the Small Business Customer Experience platform, which provides procurement forecast opportunities.
Congress enacted the Make PPE in America Act as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act after finding that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. PPE supply chains. The law generally requires HHS and other covered federal departments to procure domestically produced PPE under contracts of at least two years, with exceptions for circumstances including insufficient domestic availability and immediate needs.
The department said the forecast is intended to give domestic manufacturers earlier visibility into federal demand so they can plan hiring, equipment purchases and production capacity before orders are placed. HHS noted the forecast does not constitute a solicitation, commitment or guarantee of an award.
The American Medical Manufacturers Association praised the policy in a Sept. 20 news release shared with Becker’s, calling it the clearest demand signal domestic PPE makers have received from a federal buyer. The association urged HHS to break the forecasts out by product category and time horizon, called on other federal buyers including the VA and GSA to adopt the practice, and asked private health systems and group purchasing organizations to publish comparable forecasts.
