GHX Collaboration Portal Validates Contract Pricing in Real Time; First to be Used by All Stakeholders of the Healthcare Supply Chain

LOUISVILLE, Colo., March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten-thousand healthcare provider locations, a growing number of the largest national distributors, and medical-surgical suppliers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are using the GHX collaboration portal to drive visibility and synchronization throughout the contracting process. Historically, agreed-upon contract prices have taken 45-60 days to be loaded into the respective systems of all parties to a contract. With this portal, a contract can be integrated with a distributor on the same day it is executed and the new prices loaded by all stakeholders in less than a week. This helps eliminate inaccurate purchase orders, disputed invoices and rebate/chargeback discrepancies.

All participants to the contracting process work together through this collaboration portal to automate what has historically been a highly manual process, helping to ensure rapid price synchronization and invoice accuracy. It is healthcare's only collaborative portal for price and contract management that enables all parties to a contract to agree on key terms and conditions. This results in an electronic Letter of Commitment (eLOC) that provides synchronization to authorized distributors and real-time visibility for all participants.

The GHX collaboration portal allows information to be shared in a secure on-line environment, enabling a virtual "handshake" among all parties. Authorized parties are presented with real-time access to pricing and eligibility information, and benefit from the creation of a full audit trail.

HealthTrust Purchasing Group has deployed the solution with its supplier and provider members, saving time and money and increasing efficiencies. Using this platform, healthcare provider HCA was able to reduce its price discrepancy rate with one of its manufacturers from 8.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to less than 1 percent in the third quarter of 2009.  

Melissa Maus, director of Pricing Services at Cardinal Health, said that as a value-added supply chain partner, Cardinal Health supports industry-wide collaboration.

"Cardinal Health is dedicated to utilizing technology to simplify the customer experience," Maus said, "and this platform enables us to support that larger effort while helping our customers reduce their administrative burden and focus on patient care."

"GHX is in a unique position to help alleviate many of the problems caused by the complexity of healthcare contracting," said Bruce Johnson, GHX president and chief executive officer. "As a neutral partner with an integrated network of thousands of participants on both the buy and sell side, GHX has created the first four-way collaborative solution to synchronize pricing data for the U.S. healthcare industry."

Effective contract management requires that all parties share, in a timely manner, accurate information related to factors such as tier pricing and commitments, customer eligibility and price activation dates. When information is inconsistent or delayed, errors occur that create rework and higher labor costs. These errors also cause financial issues for the various parties such as inaccurate pricing, rebates and chargebacks. As a result, unnecessary cost can be incurred and resources diverted from the primary focus of the healthcare supply chain: the delivery and use of products to optimize patient care.

About GHX

As the business hub for healthcare, Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) enables healthcare providers and suppliers in North America and Europe to reduce costs and improve margins by automating processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing knowledge-based decision making.  Products and services include trading partner connectivity, order and contract management and validation, data synchronization, sales force automation and business intelligence. Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; BD; Boston Scientific Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Covidien; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens; University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc.  For more information, visit www.ghx.com.

SOURCE GHX