Novation and GHX Commit to Another Five Years of Working Together to Help Reduce Healthcare Costs

LOUISVILLE, Colo., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GHX today announced that Novation, the leading healthcare supply contracting company for the members of VHA Inc., UHC and Provista LLC, has renewed an agreement under which GHX delivers supply chain technology and software solutions to help the members Novation serves reduce their cost of doing business. The five-year renewal means that more than 65,000 VHA, UHC and Provista members and affiliates will be able to take advantage of GHX to drive cost and inefficiency out of their business processes.

In the 11 years Novation and GHX have worked together, they and the members served by Novation have made significant progress in cutting the cost of healthcare. A portion of these cost reductions are possible because of cloud-based technology from GHX, which creates and operates an electronic trading platform connecting the majority of healthcare provider facilities in North America and the medical-surgical suppliers with which they do business. Approximately 40 percent of GHX members are also members served by Novation.

"GHX brings value to the healthcare industry," said Jody Hatcher, president and CEO at Novation. "This renewal allows us to continue offering members the technology and expertise of GHX as they seek to improve their procurement processes. With supply chain costs the second highest cost for healthcare providers and growing, we need to take advantage of every opportunity for savings."

Under the agreement, VHA, UHC and Provista members will have access to GHX core exchange services, including MetaTrade, which enables them to do business with suppliers that aren't yet connected to GHX or do not have electronic data interchange capabilities. The agreement also includes CCXpert for real-time contract and price management, as well as supply chain automation solutions that include NuVia for item master management, Procurement Suite for requisitioning and workflow control, and OnDemand AP® for invoice automation.

"There are few partnerships in healthcare that have had as significant an impact on reducing the cost of healthcare as ours with Novation," said GHX President and CEO Bruce Johnson. "The members served by Novation, together with other participants in the GHX Global Network, have been a large part of removing more than $1.6 billion in U.S. healthcare costs since the beginning of 2010 through supply chain automation and optimization."

About GHX

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX), a healthcare technology and services company, helps reduce the cost of doing business in healthcare by enabling better supply chain management. GHX makes it easier for hospitals, other healthcare providers and the suppliers that do business with them to drive cost and inefficiency out of their processes. Working with GHX, the healthcare organizations that make up the GHX Global Network are on track to save $5 billion by 2014—savings that can be invested in such things as hiring more nurses, providing care to uninsured children or developing new medical products. GHX is owned by organizations on both the buy and sell side of the healthcare supply chain, including some of the largest companies in the world. Find GHX on the Web, on Twitter @GHX_LLC and on Facebook @GHX.

About Novation, Winner of the Ethics Inside® Certification

Founded in 1998, Novation is the leading health care supply contracting company for the more than 65,000 members of VHA Inc. and UHC, two national health care alliances, and Provista, LLC. Novation provides alliance members with sourcing services, as well as information and data services. Based in Irving, Texas, Novation develops and manages competitive contracts with more than 600 suppliers. VHA, UHC, and Provista members used Novation contracts to purchase more than $40 billion in 2011. Novation recently earned the coveted Ethics Inside® Certification from Ethisphere Institute, a leading international think tank dedicated to the research and promotion of best practices in corporate ethics and compliance, and is the only health care group purchasing organization to earn this distinction.

SOURCE GHX