Healthcare's first direct contracting market celebrates second anniversary

IRVING, Texas, April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct contracting continues to gain momentum in the healthcare supply chain as aptitude marks its second anniversary.  With over $150M in contract volume flowing through the online platform, single hospital entities, large integrated delivery systems (IDN) and aggregated purchasing groups are managing contracts that cover medical surgical items, clinical preference products and physician preference devices.

Providing a cost effective - complementary contracting strategy, aptitude seeks to connect buyers and sellers through technology and data.  By moving contracting activity online, both parties are seeing up to 50 to 60% reduction in contract cycle time.  For buyers, this not only accelerates their spend to value, but substantially increases their ROI.

"The ROI increases as you become more experienced and more disciplined about using direct contracting," said Alan Edwards, VP of Supply Chain at Mary Washington  "With our CRM (physician preference) deal, our return on investment was magnified significantly through our new agreement."  Edwards continued, "what I tell my team now is 'how do you not use aptitude; how can you afford not too?'"

Likewise, sellers are benefiting the accelerated pace of the decision making process while gaining new insights on market performance and potential.  "The approach brings a lot of efficiencies, especially when it comes to responding to bids," said Brian Krajca, Director of National Accounts, Halyard Health.  "Overall aptitude has provided a better platform to exchange information with customers."

The second year of aptitude saw a major enhancement to the functionality in the platform. In addition to an aggregation feature that allows purchasing coalitions to use the platform for all of their facilities, aptitude implemented a groundbreaking feature that allows sellers to proactively send offers to buyers.

"We are the only online platform that allows either party to initiate the contracting process, therefore demonstrating the capabilities of a true market environment," said Troy Kirchenbauer, aptitude General Manager.

Kirchenbauer continued, "We are excited to reach this milestone and promise to continue to tap in to our innovation roots and work with progressive healthcare organizations to bring new efficiencies to the healthcare supply chain."

About aptitude:
As healthcare's direct contracting market, aptitude LLC is meeting the evolving demands of today's healthcare organizations. Hospitals and suppliers are intrigued by how aptitude re-imagines the contracting model and provides the driving force for a more logical market in which both parties can achieve mutually beneficial, committed purchasing relationships for a better value proposition for both. Today, aptitude hospitals and suppliers have a combined $15 billion in purchasing power and are experiencing an average savings of 10 to 15 percent. For more information, visit aptitude.com and follow us on Twitter @aptitudellc and LinkedIn.

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SOURCE aptitude LLC

Related Links

http://www.aptitude.com