UHC Member Hospitals Achieve More Than $450 Million in Supply Chain Savings

CHICAGO, Feb. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- UHC members achieved more than $450 million in supply chain savings and net value in 2014, marking the highest-performing year to date. The savings included more than $142 million in patronage dividends returned to members and documented operational savings of more than $300 million.

The growth in member savings is attributable to many factors, including higher-volume purchasing through UHC's supply contracting company, Novation; greater adoption of UHC's advanced analytics; and member collaboration with UHC experts to identify savings opportunities linked to physician preference items, supply utilization, and standardization.

"This savings milestone reflects our members' commitment to achieving the level of sustainable cost-reduction needed to support both their margins and their missions as complex health care organizations," said Jake Groenewold, UHC's senior vice president, Supply Chain. "We continually tailor our performance improvement solutions and resources to the unique needs of academic medical centers and their affiliates. This gives our members a distinct advantage in achieving their clinical and financial goals."

UHC Advances Supply Chain Solutions Suite With New and Enhanced Services

In 2014, UHC improved its supply chain solutions suite through a series of service expansions and enhancements. Some of these milestones include:

• UHC Specialty Pharmacy Program™ launch. The UHC Specialty Pharmacy Program™ helps members take advantage of the patient care and revenue opportunities presented by health system specialty pharmacies. The program provides a full suite of solutions to help members successfully implement and grow specialty pharmacy services, including advisory services, infrastructure support, and access to limited-distribution drugs and insurance reimbursement, as well as access to a data repository for supporting pharmaceutical company requirements.
• Enhancements to UHC supply chain analytics. In 2014, UHC introduced a new version of SpendLINK^®, its supply chain business intelligence tool for medical/surgical products that enables users to compare and benchmark their normalized total spend in select product categories. The updated SpendLINK^® features an intuitive new interface that has been optimized to enable users to quickly navigate key reports, easily visualize trends in their supply chain data, and pinpoint areas of opportunity.
• Supply Cost and Quality pilot program completion. Members who participated in this initiative leveraged UHC's Supply Cost and Quality Tool (formerly known as Supply Cost-per-Case) to improve management of high-priced physician preference items such as orthopedic implants, cardiovascular stents, and heart valves. The data specification for the Supply Cost and Quality Tool was released to UHC members last year and reporting will begin for select clinical areas in the first quarter of 2015.

About UHC

UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Formed in 1984 and based in Chicago, UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 117 academic medical center and 329 affiliated hospital members through its renowned solutions in the areas of performance improvement, comparative data and analytics, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. For more information, visit uhc.edu.

About Novation

Novation is the nation's leading health care services company, focused on revolutionizing operational performance for more than 100,000 members and affiliates of VHA Inc., UHC, Children's Hospital Association, and Provista LLC. Novation's progressive approach to cost performance, data and intelligence, and integrated advisory solutions helps health care providers envision and advance new models of cost-effective, high-quality care. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Novation is committed to the highest standards of ethical behavior and twice has been honored with the Ethisphere Institute's coveted Ethics Inside^® Certification, and has been named three years consecutively to Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies list. To learn more about Novation, please visit novationco.com and follow @NovationNews on Twitter.

SOURCE UHC

Related Links

http://www.uhc.edu