How Healthcare Will Evolve Over the Next Three Years
April 9, 20125 Ways Healthcare Reform is Going to Hurt Your Business in 2012
April 12, 2012In the evolving health care market, GPOs must consider the following things to provide enhanced value to members:
1. Reduce Cost: Innovation Beyond the Basics
Delivering reduced costs for members remains a goal for GPOs, but achieving this goal will require innovation. Cost-reduction initiatives must now also consider trade-offs between different clinical interventions enabled by different supplies or suppliers. The value analysis process employed by most facilities could be improved with the aid of GPO resources, know-how and innovation. Cost accounting methods and templates should consider operating costs associated with supplies. Simultaneously reducing inventory costs and inventory turnover are a step in this direction, but more is needed.
For example, when managing preference items and specialty sourced items, the cost to deliver care must consider staffing and patient flow when highly trained and expensive labor is required to use specialty items.
Also, providers engaged in operating a center of excellence within a particular service line could collaborate with the GPO to extend or trim the services offered to optimize costs and improve coordination with other providers. Rethinking care-pathways changes the scope of value analysis fundamentally, but doing so could ultimately reduce the risk of readmission penalties.
Providers and their GPOs may also need to consider avoiding procedures to maintain financial viability. Value analysis of different care pathways’ impact on working capital may be required, and these are areas where GPOs could add value.
2. Increase Efficiency in Processes and Technology
The promise of health IT is to increase efficiency as well as improve out- comes and clinical quality. Providers are spending vast sums to acquire health IT, and GPOs are uniquely positioned to assist in the implementation of best practices among members. IT systems cannot return savings without a change in process. Assisting members with the needed linkages between systems, supplies and other resources is a frontier area for GPO value creation.
3. Improve the Competitiveness of Members
As a third-party to providers who sometimes compete with each other, a GPO can act as an impartial evaluator and advisor. GPOs can comment on proposed clinical, operational and financial structure changes that providers are considering and offer a testing ground for facilitating strategic change. GPOs could assist members in rationalizing expansion and acquisition of service lines, physician groups, continuum of care providers and other entities. A GPO can evaluate how a member organization can improve its market performance, brand and community benefit.
As health care evolves, GPOs need to continue to offer relevant value propositions to member providers. The value proposition will require innovation in reducing costs, delivering efficiencies and improving the competitiveness of members. If successful, GPOs and their members will create a health-care delivery system that is more integrated, coordinated and efficient.
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