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January 11, 2022
Ensuring vendor compliance at your health system may seem like a daunting, impossible task that never ends. You’re not wrong. Managing thousands of vendors and holding them accountable is complex and requires attention to detail and a timely dedication your Procurement and Accounts Payable (AP) staff may not have. The results of not doing so can be catastrophic to your health system’s bottom line, costing the healthcare industry $1.7B* annually. To battle this, your health system must create a comprehensive vendor compliance management policy and process. What to Consider in your Vendor Compliance Process Bring AP and Supply Chain Departments […]
August 17, 2021
2020 not only brought on a seemingly never-ending pandemic, but it also brought back the 1099 form complicating filings for health system’s accounts payable (AP) departments. Health systems commonly have 5,000+ unique 1099 vendors on an annual basis that will be paid multiple times throughout the year. Small oversights in your vendor management process can quickly lead to headaches, extra manual work, and large fines from the IRS. What is a 1099 Vendor? A 1099 vendor is a business or an individual that has done work for your health system, has been paid in excess of $600, and does not […]
October 18, 2020
Collecting your vendor statements is essential to holding healthcare vendors accountable and ensuring the accuracy of pricing, inventory, supplies, and services received. Reconciling vendor statements allows your Accounts Payable (AP) department to monitor accounts and prevent potential credit holds. Statement collection may be the only way to capture missed credits that were not correctly sent to your organization. Periodic statement collection ensures you capture all available credits, preventing vendors from unauthorized use or escheatment to the state, and saving your AP team from time spent chasing unclaimed property. While the benefits of vendor statement collection are vast, health systems do […]
August 10, 2020
A positive supplier relationship builds trust and loyalty – both important foundations when it comes to negotiating new contracts. Building on trust and loyalty with your suppliers can have financial reward such as: Avoid overcharges. Suppliers may be understaffed or have inefficient systems leading to charges on supplies or services higher than the agreed-upon terms. Recover and avoid duplicate payments. Duplicate payments happen in all health systems, but loyalty with suppliers can help keep them honest and return the duplicated payment before inquiring about it. Avoid charges for services not rendered. Purchased services can be complex to manage leading to […]
October 25, 2019
We recently published a blog discussing the impact of outdated and incomplete vendor master files. Your vendor master reduces the risk of fraud and payment errors for health systems. Now we walk you through the laborious steps involved in cleaning up, validating, and maintaining your vendor master. STEP 1: Inspect the Current Vendor Master File Inspecting and assessing your current data is the most time-consuming part of a vendor data cleanse. Begin by identifying and collecting all of your relevant documentation, vendor files, and data sources. Once all the necessary information is collected, import to your preferred data management platform […]
September 10, 2019
On average, health systems work with over 27,500 vendors at a given time with seven percent of those vendors changing their name, affiliation, or standing on an annual basis. With such a large number and variability of vendors, managing vendor data can quickly become cumbersome for an organization’s Accounts Payable (AP) department creating exposure to payment errors, fraudulent charges, and risk of noncompliance. To minimize these risks, AP departments or the parties responsible for the vendor master must keep their master file current and free of errors by performing a vendor master cleanse and maintain the file on a quarterly […]
December 26, 2018
The relationships between vendors and healthcare organizations are highly complex and data-intensive. In a perfect world, each of these relationships would be documented and maintained in a hospital’s vendor master list–without fail. Although we don’t live in that perfect world, there are still many steps your health system can take to achieve a best-in-class vendor management system. 1. Make Vendor Management a Priority The first step toward building a better vendor management system is recognizing the inadequacies of your current process. If your system is noticing errors like duplicate payments and returned payments, then there may be a gap in […]
