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June 26, 2018
We explained contract overcharges and how they could cost your health system several thousand dollars in lost funds. Today, we’re talking about prevention and recovery. In order to prevent contract overcharges, it’s important to understand your system’s relationship with vendors and analyze your purchasing and payment data as often as possible. Let’s take a look. What causes contract overcharges? When a hospital contract is put in place, there should be a match between three areas: the contract, the GPO/Local Pricing platform and the health systems’ purchasing system. That way, items are priced at the guaranteed rate every time they’re ordered […]
May 3, 2018
Managing Returned Goods in Healthcare Systems An ineffective or incomplete returned goods process can cost a large hospital or healthcare system hundreds of thousands of dollars just over a couple of years. In TAG Discovery Reviews with healthcare clients, returned goods credits typically compose the largest or second-largest category of fund recoveries. In one major metropolitan healthcare system, recoveries from returned goods were 36% of the total from the recovery audit. In another, they were 40% of the total recovered. In a third example, recoveries were 52% of all collected funds. These audits results were not unusual: They covered two-year […]
April 5, 2018
Large healthcare organizations can have thousands of active vendors. Every day, purchases are made, contracts are signed, and items are returned. All of this activity can cause details to slip through the cracks, making it very important to closely monitor rebates and discounts offered by vendors. Don’t let an opportunity for cost-savings go missed. Oftentimes, vendors will offer promotional discounts and rebates based on the large volume that their healthcare clients purchase during a pre-set time frame. Over time, if your health system is not taking advantage of rebates, the amount of money lost grows. Keep an Eye on Contract […]
January 15, 2018
At major health systems and hospitals, there are hundreds of individual contracts and pricing agreements among numerous departments and teams. These contracts can be with vendors or even through a GPO. However, to stay organized and ensure an accurate Procure to Pay (P2P) process, a Hospital Contacts Manager should monitor all of these vendor agreements. Why Hospital Contracts Managers Should Maintain Record of Pricing Agreements We recently worked with a large health system to uncover overpayments and recover funds. This organization had been paying a vendor, Stryker Orthopedics, a total of $930 for each specific item. However, during our audit […]
