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August 17, 2020

5 Tips for Managing Your Purchased Services

With over 30%* of all operational expenses, purchased services can be a revealing spend category for healthcare systems. Why? Purchased services often act as a litmus test for how well an organization systematizes its operations, communicates across departments, and optimizes their resources. Ultimately over the next decade, the health systems that fine-tune their purchased services management process will thrive, while everyone else falls behind.Purchased Services Quick Facts: Purchased services include any and all services that are performed by a third-party vendor rather than done by the health system itself. Examples include landscaping services, credit card processing, and transcription. Health systems […]

August 10, 2020

Improve Supplier Relationships - TAG Inc - The Audit Group

Keys to Successful Supplier Relationships

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

Vendor Master Cleanse - TAG Inc - The Audit Group

How to Perform a Vendor Master Cleanse in Your Health System

We recently published a blog discussing the impact of outdated and incomplete vendor master files.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 […]

July 30, 2018

Penn Medicine’s Keys to a Successful Supply Chain

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare market, more hospitals are cutting costs across the board and looking to their supply chain departments to identify the best places to start. Many health systems have taken this opportunity to audit and streamline their supply chains into more focused, profitable departments. Penn Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is a great example. We recently interviewed Wayne Smith, Vice President, Corporate Materials Management at Penn Medicine to discuss how his team drives quality to throughout the health system. TAG: Why are supply chains so important to today’s hospitals? Wayne Smith: We are working in the […]