ATLANTA, July 31, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MedAssets (Nasdaq:MDAS) today announced it plans to offer a new suite of supplier services designed to optimize procurement processes among all healthcare industry players. The new services will provide manufacturers and distributors of products with accelerated advancement in price synchronization, data accuracy and controls to improve critical connections with mutual healthcare provider clients. In doing so, MedAssets is committed to help resolve a significant source of resource waste in the healthcare industry stemming from disparate and disconnected systems and processes between buyers and sellers of supplies.
Addressing Untapped Opportunity to Drive Greater Efficiency, Compliance and Savings
"While there has been much effort to promote technology adoption in clinical operations, supply chain inefficiencies due to lack of price matching remains a resource-draining albatross hiding in plain sight. Inconsistent data related to pricing and lack of technology adoption translates into substantial cost increases for all stakeholders within the healthcare industry," said Dave Klumpe, senior vice president, Supply Chain Solutions, MedAssets. "We cannot afford to deliver better care to more people at lower cost if we overlook one of the fundamental areas of inefficiency shared among providers, manufacturers and distributors. Our supplier service suite is the next milestone in our company's long-standing commitment to challenge the status quo in order to improve the standard of care."
Alleviating Supplier Cost Pressures while Mitigating Provider Resource Drain
Similar to the increasing margin pressures felt by providers, cost pressures are forcing suppliers to seek more cost- and time-saving methods related to invoicing and payments for goods. MedAssets supplier services will combine technology and dedicated resources to automate and troubleshoot processes related to requisitions, purchase orders and invoices. A complementary goal of the new supplier services is to further alleviate the resource drain the company's provider clients encounter in reconciling invoices. Supplier services will align closely to those already offered to MedAssets provider clients:
- National Procurement Center Services - dedicated transaction management services designed to identify and resolve "root causes" of invoice errors, resulting in lower invoice discrepancy rates and reduced accounts receivable days
- Invoice Automation Services – in pursuit of "perfect eCommerce" by replacing time consuming, costly paper invoices for quicker payment and full transparency into payment status
- MedAssets Supply Chain University – educational services to understand buyer behaviors and decision making criteria in the new era of value-based payment
MedAssets supplier services will build upon the company's high service levels delivered via its Procure-to-Pay Solutions and Supply Chain Solutions, which help hospitals and health systems across the country fix the root cause of pricing and invoice problems. Based on sophisticated invoice automation technology, deep invoice processing functionality and a wealth of best practice, MedAssets boasts a much higher 3-way match rate between provider purchase order and supplier invoice. A recent pilot has shown that suppliers experience an average of 21 days sales outstanding when working with MedAssets, versus the industry average of 35, which translates into significant positive financial impact.
The new supplier services from MedAssets also coincide with the company's recent investments in Transaction Management and its eCommerce Exchange services, the latter of which has opened up MedAssets proprietary eCommerce platform to non-group purchasing organization clients to deliver choice to the marketplace. MedAssets is showcasing its proprietary eCommerce platform along with its entire supply chain and procurement capabilities at AHRMM14, taking place at the Orlando World Center Marriott on August 3-6, Booth #601.
Partnering to Improve the Healthcare Supply Chain Value Stream
MedAssets received overwhelmingly positive response when it recently unveiled its supplier services to more than 100 manufacturers and distributors, including Cardinal Health.
"We applaud MedAssets for its focus on collaboration among providers, manufacturers and distributors that will drive tremendous efficiencies and related cost reductions in the industry," said Steve Inacker, president, Hospital Sales and Service at Cardinal Health. "Early results of our collaboration are compelling, and we look forward to continuing our work together where we have providers in common."
"Suppliers demand and deserve higher quality and better value," said Les Popiolek, senior vice president, Strategic Sourcing, MedAssets. "As a group purchasing organization and supply chain operator for the nation's largest hospitals and health systems, MedAssets plays an integral role in the healthcare supply chain to lower costs and improve efficiency. We recognize that collaboration is the key to reducing the unsustainable rise in care costs. By facilitating accurate data and insight for the millions of product transactions that occur on a daily basis among provider, manufacturer and distributor, we will open up avenues to overcome legacy IT and system applications that block the efficient exchange of price matching and transparency for all stakeholders in the healthcare continuum."
About MedAssets
MedAssets (Nasdaq:MDAS) is a healthcare performance improvement company focused on helping providers realize financial and operational gains so that they can sustainably serve the needs of their community. More than 4,400 hospitals and 122,000 non-acute healthcare providers currently use the company's evidence-based solutions, best practice processes and analytics to help reduce the total cost of care, enhance operational efficiency, align clinical delivery, and improve revenue performance across the care continuum. For more information, please visit www.medassets.com.
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