Contracting Professionals Share Promising Results

May 1, 2017

Contracting Professionals Promote Value Of Standards From Initiative At HIDA Contract Administration Conference

Orlando, Florida – Healthcare suppliers, GPOs, providers, and technology solutions partners are implementing contract communications standards for medical product transactions with promising results. That was a key theme shared throughout HIDA’s 2017 Contract Administration Conference, where more than 140 contracting and chargebacks professionals gathered to hear case studies and discuss best practices for improving pricing accuracy across the healthcare supply chain.

During the event, industry stakeholders representing distributor, manufacturer, GPO, and provider perspectives shared results from incorporating HIDA best-practice recommendations into everyday operations. Conference speakers focused on the three guiding principles of automation, standards, and timeliness to highlight ongoing initiatives that have increased efficiency and achieved positive returns on investment.

Among the findings:

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  ➤ Aligning contracting and operations goals can reduce chargeback variance. Steve Wood, Abbott Nutrition, explained how he and his colleague Melinda Myers created cross-functional teams to assess and evaluate processes and timing around contracting activities. By developing baselines for improvement, tracking performance, and motivating teams to use available resources, Abbott’s Nutritional group was able to increase the number of clean chargeback lines received from distributors by 20% while reducing average monthly chargeback variances by 70%
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  ➤ Using standard contracting metrics can drive internal and external change. Colleen Krause, NDC, Inc., provided a step-by-step guide for setting up performance measurements that can be used to communicate important information to manufacturers while evaluating internal results. By establishing standard reject reason codes, data collection, and analysis procedures around chargeback disputes, Krause is able to identify under-performing employees, departments, or vendors that may add unnecessary complexity to her chargeback collections rate
• ➤ GLNs present a significant opportunity to reduce recurring discrepancies. “By incorporating the Global Location Number (GLN) as an attribute in distributor and manufacturer chargeback claims processes,” said Beth Gibson, GS1 US, “trading partners can improve line matches by up to 66%.” Gibson shared these results from a Proof of Concept exercise between manufacturers, distributors, and a GPO to determine the validity of using a standard customer identifier to synchronize transactions in a simple, repeatable way that can be duplicated by industry business partners

Further sessions focused on ways trading partners can provide ample notification in advance of contract activations, use data automation tools to enhance contract performance, and improve overall stakeholder communications.

HIDA’s latest white paper on contracting, Improving Pricing Accuracy: Contract Communications Standards for the Healthcare Supply Chain, was released and distributed in conjunction with the conference, and is available for free download by visiting www.HIDA.org/ContractAdmin ►

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