ST. LOUIS, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading health care industry group purchasing organization (GPO) Amerinet announced that the organization has launched its new pharmacy portfolio after an extensive electronic bidding and review process. The process began earlier this year with the introduction of the Amerinet eBidSMRx Internet-based bid solicitation module that is one component of a new proprietary system recently implemented at Amerinet. Other components include custom pricing and datamart modules.
"Our new pharmacy bidding and review system provides us with more accurate and comprehensive information, that allows us to make smarter contracting decisions," said Todd Ebert, Amerinet president of operations. "Our pharmacy portfolio managers worked hard to enhance the system so that we could provide our members with enhanced options for managing their pharmaceutical supply costs."
"We built the system from scratch based on 'best practices' with the goal of painting a clearer and more comprehensive picture of how to construct the best portfolio for our members," said Allen Dunehew, Amerinet vice president, pharmacy. "The new system helped us improve the bidding process by significantly reducing errors, providing more flexibility to our suppliers and producing more robust reports. We were able to drill deep down into the data to distinguish products based on even the smallest nuances. We then had the ability to overlay other valuable information for a better overall comparison. The most important news is that we were able to minimize price increases, and in many cases, actually lower prices."
The Amerinet eBid solicitation system, which was released at the start of the bidding portion of the process earlier this year, was the first enhancement to the system. This Internet-based system was designed to provide more flexibility to meet supplier needs, including giving them the ability to:
* Define pricing models based on their own product groupings rather than forcing them to retrofit pricing into pre-defined models that Amerinet selected * Manage pricing by type of organization * Manage complex tier and rebate programs * Enter important contractual requirements, such as price protection and price increase caps, in the form of discrete data elements
Once the bidding process was completed, Amerinet used the Oracle(R) Discoverer tool to analyze all offers and assist in the initial process of assigning tentative awards.
"One of the biggest improvements, in my estimation, is our ability to marry accurate, detailed product data with member utilization information," said Dunehew. "In the past, we may have selected the product with the lowest price without the ability to consider how much demand there was for that product. The ability to overlay product utilization data allows us to give our members the products they use most versus just the products with the lowest prices."
Dunehew reported that supplier feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. He also noted that communication to members and assistance with conversion were critical components of the rollout plan.
Amerinet now is in the final phases of implementing the datamart module. This module was built on an Oracle ERP platform and designed to help members track utilization and optimize value. "The datamart module mines sales data to ensure that members are receiving the correct level of pricing based on purchasing volume at all times," said Dunehew.
Ebert expressed extreme satisfaction with the results of the award process:
* 70 percent product renewal rate, which makes the conversion process for members minimal * 15 percent increase in the number of NDC codes * A 0.2 percent price increase with no increase among lower cost products
"We are dedicated to helping our members improve their operating margins," said Ebert. "We continue to identify ways to improve our supplier partnerships to provide even more valuable cost-savings solutions to our members."
For more information about Amerinet's pharmacy portfolio, visit http://www.amerinet-gpo.com.
About Amerinet
Amerinet is one of the most innovative and effective health care group purchasing organizations in the United States, partnering with members to improve their operating margins. Amerinet leads the industry in flexibility with a commitment to providing supplier choice for its members. Amerinet's national network of companies -- Amerinet Central, Intermountain Health Care and Vector -- has set the standard for customer service for nearly two decades.
More than 1,900 hospitals and 22,300 non-acute care facilities find cost savings and value-added services through Amerinet's comprehensive contract portfolio. Members trust Amerinet to deliver proactive information and integrity.
Amerinet, Inc.CONTACT: Lisa DiMuccio-Conway, Senior Director, Corporate Communicationsand Public Relations of Amerinet, +1-724-772-8388, orlisa.conway@amerinet-gpo.com; or Amy Mastrippolito, +1-412-377-3771, orpr@businesspartner.com, for Amerinet
Web site: http://www.amerinet-gpo.com/
