1 min read

Let's talk technology at AHCA/NCAL Spring CEO Conference May 1-3

By Jim Hoey on Tue, Apr 23, 2019 @ 02:08 PM

MultiCEO

We’re heading to AHCA/NCAL 2019 Spring CEO Conference with innovative tech solutions that help post-acute execs prepare for value-based care.

Our new Managed Care MASTER solution is getting rave reviews from customers who are increasing their Managed Care revenue, while decreasing therapy costs and improving outcomes. It’s designed to handle complex level and Medicare RUG/PDPM reimbursement drivers, so your teams can be PDPM-ready by October.

Connect with us to learn more about our suite of applications that can solve your most difficult operational challenges.

Topics: reduce procurement costs automated procurement process primeVIEW primeCLAIMS claims processing automation post-acute claims clearinghouse e-procurement Managed Care MASTER managed care reimbursement managed care software primeVIEW business intelligence dashboard post-acute business intelligence dashboard primeCOMMERCE managed care optimization 2019 AHCA/NCAL Spring CEO Conference
2 min read

What are your procurement process resolutions for 2012?

By Rusty Zosel on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 @ 02:02 PM

Happy New Year!

iStock_000017226502XSmall-resized-600Regardless of how you fare with New Year’s resolutions in general, now is a great time to resolve to squeeze every penny you can out of your procurement dollar. Looking back on our blogs from 2011, you’ll discover some great tips to help you realize savings by updating your organization’s procurement process. For your convenience, I am summarizing some of the high-profile tasks you should take on immediately.

Task #1 - Make procurement a priority in 2012.

SupplyChainDigital.com has published on its site the article, Making procurement a 2012 priority, by William Gindlesperger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, e-LYNXX Corporation. In the article, Mr. Gindlesperger emphasizes that procurement “has earned its place at the strategic decision-making table of any organization that wants to improve its bottom line.” While it may seem to be obvious that procurement and procurement practices have a direct connect with an organization’s financial viability, we agree with him that this needs to become a priority – a top priority.

Task #2 – Commit to forming a mutually-beneficial relationship with your vendor partners

In our blog entitled, 5 Tactics to Becoming the Fittest in the eCommerce Evolution, I wrote,
“The fittest Vendors and Buyers will internally promote and put into consistent practice procedures to support an open and free-flowing level of communication within and outside their organizations.” You can refer to our earlier blog, What is the ecommerce evolution?, for more details. 

Task #3 – Commit to exploring and leveraging eProcurement

Advances in information technology and cloud computing have made eProcurement affordable and reliable. In our blog,Procurement Partners eCommerce Evolution Blog, I wrote that businesses today can leverage “enterprise-class features, instant application service delivery and management, easy set-up and use, reliability, availability, responsiveness, security and encryption, scalability, data storage and backup, user and systems support services, Business Intelligence reporting, high availability, business continuity, interoperability with many platforms and 3rd parties, and disaster recovery.” If you haven’t already done so, include technology in your procurement processing planning. 

Task #4 – Create and implement an effective plan

The blog mentioned above also cited what is likely the most important task to tackle from the start - planning. “The fittest have a plan that will put into effect their commitment, best practices, and the required technologies. The plan will include a specific statement of the goals; deadlines; obstacles; people, groups, and organizations which can assist; the benefits to achieving the goal; the skills needed to acquire the goals; and development of the plan.” 

New Year’s resolutions have the tendency to evaporate over time. However, in today’s economy that is a luxury few can afford. Get back to the basics and make streamlining the procurement process a priority. 

What steps have you taken to economize in 2012?
Topics: procurement practices eProcurement procurement process eCommerce Evolution automated procurement process
2 min read

Making the most of Medicare cuts – back to the basics (Part 1)

By Rusty Zosel on Thu, Dec 22, 2011 @ 08:00 AM

iStock_000016349390XSmall1-resized-600The impact of the 11.1% cut to Medicare reimbursement on long term care providers across the country has been substantial. With revenues down margins are tight, very tight. To discover ways to reduce waste and get the most from the dollar expended, providers are examining every facet of their operations, including procurement. While labor may represent the bulk of its expenses, a company also needs to review its procurement practices, contract terms, pricing points, and price protection regularly. In this day and age, every penny counts.

In the this first of a two-part blog, I'll share with you some salient savings opportunities that we recommend and which are concisely mentioned in an article I found recently online, Procurement Savings – Ways to Increase Your Profits. I’ve somewhat paraphrased the content.

1. Review supplier’s terms and discounts.
You should have a Master Agreement with all suppliers. As partners, you and your suppliers may achieve procurement savings by altering your purchasing patterns. By purchasing slightly more products less frequently, you may automatically receive a better discount.  If you are using outside contract management or GPOs (Group Purchasing Organizations), you may also want to review those resources and any agreement they have with you, along with their contracts and pricing with the vendors or product categories in which they are being utilized.  

2. Consolidate suppliers and deliveries.
Savings in delivery charges and the costs of accepting those deliveries can result when you consolidate deliveries. In some cases, it may make sense to consolidate what you purchase from which suppliers. It may be more convenient to purchase from a local vendor, however, like the neighborhood hardware store, “convenience” can become a black hole for your cash. Also, by consolidating suppliers, costs related to processing purchase orders and invoices can also decline.

3. Consolidate purchasing requests and intervals.
By consolidating your orders and reducing their frequency, you can reduce delivery and documentation processing costs.

4. Review purchasing requirements.
This ensures that only strictly necessary purchases are made. It will cut down on excess costs and storage costs.

5. Purchase from agreed catalogues.
Combined with #2 above, purchasing from catalogues specifically negotiated for your company containing specific brands or types of a product will result in savings. As mentioned above a greater volume of orders from one vendor can result in deeper discounts.

6. Review stock levels. 
With consolidation and the advice to buy in greater volume must be tempered by sound inventory control practices.

7. Review purchased products specifications. 
What may have been ideal a while ago may have been superseded by an item or class of items that function better at a cheaper price.

In Part 2, we'll conclude with the rest of these critical savings opportunities. In the meantime, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Topics: Procurement Automation Medicare cuts consolidate purchase requests and intervals consolidate suppliers and deliveries purchase from agreed catalogues review purchasing requirements terms and discounts review purchased products specifications automated procurement process raise stock levels
1 min read

Procurement – What’s in it for me, the Buyer? (Part II)

By Rusty Zosel on Thu, Aug 25, 2011 @ 09:00 AM

istock_000002069044xsmall-resized-600What is the ROI? Last time, I highlighted some of the features of the fully-automated procurement process. As attractive as the various features sound, the real synergy occurs when Buyers experience real savings. In today’s sluggish economy, in general, and because of dramatically contracting reimbursements for health care providers, specifically, ROI must be real and attainable.

Ultimately, what really matters is savings - applied (or realized) savings. Let’s look at numbers to illustrate the potential automated procurement ROI. The following hypothetical example illustrates the savings that a 2,000-unit multi-location operation could experience. Let’s assume that this Buyer purchases about $10 million in goods and services  - $7 million from large Vendors for food, medical supplies, maintenance, housekeeping,  office supplies, therapy services, durable medical equipment, etc., and $3 million for purchases of all types from smaller vendors. The savings illustrated in the model below are the direct result of the following automated procurement process features:

  • An automated order & invoice transaction process
  • An automated process for handling invoice-only transactions
  • An automated process for handling manual purchase orders

ROI Model*

Screen_Shot_2015-04-27_at_1.49.57_PM

 

*Estimates are conservative and based on extensive research. You may contact me for more information and detail on Savings Analysis. 

Conclusion

While the above example is hypothetical, our experience and research indicate that positive results are achievable. In these uncertain times, providers have to be able to count on realizing the savings built into their procurement contracts and experience additional savings through utilization of today’s technologies. That is how the fittest will survive.

Because the highest level of eProcurement is a “Patronizing Partnership,” where both Buyers and Vendors mutually benefit, the next blog will address the benefits Vendors experience through procurement automation.

Topics: automated order process automated invoice processing manual purchase orders invoice-only transactions ROI real savings automated procurement process realized savings
2 min read

eProcurement – What is it? What’s in it for the Buyer? (Part I)

By Rusty Zosel on Thu, Aug 11, 2011 @ 09:30 AM

Introduction

iStock_000001263418XSmall-resized-600In past blogs I’ve referred to Patronizing Partnership as the highest level of eProcurement Evolution, a Buyer/Vendor relationship marked by trust, cooperation, and mutual support. Let’s discuss this in more practical terms which go beyond the platitudes and attitudes, first by defining what is eProcurement Evolution, specifically, complete procurement automation. (In Part II, I’ll illustrate the benefits of eProcurement with a plausible ROI scenario.)

The Automated Procurement Process – removing the barriers to communication

Let’s start with that which lies at the heart of eProcurement Evolution – open communication between Buyers and Vendors facilitated by the automated procurement process. What are the essential features of a fully-functioning automated procurement process?

The automated procurement process essentially is comprised of the following three elements:

  • A user interface to support configuration of custom business rules, vendor management, and item management
  • An automated exchange of transactions with vendors and buyer systems
  • Application logic to check all configuration and business rules against vendor transactions and buyer systems

For the user of Procurement Partners, transaction automation embraces:

  • A customer-specific and customized application access point for all users
  • A corporate access point for enterprise customers, enabling corporate staff to view procurement activity at all levels of the organization from the corporate level to the individual facility
  • Order approval workflow and tracking
  • Electronic Transactions: purchase orders, acknowledgements, confirmations, updates and invoices
  • Contract and item maintenance with vendors

Automated exchange of transactions with vendor and buyer systems insures an open two-way conversation, including:

  • An online communication protocol with vendors and service providers
  • Custom integration into vendor order processing and item database systems and buyer ERP/accounting systems using their best practices
  • Transaction processing with update/change notifications
  • Electronic invoicing for all types of invoices
  • Invoice approval workflow and tracking
  • Contract price and freight reconciliation
  • Custom alerts at multiple steps in the procurement process

Application logic is the “secret sauce” that really makes procurement automation work.  Here are a few of the ingredients:

  • Customized business logic
  • A vendor product catalog with content maintenance capability
  • Contracted item maintenance, analysis, and reporting
  • Enterprise user administration and management
  • Price reconciliation for contracted items
  • General ledger structure, assignment, and processing support
  • Budget support, tracking, and alerts
  • Intelligent reporting

Conclusion

The two major benefits that Buyers experience from a fully-automated procurement system include:

  • Improved contract compliance – getting the consistent value and price they negotiated with their Vendors.
  • A tangible ROI – leveraging the contract compliance process for real savings. This is what I’ll address in the next blog

Question: What features would you like to see in a fully-automated procurement process?

Topics: order approval workflow business commerce evolution eProcurement ROI automated procurement process partnership

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