With Inflation Rising, Here are 3 Reasons Your Practice Needs a Group Purchase Offering

From filling your gas tank to hosting a family barbeque, prices have skyrocketed in recent months, and everyone is feeling the impact. Few industries have been spared the wrath of the pandemic driven staffing and supply chain woes, but one could argue none greater than independent dentists and physicians within the healthcare industry. Why has private practice been so devastated by inflation? The answers lie not only in the economic cause of rising prices but also in the traditional “stand-alone” model of an independent medical or dental practice.

Why are prices so high?

Covid-19 had already wreaked havoc across the healthcare industry but then the ongoing impact culminated in inflation rates we haven’t seen since the 1980’s. Without getting too far into the weeds, we can breakdown the source of our economic peril into a few simple categories.

• Labor Shortages – Early and then extended lockdowns across the globe made it nearly impossible for manufacturers to find enough workers to keep up with production quotas. That led to a massive decline in essential medical and dental supply output which has resulted in severe price hikes.
• Port Congestion – Continued waves of lockdowns in countries that have become the world’s largest manufacturers of healthcare supplies have also led to port backlogs. That means even when goods are enroute, they can be delayed by weeks or months just sitting on docks or barges which has thrown a huge kink in the global supply chain and added to inflation rates.
• Raw Materials Shortages – Adding to the manufacturing woes already mentioned are ongoing shortages in raw materials. Just as it is difficult to meet finished product quotas with a lack of workers, harvesting and processing raw materials has been another costly challenge for the world’s economy.

3 Reasons to Join our Health Professionals Alliance GPO

Times like this call for getting creative and finding a good group purchase offering (GPO) is an excellent way to start. In recent research from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, 90 percent of all participating hospital executives said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their national GPO because of “demonstrable cost savings”. While hospitals and larger healthcare entities have long reaped the rewards of partnering with a strong GPO, smaller practices have been positioned to take the brunt of inflation without access to a similar level of resources. A big part of that is because independent providers do not have the volume to negotiate better prices.

Our team at Health Professionals Alliance (HPA) and DataDx are happy to report, those days are over! We know when practices come together under one GPO, suddenly they become empowered like never before. Even though we offer so much more than a standard group purchase offering, HPA has recently launched our Thrive GPO level membership to give private practice doctors access to the same level of savings and service that large entities take for granted. Here are just a few of the benefits your practice can expect:

1. 1. Topline Data Analytics – While some companies may dabble in discounts of third-party operating systems, none but HPA can provide the level of data analytics developed in the DataDx SaaS platform. In addition to generating hundreds of unique real-time insights into your business, you can utilize benchmarking tools to measure your performance compared to similar practices and benefit from an anomaly detection feature that will ensure your data is accurate. These are analytics tools that are non-existent in other platforms and were developed specifically for independent physicians and dentists. Exclusive access to this software and its customer service team is included at the Thrive GPO membership level and pairs well with the many other service providers HPA has partnered with.
   2. Up-front Discounts – Most practices who haven’t partnered with a GPO are seeing the biggest increase in supply costs nationwide with no end in sight. Since supply chain costs often account for 30 percent of a healthcare organization’s operating costs, these higher rates are not sustainable. Our Thrive GPO Membership gives our clientele access to nearly 40 discounted service partners and counting. Our goal at HPA is not just to accumulate a giant list of services, put to make sure we provide the highest quality providers at the best price for our membership. Typically, these discounts can save anywhere from 10 to 25 percent of your current operating budget and our members have the added benefit of a Regional Manager to help them navigate which providers will serve them best.
   3. Reduced Administrative Costs – It is well-known that outsourcing certain administrative tasks can save a practice many hours of labor for payroll and bring dedicated office staff back from the brink of burnout. Besides the administrative hours saved by utilizing some of our service offerings like our first-of-its-kind 401k Retirement plan for doctors, our members have access to discounted in-house consulting services as well. Whether you have practice management, credentialing, payor contracting, or recruiting needs, we have experts on-hand to help. This level of consulting expertise is something many practices must seek out periodically anyway with no discounts available. Our members always have the option to tack on discounted consulting services as the need arises.

Give your practice an overdue advantage

Why should corporations and large entities get all the advantages in the healthcare industry? The short answer is they shouldn’t. Your private practice deserves just as many opportunities to thrive and deliver the best possible treatment to your patients as hospitals or giant conglomerates do. The HPA Thrive GPO Membership model gives your organization that advantage and there’s never been a better time to utilize every tool available to you.

No one is certain when the healthcare supply chain will stabilize, and our global economy will level out. That’s why it makes sense to join our Thrive GPO Membership soon and start saving on expenses and maybe even generate some new revenue streams. For more information, contact us and we’ll be happy to do a cost analysis to determine how your practice can benefit from our unique model.