Resource Collection for Purchasing Coalitions: Take Your RPC to the Next Level

Regional Purchasing Coalitions (RPCs) are looking for new strategies to deal with complex markets, disjointed contracts and scaling membership. 

The RPC model has grown steadily, and organizations range from a dozen member hospitals, to networks of hundreds. The top 25 RPCs combined have over 1,900 hospital members, with about 75 members per hospital system. These organizations also represent over $480B in member NPR. When hospital groups band together at this scale, suppliers take notice, especially when committed spend is involved. 

For many, the primary purpose is to influence supply chain costs—mainly through gathering and analyzing market and spend data in support of strategic decision-making. Members gain advantages they don’t necessarily get through other approaches:

• Ability to deliver committed compliance
• Agility and flexibility in dynamic market
• Enhanced services at a local level
• Proximity to members for face-to-face relationships

Overview of RPC Resource Collection

Curvo has produced a lot of information to help RPCs learn about best practices and strategies. We’ve curated a number of them here for your convenience.

1. Two-Page Overview - RPC Digital Transformation
2. Executive View - Digital Transformation: Imperative for the Future of Regional Purchasing Coalitions
3. Case Study - Regional Purchasing Collaborative Builds Contract Portfolio with Curvo Data Management
4. Case Study - Health Future
5. Press Release - Partners Cooperative Selects Curvo for Digital Transformation
6. Blog– The Imperative of Technology Partnerships for Regional Purchasing Coalitions
7. Blog– Enhancing Member Value: Strategic Approaches for Regional Purchasing Coalitions
8. Blog– Why Rethink Contract & Rebate Performance Analytics in Strategic Sourcing

#1 Two-Page Overview - RPC Digital Transformation

Does your formula for RPC success include data-driven sourcing and spend management? Could your members benefit from more purchase volume, contract leverage and savings? 

If you only have time for a quick read, go for this short look at what’s available to drive digital transformation in RPC sourcing. 

Data Enrichment - Data is the launch pad of RPC contracting success.

Analytics Suite - Analytics for spend visibility across the membership.

Strategic Sourcing Tools - Purpose-built solutions designed for the digital RPC 

You’ll also find insights about these key practices in digital ROC sourcing.

• Data-Driven Savings Forecasts
• Flexible Scenario Modeling
• Contract Compliance Controls
• Contracts and Rebates Management

Take a quick look.

#2 Executive View - Digital Transformation: Imperative for the Future of Regional Purchasing Coalitions 

According to Harvard Business Review, “Digitally transforming the supply chain has been shown to reduce process costs by 50% and increase revenue by 20%; hospitals are no exception.”

A digitized hospital RPC is a successful RPC. The key lies in good contract data. As long as members’ medical device data remains manageable, RPCs can grow and serve, but that’s often not the case. Maintaining an internal data practice has become too difficult for a lone analyst juggling spreadsheets and emails.

Get this Executive View to learn why more purchasing collaborations now use data-as-a-service subscriptions to digitize, aggregate and manage complex medical device contracts. This is essential to transitioning to a digital RPC model.

Written by a supply chain professional, the Executive View explains why “Digitization Strategy Is Imperative for RPC Future.” You’ll find insights on practices that transform data management into a valuable sourcing tool:  

• Digitize tedious, manual data collection and aggregation
• Strategic price synchronization for more contract leverage
• Scale operations for long-term value delivery and growth

Spend time with this resource if Digital Transformation is something your RPC needs to pursue. 

#3 Case Study - Regional Purchasing Collaborative Builds Contract Portfolio with Curvo Data Management

This RPC launched in 2016 with the mission to help members identify and capture cost savings. Priorities included Physician Preference Items (PPI), as well as tackling contracting efficiencies.

In pursuit of these objectives, the RPC needed a robust solution to assist with: 

• Market research
• Vendor vetting
• Opportunity identification
• Competitive Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• New contract development and implementation

The RPC wanted to improve contracting around costly implants and PPI, but faced major issues. First was the need to aggregate purchasing data from ten health systems and two Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs). The RPC lacked resources to maintain pulling, organizing and normalizing data every month. 

Lack of member action also hindered the RPC, and the organization needed better stakeholder communication to drive action on cost-saving opportunities. 

RPC turned to Curvo for data aggregation and insights. Curvo eased data collection pain points by aggregating purchasing data from the different health systems. Curvo professionals also normalized data and added enrichments. Another powerful benefit was the ability to monitor contract compliance to ensure members utilize contacts to their full potential.

Read this case study for a real-world example of how to address common RPC pain points through a  data-driven contract portfolio.

#4 Case Study - Health Future 

One RPC wanted to automate the RFP process. Curvo said let’s do it. This third-party interview with a 30-year supply chain professional shares that story. 

Operating as an IDN under a reverse membership, Health Future is an integrated network for quality improvement, margin enhancement and cost reduction for member facilities. Members represent $280 million in supply spend each year and more than 1,300 beds. They have several facilities across Oregon to consider and must have all strategic planning and spend approved by their member councils. 

Small but nimble, Health Future understood the value of leveraging software solutions to save time and cut costs. Their priorities were transparency and ease of identifying and vetting supply management opportunities, decisions and results.

Curvo helped Health Future with all their goals. In a short time, the IDN was able to reduce labor and overhead, cut spend on physician preferred categories, and discover more opportunities. In fact, Health Future saved $2.8 million within the first year of working with Curvo and transformed their capabilities with fast and timely spend analysis, especially for new opportunities. 

Read the full story if you’d like to see what’s possible for a digital sourcing team.

#5 Press Release - Partners Cooperative Selects Curvo for Digital Transformation

Partners manages a portfolio of hundreds of contracts, and hospital members work together to improve costs in a shared contracting environment. In a big step towards cost efficiency and operational effectiveness, the RPC signed a multi-year agreement with Curvo to power contracting efforts through medical device product data, flexible analytics and process automation.

The contract brings a range of capabilities to improve contract management for Partners:

• Curvo Data Enrichment
• Curvo Analytics Suite (with contract and rebate analytics)
• Curvo Strategic Sourcing Suite
• Rebate Functionality and Contract Management
• Highly Configurable Reporting Automation
• Curvo Professional Services

The agreement with Curvo gives Partners a path to complete digital transformation of RPC operations, including Contract and Rebate Management. The organization also gains solutions and support for hundreds of contracts per year, plus new member assessments.

Read the full press release.

#6 Blog - The Imperative of Technology Partnerships for Regional Purchasing Coalitions

A healthcare-savvy tech partner is a must for Regional Purchasing Coalitions. Many RPC analysts are by data collection, aggregation, normalization and enrichment, and these hurdles affect volume commitments, contract compliance, price parity, negotiation leverage and more. A technology partner brings a scalable, digital solution.

Read “The Imperative of Technology Partnerships for RPCs” and learn how a proficient partner can solve serious sourcing challenges.

• Central repository for visibility
• Aggregation of member data
• Build contract portfolios for price parity
• Expedited sourcing processes
• Scalable practices and technology
• Monitoring contract compliance
• Replace manual work with automation

This article delves into the strategic practices RPCs can use to deliver substantial returns to their hospital networks. It also explains how a technical partner improves your value to members through volume consolidation, contract acceleration, price parity, and negotiation leverage.

#7 Blog - Enhancing Member Value: Strategic Approaches for Regional Purchasing Coalitions

The future of centralized sourcing is in data, and supply chains must find ways to make data an asset, not an obstacle. Does your RPC struggle to bring good results to members? If you’re not where you’d like to be, read this article to learn five ways successful data-driven RPCs drive value for members.

Data-driven RPCs bring measurable value to their hospital networks through technology partnerships. Benefits accumulate and RPC membership grows, as long as data remains manageable. 

• Maximizing Purchasing Power through Consolidation
• Bringing Repeatable, Scalable Speed to Sourcing Workflow
• Automating Data Flow for Efficiency and Faster Decisions
• Normalizing and Aggregating Member Data for Collective Benefit
• Securing Member Product Compliance for Favorable Negotiations

This is a must-read if you want to maximize return to your RPC members.

#8 Blog - Why Rethink Contract & Rebate Performance Analytics in Strategic Sourcing

If you're in healthcare sourcing, what comes to mind when you think of “contracts” and “rebates”? Stress and anxiety may take over because you know you’ll have to deal with:

• High volumes of contracts and disjointed data
• Information gaps between suppliers, sourcing and physicians
• Monitoring ongoing contract performance at scale

What if the whole contract management process could be reimagined? This blog explains why it’s time to rethink contracts and rebates, especially when it comes to analytics.  

Read this update on what to expect from the latest innovations in healthcare contract management.

• Digital Contract Management for Medical Device Sourcing
• Next-Level Sourcing through Digital Contract Management
• Benchmark for Medical Device Contract Innovation

What Are Your RPC Goals and Challenges?

What are the goals for your RPC organization this year? Have you considered a more data-driven strategy, especially for high-ticket medical device contracts? Let Curvo show you what’s possible with digital transformation for RPCs.