GHX Delivers Industry’s First Implantable Devices Supply Chain Solutions for Healthcare

GHX today announced Case Xpert^SM and Order Intelligence^SM, the healthcare industry’s first end-to-end supply chain solutions for managing and tracking implantable medical devices, including the physician preference items (PPI) used in operating rooms. Case Xpert and Order Intelligence are the first of the GHX solutions designed to address the estimated $5 billion in revenue losses currently recorded every year by healthcare providers and manufacturers due to the lack of automation and process efficiency for these devices, which represent a $40 billion market segment.

Case Xpert is the first-of-its-kind solution to capture and share data from case creation to product usage during procedures, creating usage capture capability while validating that the device is on contract for more accurate billing, purchasing and inventory tracking. The solution offers real-time collaboration, the ability for implantable device manufacturers and hospitals collaborating earlier in the process while working off a single ‘source of truth.’

Case Xpert is the centerpiece of the GHX implantable device solutions which also include Order Intelligence, Inventory Management¹ and integration with such existing GHX solutions as data and transaction services, requisitioning and inventory visibility². The solution is a software-as-a-service application formed around a core set of integration and intelligent routing capabilities that is available to trading partners in a secure, cloud-based environment.

Today’s announcement by GHX is the result of extensive industry research and development spanning more than three years, including the active counsel of the GHX Implantable Device Supply Chain Advisory Board³ made up of some of healthcare’s leading provider and supplier organizations. This initiative also builds on GHX capabilities in cloud-based technology, expanding its cross-healthcare solution connecting supply chain, finance and clinical professionals with their partners.

“Improving productivity of our OR supply chain today has downstream advantages to our patients, as it’s our hope that clinicians will be able to spend even more time at the bedside,”said Steve Chyung, Vice President of Supply Chain, SCL Health System, a non-profit health system based in Denver. “Working with GHX, we are improving and automating OR processes by utilizing barcoding technologies and web based work flow tools. We will capture data and product information that will allow to better control costs and have for more accurate clinical documentation. Our goal is to increase efficiencies, reduce unnecessary costs and improve on the overall patient care experience.”

Case Xpert and Order Intelligence enable providers and manufacturers with the ability to initiate implantable device cases and track them through audit and completion using agreed upon item and price information maintained in Case Xpert, with HIPAA-compliant security. It also provides the ability to transport PPI orders via the GHX Exchange and automate the review and validation of the information on the order. Case Xpert capabilities include:

1. Case Scheduling is designed to give early demand signals to manufacturer partners on case load and requirements through the hospital’s existing scheduling system. A proactive notification is routed to the manufacturer’s sales representative to alert them to cases and product needs, enabling them to keep aligned with their customer without additional manual steps.

1. Case Preparation gives provider and manufacturer trading partners a single view into case information, reducing delays and discrepancies that result from manual processes. GHX designed Case Xpert to support the need to partition information to be viewable by only those who are authorized to view the information. As the procedure date approaches, providers can view what manufacturer sales representatives have entered to help ensure items are correct. The item selection is synchronized with data from the vendor catalog and the item master. The ability to compare this information against contract information is a critical part in enabling organizations to control costs and be intentional in their spend management and value analysis efforts.

1. Usage Capture &Documentation provides the opportunity to scan the item and have that item recorded in the provider’s system and visible to the manufacturer’s sales representative. Case Xpert stores data and automatically communicates it downstream to the provider’s Materials Management Information System (MMIS) and billing systems once it’s been approved. This allows organizations to quickly capture the information, reducing the chances for error, while improving spend oversight capabilities, sending usage to clinical systems and shortening the audit process.

Order Intelligence brings new order management capability to the GHX Exchange that enables providers to send consignment purchase orders and enables manufacturers to receive, review, edit and accept those purchase orders. Today more than 85 percent of hospitals in the U.S. utilize the GHX Exchange to transact more than $50 billion annually in medical-surgical supplies. This added capability enables these same organizations to work with manufacturers to achieve the same efficiency with implantable devices.

Order Intelligence takes information from Case Xpert and enables providers to process consigned orders with new data fields beyond EDI, route those orders to manufacturers and sales reps, park incomplete orders for management and further data review, and introspect orders for price, allocation discrepancies. For providers, that translates into lower non-file spend and invoice discrepancies, and faster reimbursements. While manufacturers are able to reduce exceptions, reduce time from procedure to PO/invoice resulting in lower DSO;improve inventory tracking and help prevent revenue delays.

Based on pilot site usage healthcare providers see improved charge capture resulting in less revenue leakage;increase in on-contract spending;decrease in contract overpayment via increase in real-time pricing;increased access to early pay discounts;reduction in documentation errors, case-to-bill cycle time as well as time spent on dispute resolution. Manufacturers also benefit from a reduced procedure-to-payment cycle;increased inventory turns and a reduction in wasted and expired products;and a reducing logistics costs due to a visible demand signal. Case Xpert also reduces sales case preparation time while an increasing accuracy.

“At GHX, we’ve made a significant investment to solve the lack of visibility and control over these implantable devices, and reduce the extraneous costs driven by inefficient, disconnected manual processes,”said GHX Chief Commercial Officer, Derek Smith. “This will require the collaborative efforts of everyone – providers, physicians and manufacturers - to address the lost, expired and wasted product that is a key part of this effort to reduce healthcare costs. Now there are no excuses, there is a solution to right the ship and fix this problem. Case Xpert and Order intelligence are the first provider and supplier solution to bring both sides of the healthcare business equation together to really collaborate and solve this problem.”

Implantable devices are on average 30 percent based on the service line mix of total hospital supply spend and make up 50-80 percent of the total cost for some procedures, but processes around managing and tracking these devices are rife with inefficiency and revenue leakage. GHX first announced the implantable device supply chain healthcare initiative in February 2012 to address these inefficiencies.

Case Xpert and Order Intelligence are available now and will have their first public demonstration at the 2013 GHX Healthcare Supply Chain Summit in Las Vegas May 20-22. A mobile operating room environment will be on hand for attendees to tour and experience the implantable device supply chain (see companion news release).The entire GHX Healthcare Supply Chain Summit agenda can be viewed here. Follow the conference action in real-time by visiting the Healthcare Hub blog or following #GHX13 on Twitter.

About GHX
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) is driving costs out of healthcare by transforming the healthcare supply chain. Working with providers and suppliers, GHX is accelerating change by providing a faster, more efficient and collaborative supply chain that will take billions of dollars out of the cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.ghx.com and The Healthcare Hub.