An organization promoting best practices in the healthcare group purchasing industry has launched two initiatives to increase transparency and strengthen oversight in an industry some have criticized for its perceived secrecy.
The Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative, comprised of 13 national GPOs, will form an independent advisory council and institute a formal “supplier grievance process" to aid the resolution of supplier complaints regarding a GPO’s purchasing process.
Both measures were directed by chief executives of the member GPOs at the HGPII Best Practices Forum in March 2010.
“These two measures are the most significant developments in the short history of the initiative,” said Richard J. Bednar, HGPII’s coordinator. “HGPII hopes that other segments of the healthcare supply chain will follow our lead by implementing their own policies and best practice procedures to increase transparency and eliminate conflicts of interest.”
The new supplier grievance process will allow for the engagement of a neutral party provided by the American Arbitration Association. The independent advisory council will be comprised of ethics experts who will provide counsel and advice on compliance best practices and other HGPII activities.
The role of the arbitrator in the grievance process will be to review vendor complaints and provide an evaluation as to whether the vendor failed to receive an award as a result of a failure of the GPO to follow principles of the applicable GPO contract process.
The types of vendor complaints eligible for review under the new system include “pre-award,” which occurs when a vendor has been informed prior to a contract award announcement that it will not receive an award relative to a competitively bid RFP; “post-award,” which occurs when a vendor is informed concurrently with or after the award announcement that it will not receive an award; and “new technology,” which occurs when a vendor is denied a contract award following submission of a request for a contract award for new technology.