Keeping Your Healthcare Sourcing Strategy Moving Forward (with Confidence!) During Turbulent Times

Today’s global economic conditions are unprecedented for decision makers in healthcare. For example, every part of the United States healthcare business model is undergoing significant and unpredictable change; and we’re not even close to the finished model.

Despite these turbulent times, healthcare payers and providers who are embarking on or are in the middle of major strategic business projects are wondering how to align their sourcing strategies amid this constant, multidirectional change.

There is no time like the present for healthcare payers and providers to capitalize on chaos to improve operations and prepare for the new healthcare environment. Here are the Top 5 actions you can take in the near term to drive contractual flexibility, increase speed of value realization and maximize the value derived from your sourcing relationships.

1. Reduce the number of key service providers and then increase leverage with those that survive your vetting process.
2. Renegotiate current contracts to reflect the changing environment. Consider the future benefit streams of your contracts and “pull them forward” contractually to realize their value sooner. Seek to consolidate multiple contracts with the same service provider to improve leverage across business units.
3. Now is the time to establish (or fine tune) rigorous Service Management & Governance oversight processes to ensure maximum value realization from your current contracts.
4. Look outside the traditional healthcare market for sourcing ideas and executable models. Examples of other industries that have proven track records in sourcing include banking and financial services, manufacturing and telecommunications, all of which have been successfully sourcing non-core functions for decades.
5. Establish an enterprise-wide sourcing advisory council to document and propagate your organization’s sourcing philosophy. For example, consider the bigger picture of sourcing as not just “outsourcing,” but as the application of resources form every potential source to solve your business challenges.

Now is the time to re-assess your sourcing strategy and re-evaluate your current sourcing relationships. Reset the performance bar, define/refine what innovation means to your firm and make sure to measure service providers’ execution of their contractual obligations.

TPI’s experts can help healthcare organizations produce an objective assessment of your current sourcing strategy and develop a roadmap for your future strategy with objective, risk-balanced, and forward-oriented solutions for maximizing value during these turbulent times.

Take charge; set direction. Contact David K. McCament, Director, Healthcare Payer / Provider, TPI, to learn more.

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