CHICAGO, April 4, 2013 -- UHC announced today that its member academic medical centers achieved record supply chain savings and value of $400 million in 2012. The savings amount represents 5% of UHC members' record aggregated spend of $8.1 billion and includes cash returns as well as operational savings.
Through their participation in UHC's supply chain program, members received $123 million in cash returns from UHC Supply Chain. In addition, UHC members documented operational cost savings of almost $277 million, which surpassed projections. This achievement was the result of UHC's advanced analytics, assistance with physician preference items, supply utilization and standardization, and Novation's leadership in sourcing and contracting. Novation's price leadership efforts contributed $87 million of the total listed above and were attributable to price rollbacks, cost avoidance, and price protection.
"Our academic medical center members are particularly challenged in this era of health care reform; they need to reduce costs while maintaining excellent patient care," said Jake Groenewold, senior vice president, Supply Chain, UHC. "UHC and Novation play an essential role by providing members with high-quality supplies and services at competitive prices and actionable data and expert support for overall performance improvement."
UHC's programs, tools, and resources help participating hospitals remain at the forefront of medicine and deliver health care efficiently and effectively. Its robust databases uniquely link operational, supply chain, and clinical data, giving hospitals enterprise-wide spend visibility. SpendLINK ®, UHC's spend analytics tool, identifies savings opportunities and provides actionable information to help hospitals achieve sustainable cost reduction across the supply chain continuum.
About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Based in Chicago, Ill., UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 119 academic medical center and 293 affiliated hospital members through its renowned programs and services in the areas of comparative data and analytics, performance improvement, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Formed in 1984, UHC's membership includes the leading nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, visit uhc.edu .
About Novation, Winner of the Ethics Inside® Certification
Founded in 1998, Novation is the leading health care supply chain expertise and contracting company for the more than 65,000 members of VHA Inc. and UHC, 2 national health care alliances; Children's Hospital Association, an alliance of the nation's leading pediatric facilities; and Provista, LLC. Novation provides alliance members with sourcing services, as well as information and data services. Based in Irving, Tex, Novation develops and manages competitive contracts with more than 600 suppliers. VHA, UHC, and Provista members used Novation contracts to purchase approximately $43 billion in 2012. Novation has earned the coveted Ethics Inside® Certification from Ethisphere Institute, a leading international think tank dedicated to the research and promotion of best practices in corporate ethics and compliance. Novation was also named on Ethisphere's "World's Most Ethical Companies" list and is the only company in the health care industry to earn both distinctions for 2 consecutive years. To learn more about Novation, visit www.novationco.com and follow @NovationNews.