Healthcare Matters

The transformation of the purchasing function from a passive, administrative process to a proactive, strategic and boundary-spanning function has been ongoing for the better part of decade. Companies continue to hone their supply chain management capabilities and engage experts able to deliver turnkey sourcing “values” that they can’t readily reproduce. The newest tools not only definitively answer questions around what should be in-sourced versus outsourced (i.e. “make versus buy”), but they challenge executive leadership to revisit their ideas around what is operationally core. That’s why even the most sophisticated SCM departments continue to shuffle their mix of staff, tools, consultants and GPOs. All of them bring something of value to the table. How to optimize is the challenge.

SpendMatters, Healthcare Matters, and Allianza Partners have collaborated on a series of papers that reveal dramatic and persistent opportunities in the strategic sourcing of employee fringe benefits. The first paper in the series is aptly entitled, Human Resources & Sourcing Turf Wars, as it was written to highlight the fact that fringe benefits as a “super category” of spend remains low hanging fruit for most organizations. Read the paper and be the judge as to the reasons, but purchasing coalitions, technology-enabled SCM solution providers, specialized HR consultancies and now, the major diversified consulting houses are all chasing the space –and more than happy to gain share for their fees. So how much else do you need to know?

Today, we are releasing the second paper in this SpendMatters Perspectives series entitled, “Sourcing Rx Benefits: PBM Coalitions Offer Low Risk Prescription for Success.”  The paper describes the business of sourcing prescription benefits. You may click here to download.

—Tom Finn