Services

Information services

Controlling the rising costs of healthcare procurement is an uphill battle, made even more difficult by outdated, inefficient information systems. These error-prone, labor-intensive systems generate massive amounts of data, but provide little insight. The procurement data they provide are incomplete and inaccurate, and often obscure savings opportunities rather than highlight them.

The result is unnecessary spending, overpayment and lack of compliance with new corporate regulatory requirements. In order to reach the next level of financial performance, healthcare providers must rise above these problems by using information tools that provide accurate data and actionable business intelligence.

Better Data, Better Savings

Broadlane’s Information Services provide you with access to critical, accurate supply spending data and actionable business intelligence to help you better understand and optimize your procurement spending.

Our Internet-based tools allow you to connect with suppliers to make purchases, check contracts and verify terms online, which helps reduce overpayment and invoice discrepancies. Broadlane’s tools can also help you enforce purchasing policies across your enterprise, eliminating rogue buying and off-contract spending.

Broadlane uses four key components to design a custom Information Services solution:

• Reporting
• Catalog of products and contracts
• Data management services
• Connectivity with suppliers

Many of the tools associated with these components can be accessed through OnRamp, Broadlane’s Web-based client portal. Each component works hand-in-hand with your existing procurement systems. When used together, our four key offerings represent the most comprehensive technology solution in healthcare procurement today.

Broadlane’s technology tools use a number of data sources of provider and vendor purchasing data to conduct sophisticated analysis and generate reports. Our reports give you powerful insights into spending patterns, product utilization, price accuracy, contract compliance and savings opportunities.

Insightful reporting allows you to make better decisions, modify spending behavior and consumption, plan and track cost savings initiatives and drive standardization. Standard reports are available online, and ad hoc custom reports can be generated through confidential data cubes that are set up for each client.

Broadlane provides you with a host of in-depth reports, including:

• Fee and Volume Report – Shows total spend, broken down by facility, product category and manufacturer, along with administrative fees generated.
• Cost Change Analysis Summary - Compares provider spend across two periods and represents the spend difference (in dollars and percent) that were attributable to changes in price, consumption and product.
• Off-Contract Spend Report - Calculates, groups and summarizes the most recent provider spend by vendor to identify any products ordered without a matching contract or contracted price.
• Price Parity Summary - Identifies areas of savings opportunity on non-contracted items for healthcare facilities.
• Price Verification Summary - Identifies purchases for which the provider did not pay the correct enrolled price.

Catalog of Products and Contracts

Providers save money by aggregating their spending on commonly purchased items and contracting with vendors to provide discounts based on volume and market share commitments. In order for you to better comply with these commitments and realize savings, detailed product and contract information must be available. Making information available and keeping it up to date and accurate can be challenging, especially as the number of contracts increases and products and prices change.

Broadlane provides you with a Web-based catalog of all contracted products and important contract terms, including pricing, and maintains this information on an ongoing basis. You can access the information through Broadlane’s OnRamp portal using powerful product search capabilities that allow English language queries, product comparisons and the ability to drill down to detailed item and contract information. Alternatively, the catalog information can be synchronized with your procurement or ERP system so that users can work through a single system.

Catalog of Products and Contracts

Providers generate vast amounts of procurement-related data that is often not viable for analysis due to erroneous product and price information.

Error occurs for a variety of reasons, including non-standard data, human error, duplicate entries and continually fluctuating product and price information. Broadlane’s data management service performs several important functions to reduce error, including:

• Item master cleansing – Broadlane scrubs existing data in your item master and, if desired, consolidates multiple item masters into a single verified master. Broadlane has developed an item reference database against which products are compared, and the information is then transformed into standardized, recognizable formats with verified terms.
• Item master maintenance – Broadlane will also continuously maintain cleansed item masters for you by reviewing and processing all product updates, price changes, additions and deletions. This helps you maintain the continuous integrity of your data.

Broadlane’s services can range from a single point-in-time analysis to complete, ongoing item file management — you choose the level of service that fits your needs.

Catalog of Products and Contracts

There are many benefits to electronic connectivity between providers and suppliers, including process improvements, a sharp reduction in costly mistakes and the opportunity to apply real-time compliance controls. Broadlane’s electronic exchange, BroadLink™, is a powerful tool that eliminates the need for providers to place their supply orders via telephone or facsimile. BroadLink™ electronically links providers to suppliers, helping you manage all transactions involved with supply procurement, including purchase orders, purchase order acknowledgements, advance ship notifications, invoices and product and price updates. 

BroadLink™ speeds the purchasing process, reduces manual errors and serves as a support mechanism for Broadlane’s advanced analytical reports. It also allows real-time tracking of purchase order status. It matches purchase orders against contract terms and can provide alerts for off-contract items, resulting in greater application of uniform purchasing policies, reduction of rogue buying, increased contract compliance and fewer mistakes. The end result: greater savings for your organization.