Why this membership matters right now

• In one sentence, what outcome would make membership feel like it was worth the investment this year?
• Which two spend categories would you expect to see the largest dollar impact from a negotiated contract? Options: Pharmaceuticals, Medical devices and implants, Clinical supplies, Capital equipment, IT and software, Purchased services, Other
• Tell me about the last time you successfully renegotiated a major contract, what worked and what cost the most effort?
• How many operating sites and major service lines will need to adopt new contracts for the membership to hit your savings target? Options: 1 site, 2-5 sites, 6-20 sites, More than 20, Single health system with multiple campuses
• If a membership pilot proved savings at scale, what internal approval would be required to move to enterprise rollout? Options: CFO approval, Supply chain steering committee, Board finance committee, Clinical leadership sign-off, Procurement director approval, Other

Where your highest-value opportunities hide

• Would you be surprised if 60 to 80 percent of your recoverable savings came from just three suppliers or product lines? Options: Yes, that would surprise me, No, that aligns with what I expect, Unsure, I need to see the data
• Walk me through the spend file or report you use to find top suppliers, which fields are trusted and which do you doubt?
• Which of these artifacts can you share quickly to validate category opportunity, select all that apply Options: Top 100 supplier spend file, Purchase order level data, Contract compliance reports, Clinician preference item lists, None available, Other
• What would make us stop the project immediately when we review your data, for example missing data, unresolved vendor disputes, or regulatory holds? Options: Insufficient spend data, Active litigation with key supplier, Regulatory restriction on procurement, No internal sponsor, Other
• How confident are you in the accuracy of your supplier master and spend categorization today? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Low confidence, No confidence

Where compliance breaks and who feels the pain

• When compliance drops below your target, who on your team notices first and what happens next?
• Which contract categories most often miss compliance targets at the site or clinician level? Options: High-cost implants and devices, Branded pharmaceuticals, Clinical disposables, Capital purchases, Purchased services, Other
• Describe a recent example where physician preference or standardization resistance prevented compliance, what changed and why did it stick?
• What single compliance failure in the last 12 months cost you the most in lost savings or operational disruption?
• If we could guarantee a measured lift in contract compliance, what internal barrier would still keep you from proceeding? Options: Physician pushback, IT integration time, Governance objections, Budget constraints, Other

Who must buy in for this to stick

• Which stakeholder groups will need to approve membership and ongoing governance, and who holds the final sign off? Options: CFO/Finance, VP Supply Chain/Procurement, Chief Medical Officer or clinical leadership, Board or finance committee, Legal/compliance, Other
• Who typically raises the strongest objections to enterprise agreements in your organization, and what are their core concerns? Options: Physician leaders, Site administrators, Finance, Legal, Supply chain team, Other
• How much pull do individual surgeons or service-line leaders have over procurement decisions for high-spend items? Options: Complete autonomy, Strong influence, Moderate influence, Minimal influence
• What would happen if a critical clinical leader refuses to adopt a contract we propose, could that block systemwide roll out? Options: Yes, it would block roll out, No, we could enforce standardization, Depends on the service line, Unsure
• If a pilot proved savings but a clinical leader pushed back, what decision-maker could resolve the dispute quickly? Options: Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, CFO, Procurement steering committee, Other

Obstacles that slow or stop progress

• Which internal process has delayed procurement rollouts most often, contracting, clinical review, IT integration, or budget cycles? Options: Contracting, Clinical review, IT integration, Budget cycles, Other
• Where do approvals typically sit in your budget calendar, and is there a fixed window we must meet? Options: Quarterly budget cycle, Annual budget planning, Rolling approvals, No fixed window
• Describe any recent regulatory, audit, or legal issues that could impose gating conditions on new supplier agreements
• Which of these risks worries you most about adopting an outside GPO membership model? Options: Loss of clinician choice, Perceived bias toward larger members, Administrative fee conflicts, Contract coverage gaps, Data sharing concerns, None of the above
• What single operational or regulatory constraint would stop you from moving forward even if pricing and savings looked compelling?

The other paths you're evaluating

• Which alternatives are you actively comparing right now, internal contract teams, other GPOs, or direct supplier sourcing? Options: Internal contracting team, Another GPO, Direct supplier negotiation, Group formed with peer systems, Consortium or buying cooperative, Not evaluating alternatives
• Who is the incumbent for your highest-spend categories and what keeps you with them today?
• Has anyone on your team proposed solving this without an outside partner, and if so what plan did they suggest? Options: Yes, build internal team, Yes, hire consultants, No internal proposal, Other
• What conditions would have to be true for you to stay with your current approach instead of switching to membership? Options: Better demonstrated savings, Improved reporting and visibility, Lower administrative fees, Fewer clinical tradeoffs, Other
• If a competitor or internal option promised identical savings, what differentiator would make you choose us instead or rule us out immediately? Options: Governance transparency, Breadth of portfolio, Data and analytics capabilities, Clinical advisory services, Pricing only, Other

Can your systems and teams move this forward

• Which core systems must integrate for savings tracking and contract compliance, and who owns those systems? Options: ERP/finance, eProcurement or P2P, Contract repository, Clinical systems/EMR, Data warehouse, None of the above
• Do your current systems provide purchase order level detail and line item matching month to month for the categories we would manage? Options: Yes, full PO detail, Partial PO detail, Only invoice level data, No reliable transaction data
• Who would be the technical owner responsible for API connections or secure data extracts, and do they have capacity for a 60 to 90 day integration?
• How clean and complete is your supplier master and item catalog—would we be able to map 80 percent of spend to contracts quickly? Options: Clean and mappable, Moderately clean, Many duplicates and gaps, Not confident
• Are there regulatory or legal approvals that must be obtained before sharing contract-level pricing and claims data for analysis? Options: Yes, legal approval required, Yes, compliance approval required, No approvals needed, Unsure
• What practical readiness gap would stop implementation within 90 days, for example lack of a data owner, staffing shortfall, or unresolved vendor terms? Options: No data owner, Insufficient IT bandwidth, Clinical approval pending, Budget not allocated, Other

Clear acceptance criteria and the next decision

• What measurable acceptance criteria would you require from a pilot to approve enterprise membership, for example percent compliance lift, dollars saved, or clinician adoption rates? Options: Percent compliance lift, Net dollars saved, Adoption rate by clinicians, Time to realization, Other
• If a pilot achieved your acceptance criteria, who could sign for enterprise membership and how quickly could they do it? Options: CFO within 2 weeks, Steering committee within 1 month, Requires board approval, Unsure
• What remaining unknown, if answered positively, would accelerate you to sign within the quarter?
• Realistically, what is the earliest your organization could commit to a pilot start date given current priorities? Options: Immediately, Within 30 days, Within 60 days, More than 90 days, Unsure

• Solution Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and cost
• You confirm the demonstrated savings model maps to your actual spend and would close a meaningful portion of the identified gap.
• Provide a 12-month spend extract for the top three high-spend categories to enable modeling and compliance mapping.
• You confirm the compliance tracking workflow would surface and reduce noncompliant spend in the measured categories.
• Show modeled savings on your spend
• Run the sample savings model on the provided spend and deliver a modeled savings and compliance impact report before the follow-up session.
• Demonstrate compliance tracking closing the gap
• You agree on the remaining evidence and acceptance criteria needed to move toward a membership decision.
• Identify governance and clinical representatives who will review acceptance criteria and exceptions.
• Validate governance and clinical preference handling
• Confirm alignment

• Solution Experience Session
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Negotiate national pharmaceutical contracts
• Negotiate medical device agreements
• Negotiate clinical supplies and capital equipment contracts
• Establish committed-volume and regional contracts
• Execute sole-source and multi-award supplier agreements
• Provide online contract portfolio access
• Integrate contract portfolio with buyer procurement system
• Enable contract search and price-comparison interface
• Deploy compliance analytics and site-level tracking
• Deliver monthly savings and price-comparison reports
• Provide category benchmarking and spend analytics
• Deliver custom contracting for high-spend categories
• Manage supplier onboarding and contract enrollment
• Perform rebate and administrative fee reconciliation
• Facilitate clinical preference item standardization program

Negotiate national pharmaceutical contracts

• Which pharmaceutical categories should be prioritized for national contracting (e.g., oncology injectables, specialty biologics, acute-care antibiotics, high-use generics)? Options: Oncology injectables, Specialty biologics, High-use generics, Antibiotics and anti-infectives, Supportive care agents, Other
• How many unique National Drug Code (NDC) line items account for roughly 80% of your hospital system pharmaceutical spend? Options: Less than 50, 50-200, 201-500, More than 500, Unknown
• Which system contains your invoice-level drug spend by NDC and site? Options: Pharmacy management system, ERP / financial system, Third-party spend analytics, Blanket purchase logs / spreadsheets, Not available
• Who will provide access to formulary committees, pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) minutes, or active formulary lists for contract negotiations?
• Are manufacturer rebate schedules, buy-down agreements, or bundled-service terms required to be included in price tables for evaluation? Options: Yes, No

Negotiate medical device agreements

• Which clinical service lines generate the highest device spend that should be targeted (e.g., cardiology implants, orthopedic implants, interventional radiology disposables)? Options: Cardiology implants, Orthopedics, Interventional radiology, Surgical disposables, Anesthesia supplies, Other
• How many unique device catalogue SKUs or part numbers are used across your OR preference cards and inventory that we should map? Options: Under 500, 500-2,000, 2,001-5,000, Over 5,000, Unknown
• Which artifact holds your surgical preference cards or procedure-specific item lists? Options: EHR preference card module, Perioperative system, Local spreadsheets, Supply chain inventory system, Not documented
• Who on your team will approve clinical evaluation committees or surgeon liaison participation during device contracting reviews?
• Do you require consignment, consignment-to-consumption, or consignment-to-purchase pricing models included in the contract terms we negotiate? Options: Yes, No, Only for select categories

Negotiate clinical supplies and capital equipment contracts

• Which clinical supply categories and capital equipment classes should be scoped (e.g., high-volume disposables, lab reagents, imaging capital, HVAC/biomed equipment)? Options: High-volume disposables, Lab reagents, Imaging equipment, Biomedical equipment, Facility equipment (HVAC, sterile processing), Other
• How many capital projects or planned capital purchases in the next 12 months should be included in negotiations? Options: None, 1-3, 4-10, More than 10
• Which procurement artifact records capital approval and budget codes we must reference (e.g., capital request forms, project numbers, G/L codes)?
• Which acceptance thresholds do you require for installed capital equipment (for example: factory acceptance test pass, uptime percentage, training completion)? Options: Factory acceptance test, Site acceptance test, Operational uptime threshold (e.g., 95%), Training completion for staff, Other
• Do you need service-level agreements for preventative maintenance and parts availability included in capital equipment contracts? Options: Yes, No

Establish committed-volume and regional contracts

• Which geographic regions or service areas should be covered by regional committed-volume contracts (list by state or metro service area)?
• How would you prefer committed-volume terms to be structured: annual minimums by site, system-wide volume tiers, or phased ramp commitments? Options: Annual minimums by site, System-wide tiers, Phased ramp to minimums, No minimums
• What is the current baseline annual spend by category that will form the committed volume (provide approximate dollars for prioritized categories)?
• Which artifact documents existing regional purchasing agreements or legacy preferred suppliers that may affect regional commitments? Options: Existing regional contract files, Supplier master file, Purchase order history, None documented
• Are there regulatory or state purchasing rules (for example public-bid thresholds) that would affect committed-volume contract execution in any region? Options: Yes, No, Unsure

Execute sole-source and multi-award supplier agreements

• For which categories do you anticipate sole-source arrangements versus multi-award sourcing (identify by category or product line)?
• How many suppliers do you currently consider single-source for critical products listed on your supplier master file? Options: None, 1-5, 6-20, More than 20, Unknown
• Which contract provisions are most important for sole-source awards (for example exclusivity term length, manufacturer support, clinical education obligations)? Options: Exclusivity duration, Clinical education obligations, Spares and parts availability, Pricing protections, Other
• Who in your procurement approval chain signs off on sole-source justifications and exceptions to competitive bidding?
• Do you require change-order and replacement-product clauses to be pre-negotiated for multi-award catalogs? Options: Yes, No, Only for capital equipment

Provide online contract portfolio access

• Which user groups need access to the online contract portfolio (for example: supply chain directors, site procurement staff, pharmacy buyers, clinicians)? Options: Supply chain directors, Site procurement staff, Pharmacy buyers, Clinicians/surgeons, Finance/accounts payable
• Which authentication or directory service does your organization use for single sign-on (SSO) to enterprise portals? Options: SAML / SSO provider, Active Directory integration, OAuth provider, No SSO currently
• What acceptance criteria will confirm contract access and correct site-specific pricing are live (for example: test PO price lookup matches contract price for 10 sample SKUs across 3 sites)?
• Which document artifacts must appear for each contract record in the portal (for example: fully executed agreement PDF, price sheet, rebate schedule, effective/expiration dates)? Options: Executed agreement PDF, Price sheet, Rebate schedule, Effective and expiration dates, Supplier contact
• How many discrete user accounts and site profiles will be required at go-live for the contract portal? Options: Under 50, 50-200, 201-1,000, Over 1,000, Unknown

Integrate contract portfolio with buyer procurement system

• Which procurement or ERP system will receive contract price lookups (for example: your purchase order system or inventory management system)? Options: ERP / financial system, Procurement/P2P system, Inventory management system, EHR supply module, Custom system
• How are catalog items referenced in your PO flow: internal SKU, manufacturer part number, GTIN, or a combination? Options: Internal SKU, Manufacturer part number, GTIN / UPC, Combination, Not standardized
• What integration formats are supported for your procurement endpoint (for example: EDI 850, REST API, CSV batch import)? Options: EDI 850, REST API, CSV batch, Flat file SFTP, Other
• What level of price validation evidence will you accept to verify the integration (for example: sample PO price resolution for 20 POs across 5 sites)?
• Who is the technical owner for your procurement endpoint and what contact artifact (email or ticket queue) will you provide for API testing?

Enable contract search and price-comparison interface

• Which search facets are essential for your teams (for example: contract ID, SKU/part number, manufacturer, category, effective date)? Options: Contract ID, SKU/part number, Manufacturer, Category, Effective date, Site-specific price
• How would you like price comparison output formatted for clinicians: side-by-side SKU price, total cost per case, or savings-per-procedure estimates? Options: Side-by-side SKU price, Total cost per case, Savings per procedure, All of the above
• Which clinician artifacts should be linkable from a price comparison (for example surgical preference card, device clinical evidence summary, implant warranty terms)? Options: Preference card, Clinical evidence summary, Implant warranty terms, None
• How many sample product comparisons would you like seeded into the interface for validation during UAT (user acceptance testing)? Options: 5-10, 11-25, 26-50, More than 50
• Which roles will be allowed to override suggested preferred items in the comparison interface and what approval artifact is required (for example clinician justification form)?

Deploy compliance analytics and site-level tracking

• Which compliance metrics are priority for site-level dashboards (for example contract utilization rate, price-variances, percent of POs using contracted SKUs)? Options: Contract utilization rate, Price variance, Percent POs using contracted SKUs, Rebate capture rate, Other
• Which systems will feed compliance analytics (for example PO history, AP invoice data, inventory issue logs, EHR procedure records)? Options: PO history, Accounts payable invoices, Inventory management, EHR procedure records, Pharmacy dispensing logs
• What defines acceptable mapping accuracy between your PO line items and contracted SKUs (for example: 95% mapping accuracy for top 500 SKUs)?
• Who will own monthly reconciliation of compliance dashboards to site procurement leaders and what delivery artifact do you prefer (for example: scheduled dashboard, PDF summary, or API feed)? Options: Scheduled dashboard, PDF summary, API feed, Email report
• Are automatic alerts desired when site compliance drops below a threshold and if so what threshold percentage should trigger an alert? Options: Yes - 80%, Yes - 75%, Yes - 70%, No alerts

Deliver monthly savings and price-comparison reports

• Which cadence do you want for savings reports (monthly standard, monthly with executive summary, or quarterly detailed review)? Options: Monthly standard, Monthly with executive summary, Quarterly detailed review
• Which file format do you require for automated report delivery (for example Excel with pivot-ready sheets, PDF summary, or API export)? Options: Excel (pivot-ready), PDF summary, API export, CSV
• Which savings artifacts should appear in the report (for example: realized savings by site, projected vs realized, savings attributable to substitution)? Options: Realized savings by site, Projected vs realized, Savings from substitution, Rebate recoveries
• How many named stakeholders should receive the monthly report distribution and who will manage the distribution list? Options: 1-5, 6-20, More than 20
• Do you require drill-through capability from the summary report to transaction-level evidence for audit purposes? Options: Yes, No

Provide category benchmarking and spend analytics

• Which benchmarking cohorts are most useful to you (for example similar bed-size hospitals, regional peers, teaching hospitals)? Options: Similar bed-size, Regional peers, Teaching hospitals, System peer group
• What category-level metrics do you want benchmarked (unit price, cost per case, utilization rates, purchase frequency)? Options: Unit price, Cost per case, Utilization rate, Purchase frequency
• Which historic period should be used as baseline for benchmarking (for example prior 12 months, prior 24 months)? Options: Prior 12 months, Prior 24 months, Custom period
• Who will provide any existing internal benchmarks or target KPIs to be included in category reports?
• Do you require benchmarking broken down to site-level or only at system-aggregate level? Options: Site-level, System-aggregate only, Both

Deliver custom contracting for high-spend categories

• Which high-spend categories require bespoke contracting (for example specialty pharmacy, implants, lab reagents)? Options: Specialty pharmacy, Implants, Lab reagents, Imaging capital, Other
• What commercial model do you prefer for custom contracts in these categories (for example guaranteed savings, gainshare, fixed-fee advisory, volume rebates)? Options: Guaranteed savings, Gainshare / shared savings, Fixed-fee advisory, Volume rebates
• Which clinical or operational artifacts must be reviewed during custom contracting (for example outcomes data, utilization by procedure code, device revision rates)? Options: Outcomes data, Utilization by procedure code, Device revision rates, Cost-per-case analyses
• How will you prioritize which high-spend categories start first for custom contracting (spend magnitude, clinical risk, or ease of substitution)? Options: Spend magnitude, Clinical risk, Ease of substitution, Stakeholder priority
• Who will be the internal clinical sponsor for each custom contract and what approval artifact is required (for example signed clinical evaluation memo)?

• Membership Agreement
• Fee Schedule & Order Form
• Platform Subscription Agreement
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW) — Onboarding & Integrations
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Member Governance Agreement
• HIPAA Business Associate Addendum (BAA)
• Operational Responsibilities Addendum (RACI)

• Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
• First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
• 90-Day Acceptance Gate
• Quarterly Member Success Review

• Update the shared issue tracker with confirmed owners, target dates, and verification steps for closure.
• Deliver the full savings calculation workbook and data sources for review within 5 business days.
• Produce a remapped spend-to-contract file correcting any misclassified categories identified in the meeting.
• Create a short remediation plan for physician preference exceptions with proposed behavioral and contract actions.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Document pass or fail for each acceptance criterion recorded in Contract & Service Scope with evidence.
• Capture the buyer's formal acceptance decision with a named signatory or documented owner decision.
• If any criteria are unmet, agree a remediation plan with owners, dates, and verification steps to close the gaps.
• Publish the acceptance record showing pass/fail per criterion and include supporting data extracts.
• Create a remediation tracker for any unmet criteria with owners and target completion dates.
• Confirm the verification method and date for closing each remediation item.
• Outcome trends and financial reconciliation
• Confirm whether realized savings and contract compliance remain on track to meet targets recorded in Contract & Service Scope, and document any variances.
• Agree a prioritized backlog and remediation plan for the top issues affecting compliance or savings, with owners and dates.
• Capture governance feedback and any small-scope adjustments to operational responsibilities that do not change commercial terms.
• Publish the quarterly savings and compliance report with reconciled data and variance explanations.
• Prioritize the enhancement request list and schedule delivery windows for the top three items.
• Re-confirm acceptance criteria and owners
• Confirm deployment and contract access completed or document remaining gaps with owners and completion dates.
• Establish a prioritized list of open issues with owners and target resolution dates for the first 30 days.
• Verify initial user onboarding progress and identify any training or access barriers to resolve immediately.
• Publish a deployment validation report summarizing outstanding gaps and target resolution dates.
• Deliver a list of enrolled users and outstanding training sessions for completion within 14 days.
• Log all technical and data issues in the shared channel with priority and expected resolution date.
• Present first outcome data
• Determine whether realized savings and contract compliance rate are trending toward the targets in Contract & Service Scope and identify root causes for any gaps.
• Agree a detailed corrective action plan with owners and dates to address the top 3 gap drivers.
• Confirm the timeline and deliverables required to be ready for the 90-day acceptance gate.
• Present outcome evidence per criterion
• Compliance trend review
• Deployment and access validation
• Diagnose gaps and root causes
• Document pass/fail per criterion
• Onboarding and training status
• Open issue and enhancement backlog
• Operational blockers and quick fixes
• Capture formal acceptance decision
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Agree corrective action plan and timeline
• Governance and member feedback
• Confirm path to acceptance gate
• Quarter action plan and owners
• Open blockers and issue triage
• Agree remediation plan for failed or conditional items
• Immediate remediation plan