The Greater Cincinnati Health
Council recently formed a strategic alliance with MedCost Corporation to
provide group purchasing benefits for physician members. Through this strategic partnership,
physicians’ offices can realize substantial cost savings on medical and
non-medical supplies.
“We
looked at various ways we can deliver cost savings for our member physicians
and medical groups,” said Vice President for Shared Services Amy K. Ewing. “After examining almost every type of
purchasing concept on the market today, we agreed MedCost provides an
established and efficient purchasing service that can save our members lots of
money,” she said.
MedCost
is available to meet GCHC members and develop a customized outsource purchasing
program that takes advantage of national buying contracts. MedCost works as a physician’s purchasing
department, delivering discount pricing through national contracts the firm
negotiates and maintains.
“Our
expertise is purchasing for physicians,” said MedCost CEO Pamela Benjamin. “We’ve been in this business for more than a
decade. We know the products,
terminology and the best price points on everything a doctor needs to
practice,” she said.
“MedCost
provides purchasing services for a wide range of client facilities - from
solo practitioners to hospital physician practice networks, community health
centers, pathology labs and surgery centers, representing every medical
specialty,” Benjamin said. “We purchase
everything a physician practice uses including office supplies.”
The
Council encourages physician members to take full advantage of this benefit,
according to CFO Rick Delewski.
“Individual practioners and physician groups can realize substantial
savings by taking advantage of our MedCost contract,” he said
For
more information and a customized purchasing proposal, contact Bill Saalfeld at
859-240-9444, or bsaalfeld@medcostinc.com
or Amy Ewing, 513-531-0200, aewing@gchc.org.
The Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Task Force has recently completed a thorough evaluation of on-site interpreter companies in the Tristate area. The goal of this initiative was to implement community-wide standards for interpreters in health care in order to improve patient safety and health outcomes for patients with limited English skills.
The decision was to award a multi-source language services contract to three local companies: Affordable Language Services, Translations Unlimited and Vocalink Language Services. Each of the selected companies is qualified to provide the following services with special discounted rates to Health Council member hospitals: on-site interpreter services, translation of documents, training for staff, Web-based ordering and customized invoicing and language data tracking. The effective date of this three-year agreement is July 1, 2007.
As the Tristate area becomes more diverse and the non-English speaking population grows, hospitals have seen a large increase in the need for qualified health care interpreters. The Task Force adopted the National Standards for Interpreting in Health Care in early 2006 and used them to create a comprehensive set of guidelines for the on-site interpreter companies to follow. The three companies chosen by this hospital collaboration have committed to uphold these standards to insure that we remain compliant with LEP federal and evolving industry accreditation requirements.
For questions contact Amy Ewing at the Health Council at 513-531-0200 or aewing@gchc.org.
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