The AllSource™ catalog is the most accurate electronic catalog in healthcare because its product data is maintained and verified by the manufacturers. Participating MedAssets providers will be able to use the AllSource catalog to improve the accuracy of their own internal product data files, while MedAssets will use AllSource data to enhance the value of its CDQuick® E-catalog, as well as its other information technology services. MedAssets CDQuick® E-catalog features a proprietary search engine, and houses more than 1,100 contracts, with 15 million price points (manufacturer, distributor, GPO), covering 600,000 line items. The CDQuick® E-catalog is provided free to all MedAssets members.

“By working together, GHX and MedAssets can not only enhance the value of our independent product offerings, but also combine resources to help our respective members and trading partners conduct more of their business through e-commerce, to gain the maximum supply chain operational savings available,” says GHX Chief Executive Officer Mike Mahoney.

With MedAssets’ primary goal to enhance the financial performance of its members, Chief Information Officer Randy Sparkman says the alliance with GHX will advance that objective by reducing the amount of manual intervention required in the purchasing process. “GHX provides us with the data accuracy, supplier connectivity, and transactional capabilities that make e-commerce work. The combined GHX-MedAssets service for managing the supply chain increases the value to the customer significantly.”

The alliance with MedAssets provides GHX with a significant opportunity to increase the critical mass of participation in the trading exchange. The more trading partners connected and transacting business with one another through GHX, the greater the percentage of overall purchasing that can be handled more efficiently through e-commerce. GHX is already the world’s largest healthcare trading exchange, with more than 1400 participating providers and 100 suppliers.

MedAssets, meanwhile, has contractual relationships with many of the suppliers participating in GHX, and with the potential to increase the number of participating hospital customers, the alliance is expected to attract even more suppliers to the exchange.

Both GHX and MedAssets consider themselves efficiency enablers in the healthcare supply chain. “We provide the tools that help our respective customers and trading partners reduce costs by improving their business processes,” says Mahoney. Research has identified that more than $11 billion could be saved annually in the U.S. alone by using e-commerce to improve supply chain efficiencies. “After looking at all of the e-commerce offerings in healthcare, we determined that GHX is a great solution for our members, given its commitment to data accuracy and revenue neutral business model,” says Rand Ballard, President of MedAssets Supply Chain and Business Services Group. ”We believe this alliance will support our mutual goal of reducing healthcare supply chain costs.”

About Global Healthcare Exchange
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) provides an open and neutral electronic trading exchange, along with complementary products and services, through which buyers and sellers can collaborate to improve efficiencies in the healthcare supply chain. GHX’s catalog and content services improve the accuracy of purchasing transactions, reducing many of the most common and costly problems in healthcare procurement, while the privately held company’s revenue neutral business model is designed to lower costs for all involved. GHX’s owners, strategic partners and trading exchange participants are representative of the entire healthcare supply chain, including suppliers and distributors; integrated delivery networks (IDNs), hospitals and ancillary healthcare facilities; group purchasing organizations and their proprietary healthcare trading exchanges; and supply chain technology companies. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson Health Care; GE Medical Systems; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Abbott Exchange, Inc.; Siemens; Becton, Dickinson & Co.; Boston Scientific Corp. Tyco Healthcare Group, LP; Guidant Corp.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.; McKesson Corp.; B Braun Medical Inc.; Premier, Inc. and HCA. For more information visit www.ghx.com.

About MedAssets HSCA
MedAssets HSCA, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is the third largest group purchasing organization in the country, serving more than 16,000 healthcare providers, nationwide, with purchasing power approaching $7 billion in gross throughput. It is MedAssets HSCA's mission to be the market-leading, customer-oriented supply chain and contract services company, focused on maximizing the financial performance of healthcare institutions. For more information about MedAssets HSCA, or its parent company MedAssets Inc., contact Gary Johnson, vice president for Marketing and Marketing Services at gjohnson@medassets.com.