Contract Insights

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act was passed by the United States in 2010 in an effort to increase the transparency of the fiscal relationships of drug manufacturers, medical device producers, and biological and medical supplies companies with health care providers.  The institution of the Sunshine Act demanded pharmaceutical organizations with relationships to Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to collect and track data relating to their agreements with entities such as physicians and teaching hospitals. 

Procurement processes are crucial to the overall success of an organization. Sourcing goods and services effectively can have a noticeable positive impact on a company’s bottom line. Contract management software can enhance an organization’s procedures by allowing for internal contract visibility, managing rules-based contract requests and requisitions, and ensuring the tracking of vendor performance ratings.

The decision to “build or buy” contract management software in the healthcare industry is a huge step in the process towards greater organizational efficiency.  Decision makers for hospitals, medical centers, and health plans must make this choice for a wide variety of software types including but not limited to: contract management software, billing and invoicing software, customer relationship management software, human resources software, or identity management software. 

In the business world, every professional is aware of what “workflow” is. Contract approval workflow, from the outside looking in, is just a giant chart of approvals and signatures that makes us all wonder, “Is all of this really necessary?” Of course, workflows are essential to keeping the buoyancy in every organization around the world. Processes must be followed in order to keep consistent, optimal production levels.