How GPOs and Supply Chain Solutions
Companies Use UNSPSC®
The Coalition for Healthcare eStandards
(CHeS) first endorsed the use of the UNSPSC in 2002. The
following are descriptions of how the nation’s top group
purchasing organizations and supply chain solutions companies
are using the UNSPSC® and making it available to their customers
and member organizations.
Amerinet
Amerinet continues to endorse the
utilization of the UNSPSC and responds directly to member
requests to ensure compliance within our e-commerce solutions.
For example, currently, all Amerinet Medical/Surgical line
items contain an UNSPSC code that our members access directly
from our contract catalog. Through Diagnostix, Amerinet's data
driven solution, providers can use UNSPSC codes to run spend
analysis by category or to identify UNSPSC codes that match
item master line items. Additionally, provider members use the
UNSPSC codes to populate the classification field in the MMIS.
For more information, contact:
Lisa DiMuccio-Conway
724-772-8388
• • • • •
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC
Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX)
adopted the United Nations Standard Product and Services Code
(UNSPSC) as the standard for classifying products in its
AllSource™ product content repository three years ago.
Since then, many of its participating hospitals have contracted
with GHX to classify products according to the UNSPSC taxonomy.
As more products are assigned UNSPSC codes, hospitals and other
healthcare providers can use the supplier-verified data in
AllSource not only to improve the accuracy of their
transactions, but also to gain a better understanding of what
they are spending, on what, with whom, by whom and for what
purpose. With this information, hospitals can more
strategically focus their cost improvement efforts. Many
providers also use the codes to cross reference product costs
to expense codes in order to track costs by procedure, doctor,
and/or facilities.
For more information, contact:
Karen Conway
720-887-7215
• • • • •
MedAssets
The leader in improving healthcare
providers' margin and cash flow through revenue cycle and
supply chain initiatives has fully adopted and implemented the
UNSPSC. By leveraging the standardized classification system
throughout our Supply Chain and Revenue Cycle technology
solutions customers trace the impact of a supply item from
order through to patient billing. Customers can search by
UNSPSC in an e Catalog, perform in-depth purchasing analysis
and map their charge master by UNSPSC. In addition, MedAssets
provides full UNSPSC classification as part of their Master
Item File services.
For more information, contact:
Michael Hayes
720-407-1746
• • • • •
Novation
Novation, the industry leading health care
contracting services company, provides VHA and UHC members with
online contract management and analytical tools that improve
purchasing decisions and procurement processes. An important
component of this offering is the ability for materials
departments to locate products for contract conversion. One way
this can be accomplished is by using the Novation Contract
Catalog to search by UNSPSC commodity categories. Currently,
more than 450,000 Med-Surg products are categorized by UNSPSC.
This information can be downloaded from the Novation Contract
Catalog and uploaded into the MMIS allowing members to track
and analyze their purchases by the classification code.
Moving forward, UNSPSC is at the foundation
of future offerings being developed for VHA and UHC members.
Applications and services are in development that will assist
members in analyzing their global supply spend by category,
assisting in identifying savings opportunities and cost
reduction.
For more information, contact:
Justin Hibbs
972-581-5141
• • • • •
Premier Inc.
As an early adopter of UNSPSC, Premier Inc.
has implemented UNSPSC codes for 1.2 million manufacturer-based
products. Beyond that, Premier has linked UNSPSC codes to 1
million related distributor cross-referenced products. Users of
Premier's online catalog can search for products using the
UNSPSC taxonomy. Products are categorized to the commodity
level, which is the deepest level of detail in the taxonomy. In
addition, Premier was instrumental in building out the Pharmacy
categories of the UNSPSC and is currently collaborating with
GHX to complete the product categorization of the UNSPSC.
For more information, contact:
Hunter Kome
704-733-5698
• • • • •
For more information about CHeS, contact:
Peggy Brody
Director of Communications
Coalition for Healthcare eStandards
3300 Washtenaw Ave., Suite 222
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Ph: 734-677-3300 ext. 127
Fax: 734-677-6622
