Vizient aims to grow presence in non-acute market with purchase of Intermountain GPO
VIZIENT PLANS TO BUY the group purchasing organization Intalere from Intermountain Healthcare, the organizations announced last week.
The acquisition comes with Intermountain’s commitment to use Vizient’s group purchasing portfolio; the Salt Lake City-based integrated system already uses Vizient’s cost and quality analytic tools. Although Intalere only accounts for around $6 billion in annual purchasing volume across its some 100,000 members compared to Vizient’s $100 billion, half of those are in the non-acute space, where there is opportunity for growth, Vizient CEO Byron Jobe said.
“They have a very robust non-acute business,” Jobe told Modern Healthcare, adding that this deal will build on Vizient’s current 20% non-acute market share and allow it to leverage its purchasing power for home-care agencies, physician offices, long-term care facilities, ambulatory surgery centers and other non-acute facilities.
Intermountain, which purchased what was formerly Amerinet in mid2015, said the sale aligns with its population health strategy “by providing value-based care and services to an increasing number of patients, families and communities,” Bert Zimmerli, the system’s chief financial officer, said.
More large systems are standardizing supply chain purchases that marry cost and quality efficiencies, which can give them a competitive edge, executives said.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, executives said, declining to disclose the purchase price. Jobe said he doesn’t expect many issues with the antitrust review, and the organizations haven’t formalized integration strategies around staffing and other potential overlap. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for visibility and transparency across the supply chain, Jobe said. Vizient has tracked where personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals are developed, asking manufacturers to disclose where their raw materials and finished products are coming from, he said, adding that Vizient is also securing a six-month guarantee of products from more of the manufacturers it works with,
● which has helped mitigate shortages.