Thank you to the members, suppliers & colleagues who’ve been alongside us for the ride
This year, HealthTrust Performance Group proudly marks 25 years of serving healthcare organizations by accelerating savings and optimizing performance for hospitals, health systems and non-acute care providers.
Formed in 1999 by founding members HCA Healthcare, Lifepoint Health and Triad Hospitals (now Community Health Systems), HealthTrust has evolved from just a traditional group purchasing organization (GPO) into a total performance improvement organization, serving all classes of trade across the continuum of care.
HealthTrust’s portfolios have grown over the last 25 years to offer an expansive range of product and service categories, supporting providers in all aspects of operating a healthcare facility, including labor. The organization also has one of the industry’s oldest and most respected supplier diversity contracting programs.
An operator’s advantage has set HealthTrust apart from the beginning. HealthTrust is responsible for the day-to-day operations of some of the nation’s largest healthcare systems. It is this daily accountability that provides the team with an insider’s view. The ability to solve today’s toughest challenges through the lens of a trusted partner is unique to HealthTrust because it is there—experiencing and solving the very same challenges as the providers it supports.
The power of collaboration
While the healthcare industry has experienced more than its fair share of challenges over the last 25 years (including natural disasters, the Affordable Care Act and the COVID-19 pandemic, to name a few), one thing remains unchanged at HealthTrust: The power of collaboration continues to be a force for overcoming obstacles both large and small. Our members, suppliers and colleagues are the best examples of how partnerships succeed. Here, we share the stories of just a few who have been with us since day one.
‘Silver’ member spotlight: HomeTown Health
A lifeline for independent hospitals
Georgia-based HomeTown Health is a network of rural hospitals, providers and business partners working to stay viable in the ever-changing healthcare environment. Reimbursement changes, evolving technology requirements and staffing issues create disproportionate financial risk for rural hospitals, putting many of them in danger of closing. Without HealthTrust’s partnership over the last 25 years, HomeTown Health CEO Jimmy Lewis says many more hospitals would have closed by now.
“It’s very simple,” says Lewis. “Because HealthTrust partners with so many vendors and hospitals, there is higher demand for better quality and pricing. HealthTrust is able to procure the best pricing on products and services and share that with independent rural hospitals, who need every bit of that they can get.” Over 25 years, HomeTown Health has taken advantage of the GPO’s widespread capabilities, where just about anything operational and clinical within the hospital can be evaluated for quality and pricing.
While the team knows of other GPOs, HomeTown Health has remained partnered with HealthTrust. “We are dealing with hospitals that are cash-crunched, so we need every advantage that HealthTrust brings to the table,” explains Lewis. “The extraordinarily professional staff works through the supply chain to get us the best pricing and quality. They’re extremely well-versed in the market and accessible, which is important because almost everything is urgent.”
Continually, one of the biggest challenges that independent and rural hospitals like those within the HomeTown Health network face is the reduction in government reimbursement. For these hospitals, the savings achieved by purchasing through HealthTrust contracts has allowed them to offset their losses.
Taking advantage of HealthTrust’s significant spend has enabled HomeTown Health’s small, rural hospitals to afford the high-quality, smartly priced resources needed to stay viable. “Because of the discounts they get, our relationship with HealthTrust has, without a doubt, afforded us the ability to survive,” adds Lewis.
A partnership of trust & understanding
“Jimmy Lewis and the team at Hometown Health team have been a fixture with HealthTrust these since the beginning of both organizations,” says Andrew Lane, VP of Strategic Accounts with HealthTrust. “Interestingly, each of us is celebrating 25 years in business in 2024. Not only do we share an anniversary, but we have similar goals, including a patients-first philosophy. HealthTrust is proud to be a champion for Hometown Health and support its mission of delivering value to its hospital members and the people they serve through excellent, accessible care in their neighborhoods and the use of quality products and services.”
HomeTown Health’s hospital leaders attend HealthTrust conferences, where they have an opportunity to meet and network one on one with suppliers, as well as learn about national and international best practices. “The HealthTrust conferences we attend are extraordinary,” says Lewis. “We advise our members to listen to what HealthTrust tells them. They feature world-class presenters who speak directly to best practices, and then we carry those back to our 40-plus hospitals in Georgia.”
HomeTown Health has used the HealthTrust University Conference as a model for its own member conferences and communications, including 200 webinars on issues important to their providers. “We developed an online education program out of our relationship with HealthTrust,” says Lewis. As many as 20,000 people attend.
Any business owner knows that having partners who care about what you’re doing and who understand your mission is extremely important. That’s precisely what Lewis says the relationship with HealthTrust has been for 25 years. “We love having HealthTrust’s experts come and intermingle with our group at conferences as though they are part of our team, because they are,” says Lewis. “We can talk about contracts and savings, but it’s the trust and partnership that makes it more than a GPO relationship.”
The fact that they have people at the national level who understand is helpful and allows them to talk through many issues. “We are in the business of listening for issues,” he explains. “HealthTrust is a phenomenal partner who understands our needs and is all about helping us keep access to healthcare alive and well.”
As healthcare delivery continues to transform, Lewis expects that in 25 years, HomeTown Health will continue to change right along with it. “At the top of the list is having to deal with the latest technology, including AI,” says Lewis. His group’s rural hospitals are so resource-limited that if they can’t figure out how to adopt a technology, they are in danger of closing. “We’ve got to be prepared and engaged. HealthTrust brings us that education and shares it with us.”
‘Silver’ supplier spotlight: Medline Industries & Kerma Medical Products
A shared focus on the customer
Healthcare suppliers Medline Industries and Kerma Medical Products have been with HealthTrust since the beginning. As HealthTrust has expanded over the years, these two companies have also experienced exponential growth. And, just like HealthTrust, supporting those who deliver healthcare to patients is their shared purpose. “Like HealthTrust, we focus on the end user, which is the patient,” explains Jeff Fair, National Accounts VP, Acute Care Sales at Medline. “We are proud of the breadth of our product line and to be able to provide up to 40% of a healthcare provider’s needs.”
Kerma President Joe Reubel agrees. “What matters most to us in providing products is the impact on patient outcomes,” he explains. “As GPOs, manufacturers, distributors and healthcare providers, it’s our responsibility to enable excellent care for those we serve.”
From humble beginnings to explosive growth
At the beginning of their relationship with HealthTrust, Medline had five contracts covering plastics, commodities, textiles and general wound care. Today, it holds more than 80 agreements with HealthTrust.
“One of the first contracts was a custom procedural trays (CPT) agreement that was worth maybe $30 million,” says Fair. CPTs contain all the medical/surgical disposable items needed for a specific surgery, such as a hip replacement. “Today the agreement is worth 10 times that amount based on the explosive growth among HealthTrust’s membership over the course of that time.
“In the early years of our partnership, contracting was done very differently than it’s done today,” says Fair. The contracting process has evolved to keep pace with changing market dynamics and member growth.
Medline’s partnership came out of a relationship with Columbia Healthcare’s (now HCA Healthcare’s) El Paso hospitals. Medline has experienced immense growth, and Fair credits HealthTrust with helping to make that happen. “When I started calling on HCA Healthcare, we maybe did $65 million in sales; today, we do more than $2 billion in sales through our HealthTrust contracts,” Fair says. Medline won an important contract in 1995 for CPTs—that contract essentially allowed them to build a new facility. CPTs can decrease OR turnaround time and help make them run more efficiently. “The CPTs have been our biggest contract with HealthTrust from the beginning,” Fair adds.
HealthTrust’s dedication to driving compliance among its members is what sets it apart from the other GPOs. To take advantage of the best pricing and terms and conditions, members are encouraged to choose suppliers that are on contract with HealthTrust. Compliance matters greatly to suppliers because it helps them deliver the best value to hospitals and patients. “HealthTrust’s committed model means that if you are awarded a contract, you generally will get the business along with it because the agreement means something to your buyers,” Fair adds.
Over the years, HealthTrust’s membership base has grown not only in the acute care space, but also in non-acute care. “Back in the day, there were maybe three employees who supported members,” says Fair. “Today, HealthTrust has an entire team of account managers assigned to members, and it’s their job to help them optimize the contract portfolio.”
The toughest challenge that Medline has overcome in the last 25 years has been the major supply chain disruption caused by COVID. “We learned a lot from it,” says Fair. “We had been back ordering, so there was nothing for the supply chain to provide. The biggest lesson we learned is that we must source products from multiple countries.”
Taking the good with the bad
When Kerma secured its inaugural contract with HealthTrust, it marked a pivotal moment that altered the company’s trajectory. “This contract, our first with a GPO, gave us instant credibility within the market,” explains Reubel. The partnership with HealthTrust has been crucial to Kerma’s growth. “Without it, we wouldn’t be the company we are today,” says Reubel. “HealthTrust stands as our top customer, both in terms of contracts and revenue generated.”
Looking back, “Kerma’s greatest challenge over the past 25 years has been the erosion of margins in the marketplace, stemming from financial strains on hospitals,” says Reubel. “[Still], at Kerma, we have dedicated ourselves to delivering products of the highest quality at the most competitive prices possible.”
There have been many great memories as well. Reubel recalls an unforgettable scene in Kerma’s exhibition booth at the 2010 HealthTrust University Conference. “The world’s strongest man from the 1970s, Bill Kazmeier (American former world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional wrestler), was rolling frying pans in our booth,” says Reubel. Kazmeier was on hand to attract people to the booth with demonstrations of his enormous strength by taking frying pans and literally bending them with his bare hands. HealthTrust CEO Ed Jones, a fan, was also present. “It was a delight to witness Bill and Ed rolling frying pans together in our booth.”
The future is bright
Fair and Reubel look toward the future with excitement. In 25 years, both Medline and Kerma expect to continue expanding their businesses.
“Currently, Medline has about 300,000 med-surg products, and we expect to have a bigger footprint throughout all healthcare classes of trade,” Fair says.
“In 25 years, my hope is for Kerma to have significantly expanded its business footprint, delving deeper into manufacturing, sourcing and utilizing AI to enhance growth efficiencies while maintaining core competencies and values,” says Reubel.
Your turn: What are some of your best memories from your relationship with HealthTrust through the years? Email thesource@healthtrustpg.com or post to the HealthTrust Huddle, and we might include you in an upcoming story.
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