“Taking your Clinical Integration program to the Savings Beyond Price level is the next level of savings your CFO is looking for.”
Why hasn’t anyone pursued this before? Because prices have been king for so long that it’s hard to imagine savings coming from anywhere else. Even with Value Analysis clinician professionals at the table, healthcare supply chain teams are still reluctant to engage clinicians in every part of the savings picture, especially savings beyond price. When a big number is on the line, such as orthopedic implants or surgical energy devices, we reach out for clinician feedback to secure buy-in for the price change. But in this age of Clinical Integration, we still work around the edges of the products clinicians use every day. When do we move to true, ongoing engagement, where both sides share the good news and the bad?
Supply Chain Has Always Worked Around the Edges of Change to Minimize the Impact on Clinicians, and That’s Not Enough Anymore!
Clinicians want to take care of patients first and foremost. Supply Chain’s job is to get them the products they need at the lowest possible cost without compromising quality or reliability. Both sides of that coin are far more complex than they appear. Supply Chain has to clear a long list of hurdles on every decision, from GPO compliance to legal review, procurement and clinical efficacy. Clinicians, especially surgeons, now have to keep their cases in the black, because revenue is vital to the health of the entire system. Revenue funds everything and everyone. No revenue means no funding, no supplies, and no patient care.
Price Savings Is Not the Savior in 2026 and Beyond!
The ideal scenario for a Supply Chain leader is to keep the clinician’s existing product in place and capture savings through negotiations and rebates, with no change required. Clinicians would prefer that outcome 100% of the time, but that isn’t the reality of today’s healthcare environment. If price alone could reliably reduce costs year after year, that would be wonderful. Unfortunately, prices can’t always deliver the next level of savings your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) needs year in and year out.
Price Savings + Savings Beyond Price = Unlimited Ongoing Major Savings
I’m not saying you should give up on price. I’m saying its impact has dwindled to the point where it barely keeps pace with inflation, which is projected at about 3.2% heading into 2027. Consider this: If you have a large health system and you save $20 million on price and rebates in 2026, you probably feel pretty good. But if your system spends $600 million a year on supplies, that’s only about 3.3% of total savings and rebates, just enough to offset inflationary increases. And that only accounts for price-driven increases. It doesn’t account for rising spending from new products, utilization and consumption, waste, inefficient use, feature-rich products, and life cycle shortfalls. The dollars simply aren’t adding up anymore!
Creating a Forum to Address Savings Beyond Price with Clinicians
Taking your Clinical Integration program to the Savings Beyond Price level is the next level of savings your CFO is looking for. You already have a whole department grinding away on pricing. Now you need to engage clinicians in making positive changes to their utilization and consumption, so that the next level of savings happens on an ongoing basis. With the right benchmarking tools and utilization tracking, you can pinpoint exactly which categories, facilities, and departments to engage, along with the savings opportunity at each level. This deeper engagement will bring both positive and negative feedback, but it opens the conversation. It lets you be strategic in your approach and consistent in your methods, and it allows both sides to share in major savings while maintaining quality and outcomes.
It’s Time for Clinically Integrated Savings Beyond Price to Save an Additional 7% to 15% of Total Budget
Heading into 2027, many health systems are preparing to repeat what they did in 2026, 2025, and 2024, hoping it all works out the way it always has. That approach doesn’t move the needle. It barely keeps costs in check. One of these years, the promise of price will fall short under the weight of increases that manufacturers large and small keep putting on the table. It’s time for a whole new approach. That approach is Clinically Integrated Savings Beyond Price, and it will take your savings to an entirely new level by digging into your existing contracts, analyzing utilization and consumption, and benchmarking for best price across your health system. In 2026 and beyond, you should be pursuing savings beyond price on an ongoing basis!
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