As a member benefit, ACP Vaccine Advantage provides a free and unbiased assessment of a practice's vaccine procurement process. It offers improvement recommendations to simplify the process and save the practice both time and money.
What is the cost of this service?
The service is free to ACP members.
How will ACP Vaccine Advantage save my practice money?
ACP Vaccine Advantage provides the best combination of vaccine contracting and ordering, resulting in the invoice’s lowest total cost. The requested vaccines are matched to the best contracting options, maximizing contract T&Cs. The practice is linked to the most efficient way to order the vaccines. Our selected distributors support the lowest contract pricing, provide the longest time to pay with discounts, and process expired vaccines for return and credit per the vaccine manufacturers' T&Cs.
How will the ACP Vaccine Advantage save my practice time?
It eliminates shopping around for the best deal and provides the ability to order multiple manufacturers’ vaccines under one account. Once set up, the practice knows which combination of contracting and sourcing is the optimal solution.
How will the ACP Vaccine Advantage improve my practice’s cash flow?
ACP Vaccine Advantage will help your practice match cash outflow (paying the vaccine bill) closer to cash receipt flow (reimbursement of vaccine product and administration). This is accomplished by providing recommendations that provide:
- Longer payment terms with a 2% prompt pay discount
- Best-contracted prices
- Credits from returned expired vaccines can be applied to future invoices
What should the best purchasing solution include?
- The lowest contracted prices
- Ability to order direct and/or from a partnered distributor
- Longest time to pay for the vaccine bill
- Prompt pay discount on all vaccines
- Ability to combine other vaccine manufacturer products on a single order
- Additional savings on vaccine supplies and other medical supplies
- Ability to return an expired vaccine, post expiry date, for credit
Why is vaccine returnability important?
Vaccine waste has been estimated at 5%, and for many practices half of that is due to vaccines with expired dating. Many practices throw these vaccines out because most distributors and wholesalers do not take the product back and return it to the manufacturers for credit. Not being able to return expired vaccines can cost a practice thousands of dollars in losses. Our partnered distributors and manufacturers take expired vaccines back and credit the practice’s account.
Is ordering direct from the manufacturer always the best alternative?
Ordering direct from the manufacturers intuitively sounds like the best alternative. However, it does not always provide the longest time to pay for vaccines and the lowest invoice costs. It also does not allow for combining multiple manufacturers' vaccines and vaccine supplies on a single account or order.
What are the types of vaccine contracts?
- Standard or Direct programs are offered directly from the vaccine manufacturers.
- Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO) programs typically operate under hospital affiliated purchasing groups. These arrangements usually span most vaccine manufacturers.
- Physician Buying Groups (PBG) usually offer 1-2 vaccine manufacturer products within a PBG. They typically have the best pricing compared to GPOs.
From a vaccine perspective, what is the difference between a wholesaler and a physician distributor?
Physician distributors generally support the physician market and supply a more limited product line than do wholesalers. Wholesalers generally support the pharmacy and hospital market and will support hospital-affiliated practices. The vaccine contracts they support vary by manufacturer.
Do all physician distributors and wholesalers buy vaccines, mark them up, and resell them at higher prices?
Many distributors and wholesalers sell directly to practices, not on a manufacturer contract. In this scenario, practices are charged higher rates. If the practice is on a GPO or PBG contract and the distributor and wholesaler is an approved distributor, they should provide vaccines at the contracted prices. Access to PBG contract pricing is limited and varies significantly by the vaccine manufacturers.
What do I need to supply to see if this is a fit for my practice?
Complete a brief form telling us the vaccines the practice uses or plans on using, the contracts the practice is under, and where the practice purchases their vaccines. ACP will review your submission and respond to you, letting you know whether the program is a good fit for your practice.
Does ACP earn any revenue from contracts offered to members?
Vaccine manufacturers pay administration fees to purchasing organizations to administer their programs. ACP has partnered with a nonprofit entity that has access to vaccine contracts with minimal administration fees. The entity has agreed to share a portion of its fees with ACP. These fees do not impact the member’s pricing nor the recommendations.
Is the service associated with a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO)?
Contracting options explored within the ACP Vaccine Advantage program include vaccine manufacturers programs with a Physician Buying Group and the Provista Group Purchasing Organization. Provista is the leader in group purchasing for medical practices, and in addition to vaccine pricing programs, its members have access to other saving programs for the practice and their employees.