A few weeks ago, I did my first piece on the different group purchasing organizations focused on immunizations whom I know, Main Street Vaccines. My goal is to provide an introduction to each of the GPOs and assemble the results in a single place so that pediatricians don't have to scramble everywhere looking for the information. I don't know if any of the GPOs themselves know how many peds offices don't use immunization buying groups, but any number >0% scares me. I'd guess it's 20-30%, frankly.
Next on the block: Physicians' Alliance. I have known them for a long time and have had more interaction with them than any other GPO for two reasons: first, they are perhaps the largest of the groups; second, Bob Chalmers, who runs the show, really "gets it" and wakes up every morning thinking about one thing: how to get his customers more for less. I really believe that.
As with Dr. Menkin, I asked Bob to give us a little background...here it is:
Thanks for the opportunity to present Physicians’ Alliance. We are a non-profit group purchasing organization founded in 1992 by 5 Pediatricians worried about the rising cost of running a practice. From that start we have grown to where we now serve well over 3,000 practices across the country with a full range of agreements covering vaccines and many of the goods and services they use every day. Our web site, www.physiciansalliance.com shows the full list of agreements we currently offer. Membership in Physicians’ Alliance is FREE and members choose which of our dozens of agreement s the want to access.
I have been the Executive Director since 2003. Prior to that, I was a hospital and practice administrator for 24 years. I have tried to bring that experience to bear in adding agreements to increase the value of being a member of Physicians’ Alliance.
In addition to vaccine agreements with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi Pasteur and MedImmune (FluMist), we offer agreements for office supplies, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, med mal insurance, EMR’s, credit card fees, locums tenens docs, collections agencies, med waste, office equipment, various insurances and much more. We even offer what I call “perk” agreements- services that may help you recruit staff with no cost to the practice- credit union, oil changes, tires, car batteries and service and the like.
Our member practices range in size from solo practice to 200 providers. We can help them all. They are located across the U.S. We even had a doctor from India who wanted to join but we had to decline.
We offer rebates to members linked to our vaccine agreements and meeting certain net sales figures. This is in addition to manufacturer’s rebates they might receive and the prime pricing they do receive. So, not only is membership free, we save practices money and they may even receive money for being part of Physicians’ Alliance!
In addition to the opportunities to save money on vaccines and more, we offer educational opportunities for office staff at very low prices. Our purpose for being is to help them thrive!
We reach out to our members via our web site and regular blast faxes. These highlight any new vendor partners, special deals and other information our members need. We work with them to reinforce our mantra- Good Medicine Meets Good Business. Quality clinical care with good business decisions.
We really do exist to serve our members! Call toll free 866-348-9780 or email me at bchalmers@physall.com if you have any questions or we can be of service to you.
Thanks!
Bob Chalmers
Physicians' Alliance is based on Georgia and they certainly have a lot of southern clients. I'm pretty sure they are in all 50 states, however.