United Iroquois Shared Services, Inc. (UISS) is the for-profit division of the Iroquois Healthcare Association (IHA), focusing on group purchasing, shared services, and consulting activities that concentrate on reducing operating costs and enhancing operational performance for more than 500 health care members, which includes hospitals, nursing homes, surgery centers, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, physician groups, and other providers in Upstate New York.
The flagship enterprise of UISS is its group purchasing program, which has been designed to encompass national, regional, and local contracts to help members with their cost containment efforts.
On a national level, we have contracted with Premier Purchasing Partners, one of the largest group purchasing organizations in the United States with over $30 billion in reported volume. Through tailored negotiating strategies, Premier delivers strong national agreements in a variety of product categories. They negotiate extremely competitive pricing with market leaders in the health care industry while providing opportunities for UISS and GNYHA members to achieve further price reductions through volume aggregation and local standardization.
In addition, our members have access to a regional portfolio of contracts negotiated by GNYHA Services, the principal business subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association. GNYHA Services’ annual volume exceeds $3.5 billion, giving them the ability to negotiate national-level pricing on a regional-level basis.
The UISS local portfolio offers contracts that provide pricing for products and services specific to the Upstate New York region. The UISS staff works closely with its members to obtain contract suggestions in an effort to continually address their needs. Our annual purchasing volume is approximately $40 million.
Collectively, GNYHA and UISS members represent a significant share of Premier’s total book of business. To highlight this fact, we have established regional pricing tiers and/or other contract enhancements with Premier contract vendors that wanted to gain additional market share in New York State. As of January 2009, there are more than 150 Premier national contracts that have been enhanced for those members participating in the UISS/GNYHA/Premier program.
Because of the increasing number of extended care facilities within the UISS membership, we have partnered with Innovatix LLC, a national group purchasing organization dedicated to the specific and unique needs of the long-term care market. Innovatix, who is jointly owned by Premier and GNYHA, maximizes the benefits of the Premier program while focusing on their niche market. All UISS long-term care facilities receive the same benefits under Innovatix as the acute care facilities receive under Premier. However, through their unparalleled industry expertise, Innovatix offers additional, exclusive savings programs for items specific to the long-term care market.
In addition to our group purchasing program, UISS offers a portfolio of “Special Programs”, which are consultative services that our partners bring to IHA and UISS members. There are currently 15 offerings in this portfolio including retirement plan consulting; insurance solutions; background checks; and productivity and staffing analysis, to name a few.
As a new service, UISS provides supply chain consulting and data analysis services to our member hospitals. We assist our materials management departments by offering cost-reduction and/or standardization solutions that help remove costs and improve their bottom lines.
For more information about becoming a UISS member, please call (800) 290-7833 and ask for a member of the UISS Business Development Team.