Integrated Vendor Management Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minn. Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit, worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. Every year, more than 1 million people from all 50 states and nearly 150 countries come to Mayo Clinic for care. The health system includes more than 58,000 doctors, nurses, scientists, students and allied health staff at locations in the Midwest, Arizona, Georgia and Florida. Global Edge, Mayo Clinic’s integrated vendor management provider, licenses intellectual property from Mayo Clinic in regard to the development of holistic solutions for vendor authentication, corporate card audit and recall management processes. History Mayo Clinic takes a proactive approach to managing its suppliers within its supply chain processes. Stephanie Matejka, senior manager, Mayo Clinic Supply Chain Management, said, “We needed to streamline and better manage our organizational risk, and that required a unique approach to set a standard for risk mitigation and supplier management.” Mayo Clinic was in search of a holistic approach to supplier data management. The purpose for this initiative was multifaceted: ~~Improve compliance with regulatory agencies ~~Help to automate manual processes ~~Reduce risk of duplicate payments and fraud ~~Create a supplier scorecard that would collect data from multiple sources ~~Provide a single view of the supplier relationship/performance ~~Reduce operating costs The master data management role in health care organizations has historically been a data entry-type role. This creates limited compliance, risk and tax reporting checks. While vendors are reviewed at the time of set-up and annually for sanction checks, other change requests are only as needed and based on a user request. At no time is the entire vendor set-up reviewed again. In addition, the vast majority of vendor add requests are after a product or service has been purchased, which is contrary to knowing who you are doing business with prior to establishing a relationship with the vendor. Mayo Clinic found that their current process did not contain controls or the right procedures to: ~~Check on routine contracted vendors prior to vendor add ~~Validate tax reporting on vendors ~~Check on former Mayo employees set up as contract vendors or employed with a contractor without going through the HR review and approval process ~~Validate vendors through the authentication process ©2014 VHA Inc. All rights reserved. “Increased governmental regulations have placed more ownership on the buying organization to ensure that those they do business with are licensed and credentialed, and our Integrated Vendor Management Process helps to ensure that Mayo Clinic has all relevant information to make informed business decisions and reduce risk.” Stephanie Matejka Senior Manager Mayo Clinic Supply Chain Management ~~Place controls on being able to prevent new vendor set-up (if needed) to enforce a vendor formulary ~~Helps to track minority suppliers ~~Creates internal efficiencies ~~Drive the correct process, eliminate duplicate work and identify the process owners The solution was to build a tool based on a new business concept that aggregates previously unseen synergies that add value and operating efficiencies for health care organizations. It combined currently disparate processes, practices and technologies to come up with an integrated solution for risk management, including but not limited to: vendor credentialing, fraud detection, continuous monitoring of vendor master file, Office of Inspector General sanctions, electronic payments, product safety recalls, and accounts payable audit recoveries. Solution The creation of a Web-based vendor registration process is now in place. It requires that companies be registered and authenticated in order to do business with Mayo Clinic. The online platform validates vendors’ information against more than 250 data points, including third-party databases and public record, and then delivers a comprehensive risk assessment. “This process provides Mayo Clinic with the sense that the vendor is a responsible, legitimate company, with a history of legal and ethical behavior,” Matejka said. The process also: ~~Helps reduce the risk of fraud ~~Validates the company’s tax ID for Internal Revenue Service reporting compliance to ensure appropriate 1099 reporting ~~Verifies that the business is sound and that the company is Today, by having suppliers complete the vendor registration process, Mayo Clinic is better able to manage segments of its vendor population that have a higher level of risk. Of the total population invited to participate in the vendor authentication process, approximately 38% have completed the process and of that, 1.6% have been escalated for further review. As a direct result of this process, Mayo Clinic has suspended business with vendors that have not met the criteria. In addition, Mayo Clinic’s vendors are able to receive electronic payments, along with the associated remittance information. “Our vendors receive their funds more quickly, and it reduces the number of checks that we print, thus reducing costs,” Matejka said. Due to Mayo Clinic’s desire for a holistic approach to vendor management, it uses the same supplier for accounts payable audit recovery, contract compliance and e-notices to vendors containing remittance advice. The approach allows one supplier to help manage the data that give Mayo Clinic insight into an entire relationship with a vendor—something that through disparate systems is difficult to manage. Mayo Clinic is also actively working with the supplier to bring a corporate card audit and recall management tool into the suite of services to enhance the offering. Global Edge, Mayo Clinic’s integrated vendor management provider, licenses intellectual property from Mayo Clinic in regard to the development of holistic solutions for vendor authentication, corporate card audit and recall management processes. solvent.Ensures regulatory compliance by verifying that the vendor is not on any of the 50 federal or state sanction lists For more information, please contact VHA at 800.842.5146 or vhacustomerservice@vha.com. ©2014 VHA Inc. All rights reserved. Mayo Clinic and inventors have a financial interest in this technology.