4 Ways to Identify Cost Reduction Opportunities in Your Telecommunication Contracts

This article was written by Jacqueline Oberst.

With so many moving parts it can be a challenge for healthcare organizations to identify cost reduction opportunities hidden in complex telecommunication contracts.

The good news is that careful management of those contracts can reduce your costs and drive margin improvement. Here are four ways to identify potential cost savings:

Opportunity #1: Schedule Regular Contract Assessments

Schedule a regular assessment of your telecom contracts to ensure terms and pricing are accurately reflected in your invoices. A regular review will identify cost reduction opportunities that could save your organization an additional 40% in recovered revenue.

It is not uncommon for healthcare organizations to receive large volumes of telecom data every month, increasing the chances of missed savings opportunities. However, regular annual reviews will ensure that appropriate pricing and terms are applied to your account.

Opportunity #2: Search for Credits and Discounts

While reviewing your contracts to confirm that pricing and terms are accurate, it’s essential to verify that appropriate credits, discounts and incentives have also been applied to your account.
These are often overlooked for a number of reasons, but one of the most common is that certain long-term contracts, which are accepted in their current state, are not reviewed regularly.

At VIE Healthcare Consulting, we refer to these as the “Sacred Cow” accounts.

“Sacred Cow” accounts are lasting agreements that are often accepted as current and accurate due to an enduring and trusting vendor relationship, but these could also be hiding significant savings opportunities in the form of missed credits or another unrealized discount opportunity.

If reviewed frequently, your ‘Sacred Cow’ contracts could reveal considerable savings.

Opportunity #3: Track Contract Renewal Dates

Renewals are an ideal time to renegotiate better terms and pricing and to maintain specific items under contract.
With this strategy, your organization will always be ahead of potential price increases or any undesirable conditions before they occur. Strategies and negotiations can be planned in advance for a profitable result.

Although managing contract renewals has proven to be difficult, proper contract management delivers considerable savings primarily in larger healthcare organizations.

Opportunity #4: Gain Market Visibility

Investigate the top telecom vendors for comparable pricing, incentives and other necessary factors and benchmark these features into your telecom contracts.
Researching market standards will validate your request for best-in-class products and services with your current vendor. However, to be successful, visibility into the telecom market is key, although this is not easily obtained by a single healthcare organization.

For the most accurate results:

• Your health system will need to examine multiple vendors and employ a large bandwidth of resources.
• Negotiation skills and a deep knowledge of healthcare vendor programs are also necessary to secure cost-saving structures.

If your organization can provide all of these necessary resources, this strategy will deliver a significant improvement to your operating margins.

VIE Healthcare’s custom-designed strategies consistently produce thousands of dollars in monthly savings for our clients, but these only scratch the surface of the numerous ways we can save your hospital money.

Our patented technology, Invoice ROI™, automates our proven process to extract detailed data, reconcile invoices, carry out contract optimization and benchmark business intelligence for best-in-class standards every month.

With our technology, hospitals and healthcare organizations of any size will achieve consistent savings while your staff focuses on quality patient care.

The successful identification of savings within your telecom contracts requires:

• A deep knowledge of the telecom industry.
• In-depth understanding of healthcare processes.
• Strong negotiating skills for meetings with your vendors.

Extracting and reviewing the data in your invoices and contracts also takes an enormous amount of resources and bandwidth to accomplish every month.

Hospitals and other large healthcare organizations understand the benefits of leveraging outside service providers with the expertise and innovative technology to execute real results.

VIE Healthcare is that service provider for many hospitals across the nation.

Since 1999, VIE Healthcare has realized millions of dollars in telecommunication and IT cost savings for our healthcare clients.

To learn how we can help your organization, call our office today at 1-888-484-3332, Ext 500, or email us at info@viehealthcare.com for a complimentary consultation.

Join the discussion! We’d love to have you in our Healthcare Telecommunication Professionals LinkedIn group where we share more resources, ideas and strategies related to this critical area in your hospital.