Running the process
Vendor contract management for healthcare organizations
Vendor contract management sounds bigger than it is. It comes down to knowing who you pay, what you agreed to, when it ends and who's watching it.
Phones, EHR, IT support, staffing, shredding and answering services all tend to sign separately, renew separately and get forgotten separately.
Build the list in four passes
First, accounts payable. Pull everyone you paid in the last 12 months. That's the most complete record you have of who you actually do business with.
Second, the contract folders: shared drives, filing cabinets and email attachments. Match each contract to a payee.
Third, company credit cards. Software subscriptions and click-through agreements often live there and nowhere else.
Fourth, department leads. Ask each one what they use that still isn't on the list. The answers are often small: a texting service, a survey tool, a courier.
What the gaps tell you
Say accounts payable shows 70 vendors and the folders hold 45 contracts. Some of the 25 gaps are fine, like utilities or a one-time purchase. Others are vendors whose signed contract nobody can find, or a click-through agreement nobody read.
Those are the ones to chase. Get a signed copy from the vendor, note the term and notice period, and ask whether they touch patient information.
Keep it current
The list only stays useful if new vendors are added when they start, not at the next cleanup. Make filing the contract part of setting a vendor up for payment.
Once a year, compare the list to accounts payable again. Anything new on the payables side got in without a contract on file.
When a vendor is replaced, mark the old contract ended instead of deleting it. You'll want that history the next time someone asks what you used to pay, or whether the old vendor still has your data.
What to watch
Do you have one complete list?
Compare your accounts payable vendor list against your contracts. The gaps are usually a surprise.
Do you have the signed copy of each?
If the vendor holds the only copy, you're negotiating from their version.
Who is allowed to sign?
If anyone can sign a vendor's order form, contracts will turn up that nobody has seen. A short signing policy helps.
Are credit card subscriptions on the list?
Software bought on a card often auto-renews, and some of it holds patient data.
Do any of these vendors touch PHI?
Those need a BAA, and it's easier to check while you're building the list.
When did you last compare prices?
Long-running contracts, especially telecom, can drift well above current rates.
How Sapphires helps
- Import your vendors from a CSV spreadsheet, up to 500 rows, with a dry run first, and export them back in the same layout.
- Each vendor keeps its contracts, amendments and BAA together, and each contract has a category, service lines and an owner.
- Categories start with 21 healthcare categories that you can rename, add to or remove.
- Every contract is copied to your own OneDrive when saved and again nightly, so you keep your own copy.
- We help with onboarding: bringing in vendors and contracts, setting up owners and reminders, and walking your team through it.