May 8, 2006

NAPERVILLE, IL – The Illinois Hospital Association (IHA) today announced a new program to reduce health care supply chain costs for its approximately 200 members. With the launching of the Illinois Purchasing Collaborative (IPC), Illinois will be only the second state in the country where a statewide hospital association has established a regional aggregating and contracting resource to provide hospital members access to pricing tiers previously unattainable. The IPC will initially work through collaborative volume aggregation with individual member hospitals and then expand regionally into a statewide purchasing force.

The IPC is modeled after a highly successful program pioneered by GNYHAVentures, Inc, a subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), in cooperation with the Hospital Association of New York State.

Through IPC, an innovative member-driven collaboration, participants will have access to local purchasing and custom contracting options; industry-leading national contract pricing on health care supplies, equipment, food and pharmaceuticals; supply chain-related comparative data; and exemplary materials management technology.

IPC will be housed in the Association Management Resources (AMR) service arm of IHA. AMR leadership, which comes from member hospitals and health systems, has been involved in and strongly supportive of this venture. Executives from several large member hospitals and health systems also have indicated their intent to combine their purchasing volume within the collaborative to ensure that the most beneficial contract pricing tiers are quickly reached. IHA consulted with several executives about the value that IPC would bring to the Illinois hospital community, including Joseph Toomey, President and CEO of Resurrection Health Care and a former member of IHA’s Board of Trustees.

"We are absolutely in favor of IHA’s efforts to identify additional ways to cut costs, manage expenses and advocate for our state’s health care system," said Toomey. "Now more than ever, it is extremely important for the hospitals of Illinois to band together and achieve the greatest benefits from this collaboration."

AMR is partnering in this program with Premier Purchasing Partners (the group purchasing component of Premier, Inc.) to access its industry-leading contract portfolio. IPC’s initial membership will come from the Premier-owner hospitals located in Illinois, which includes a number of prominent hospital organizations.

"We applaud IHA’s focus on reducing costs and providing data to its members to assist them in making prudent purchasing and supply chain management decisions," said Susan DeVore, President of Premier Purchasing Partners. "As IHA’s partner, Premier can help IHA members keep costs down through effective supply chain management. Together, we can keep health care affordable and accessible in the communities IHA members serve."

After performing appropriate due diligence, which included evaluation of and discussions with several national group purchasing organizations, IHA selected Premier because of its leading portfolio pricing, focus on technology and data, commitment to flexibility in local contracting, and understanding of the local nature of health care delivery.

"We believe Premier is the right partner for us in enhancing purchasing opportunities for our membership," explains Robbins. "We are impressed with the organization’s dedication to the industry’s highest standards for business conduct as well as its rich contract portfolio. It will be a beneficial match."

AMR also is working with GNYHA Ventures, Inc. which has achieved significant success with its local and regional contracting model.

"We have been successful in New York because, first, our hospitals take seriously their responsibility to lower costs without sacrificing quality," said Lee Perlman, President of GNYHA Ventures, Inc. "Secondly, they recognize that local and regional collaboration – to achieve economies of scale – is the way that lower costs can be sustained over the long run."

In developing IPC’s offerings, AMR is focusing on several key criteria for success:

About the Illinois Hospital Association
The Illinois Hospital Association, with offices in Naperville and Springfield, represents approximately 200 hospitals and health systems and the patients and communities they serve. Association members range from teaching hospitals, to community hospitals, to rural facilities, to specialty institutions. Since IHA was formed in 1923, its mission has been to strengthen and unite hospitals and make high-quality, affordable health care available to all Illinoisans. To make this possible, the Association works to ensure that adequate resources are available for the state's health care delivery system. With health care delivery going through radical changes, that mission is more important now than ever before.

About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc., the leader in helping hospitals accelerate performance on both clinical outcomes and supply chain costs, is a health care alliance entirely owned by more than 200 of the nation’s leading not-for-profit hospitals and health care systems. These organizations operate or are affiliated with nearly 1,500 hospitals and more than 38,500 other health care sites. Premier Purchasing Partners provides an array of services supporting health services delivery including group purchasing totaling more than $25 billion annually in supplies and equipment purchasing, as well as supply chain and clinical performance improvement services.

Premier Healthcare Informatics offers performance measurement, benchmarking, and reporting products and advisory services supporting quality improvement. Premier Insurance Management Services helps hospitals manage insurance costs and improve risk management and claims capabilities. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, and Washington. For more information, visit http://www.premierinc.com.

About GNYHA Ventures, Inc.
GNYHA Ventures, Inc., a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), is a unique business that exists to create and offer services that serve the GNYHA membership in its mission to improve efficiencies, cut costs, while maintaining an excellent standard of patient care. GNYHA Ventures is also the parent company of GNYHA Services, Inc., Innovatix, LLC, Nexera, Inc., and Bellwether Specialty Management. For more information, please visit http://www.gnyhaventures.com.

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