Computing system and method for leveraging aggregated information to determine a unified purchasing solution

Inventors

Stump, John • Shain, Christopher • Wilson, Andrew • Scheckelhoff, Kevin • Niemiec, Gregg • Bates, Matthew • Luker, Jennifer

Assignees

McKesson Corp

Abstract

A computing system and method leverage aggregated information regarding historical medication usage and medication availability to efficiently determine a unified purchasing solution. In a method, an order is received for a quantity of a medication. For a covered entity, a portion of the quantity of the medication that is able to be satisfied pursuant to a 340B program is determined based upon information regarding historical usage of the medication for outpatients and prior purchases under the 340B program. The method also includes determining the portions that are separately able to be satisfied pursuant to a group purchasing organization (GPO) program and a wholesaler/prime vendor program. The method further includes determining a proposed purchasing solution and to cause information regarding the proposed purchasing solution to be provided including information regarding savings based upon the prices of the medication for a respective period of time that was provided by the supplier.

Core Innovation

A computer-implemented method and a computing system leverage aggregated information regarding historical usage of a medication and information regarding availability of the medication to determine a unified purchasing solution for a quantity of medication ordered by a health care provider. The method accesses data of a supplier of a medication to determine a purchase price and one or more reference prices, and receives the order for the quantity of the medication. The unified purchasing solution is based on determining respective portions of the quantity of the medication that are able to be satisfied pursuant to a 340B program, a group purchasing organization (GPO) program, and a wholesaler/prime vendor program.

For a health care provider that is a covered entity, the method determines a portion of the quantity of the medication able to be satisfied pursuant to a 340B program based upon information regarding historical usage of the medication for outpatients and prior purchases of the medication pursuant to the 340B program. The method also determines a portion satisfiable under a GPO program based upon prior purchases pursuant to the GPO program, and determines a proposed purchasing solution based upon the respective portions and prices pursuant to the programs.

The method causes information regarding the unified purchasing solution to be provided including information regarding savings based upon the purchase price and the one or more reference prices for a respective period of time provided by the supplier. The provided information includes orphan drug savings comparisons using prices under a manufacturer voluntary orphan drug pricing program versus GPO pricing, generic-equivalent substitution savings using weighted prices, and premium analysis for the wholesaler/prime vendor program relative to the GPO program, including causes and potential solutions presented via a user interface.

Claims Coverage

The document includes four independent claims. Across these claims, the inventive features repeatedly cover leveraging aggregated historical usage and medication availability, determining satisfiable portions for 340B, GPO, and wholesaler/prime vendor programs, determining a proposed unified purchasing solution using supplier purchase prices and reference prices for a respective period, and providing savings or premium information.

Across the independent claims, the central claimed approach is to determine a unified purchasing solution by allocating order quantities into portions satisfiable under 340B, GPO, and wholesaler/prime vendor programs using aggregated historical usage and information regarding availability, then calculating savings based on supplier purchase prices versus reference prices for a respective period. A separate independent claim focuses on determining a wholesaler/prime vendor premium relative to a GPO program and providing a user-interface presentation including premium causes and potential solutions.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications