Group Purchasing Organizations

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Health care providers rely on group purchasing org. (GPOs) to negotiate contracts with vendors of medical products. In 2002, questions were raised about GPOs engaging in anti-competitive bus. practices such as collecting excessively high contract admin. fees. In 2003, it was reported that selected GPOs had adopted or revised codes of conduct to respond to questions about their bus. practices, but that it was too soon to evaluate the impact of the codes of conduct. This report describes: (1) the types of services that GPOs provide and how the GPOs fund these services; (2) initiatives that GPOs have implemented since 2002 to address the questions that had been raised about their bus. practices; and (3) the impact of the GPOs' codes of conduct and other initiatives.