By Matt O’Rourke, ZS Principal, Boston, and Abhishek Rathi, ZS Associate Principal, New York
Group purchasing organizations (GPO) have been part of medtech and the healthcare value chain in the U.S. for more than a century. Over the past few decades, their influence on provider economics has expanded substantially. The value GPOs deliver to providers and patients may be hotly contested in the media, but there’s no question of the imperative for medtech manufacturers to develop effective GPO contracting strategies that best serve both patients and shareholders.