Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Who and What is Group Purchasing Alliance?
2. Is there a fee to join GPA?
3. Is there a cost to maintain my membership with GPA?
4. What type of facility or practice can benefit from an association with GPA?
5. How does GPA make its money?
6. Who are the members of GPA?
7. Besides the typical discounted medical and office supply products-what else does GPA do or provide to it’s members?

Who and What is Group Purchasing Alliance?
Group Purchasing Alliance (GPA) was organized and set up back in the fall of 1995 in an attempt to address the needs of the American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities-by providing its membership access to a group purchasing organization. Since then, we have successfully negotiated access to discounted pricing on pharmaceuticals, medical-surgical supplies, brand name suture, and a broad range of capital equipment. Our latest initiative is the sales and service of the best of electronic medical records software and systems customized to your practice and even enabling incorporation of your existing software. Back to top.

Is there a fee to join GPA?
No. GPA has never required a fee to join. Back to top.

Is there a cost to maintain my membership with GPA?
No. There are no dues or minimum orders. We stay in business by growing the
volume our members buy under the contracts we negotiate. We anticipate no change in this policy for the future. If we can’t beat the competition, we don’t deserve your business! Back to top.

How does GPA make its money?
Group Purchasing Alliance assists in promoting quality healthcare relief and assists diverse providers in effectively managing their expenses. The contracting services that GPA negotiates and provides to its health care providers from its distribution partners and product vendors are financed in part by fees paid to GPA by its distribution and manufacturing vendors. Known in the industry as "administrative fees", these fees are generally based on the purchase price the healthcare provider pays for a product purchased through a negotiated contract. The fee is paid only when a GPA health care provider, member, or client utilizes a GPA contract for that vendor's product(s) or service(s), and not before. In general, administrative fees are used to support GPA's operating expenses. As GPA charges no initiation fees or annual dues we have found that we can in many instances return an efficiency dividend to our member facilities by allowing us to track the purchase patterns and volume purchases from our vendor partners. With this knowledge we try to seek better content for our formularies and better pricing for our members. Your volume combined with that of other members allows us to negotiate better pricing for you. GPA collects an "Administrative" fee of all sales volumes from the vendors that they negotiate a contract from, but only when their members purchase products from the vendor partner. We get paid only when we save you money and you continue to access the programs we set up for your benefit. For further information on this subject go to: Terms of Use Disclosure & Agreement
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What type of facility or practice can benefit from an association with GPA?
GPA has expanded its membership to include the members of ASPS, ASAPS-and a variety of other medical specialties that operate stand-alone surgical facilities.
Typically, these facilities (and clients) are not affiliated with any hospital or national organization. Back to top.

Who are the members of GPA?
The simple answer is surgeons. Plastic, Cosmetic and Reconstructive surgeons were our primary focus-but we have now have Eye Clinics, Orthopedic Clinics, Dermatology Clinics-and a whole host of Multi-Speciality Clinics and facilities accessing our programs. We have no limitations on the type of member who can join. The type of “formularies” (or basket of goods) we have negotiated with vendors has primarily attracted privately owned and stand-alone surgical facilities. Back to top.

Besides the typical discounted medical and office supply products-what else does
GPA do or provide to it’s members?
GPA’s need to develop new programs to service it’s growing client base is imperative. We are in the process of developing a program that addresses this need with an impressive array of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solutions and HIPAA compliant platforms. We will continue to experiment with our formularies, manufacturer relationships and distribution channels in a concerted effort to fine-tune our product offerings. The key to our continued success has been our ability maintain relevant product offerings and programs that service our membership in a variety of compelling ways. Back to top.