Contract Specialist

Overview

Ardent Health Services (AHS) is a national health care services company headquartered in Nashville, TN. Through its subsidiaries, Ardent owns and operates nearly 200 sites of care. Our subsidiaries own and operate hospitals and multispecialty physician practices in six states. Ardent includes 30 hospitals, 4,840 patient beds, 23,000 employees, and 1,700 employed physicians. Within the industry, we are noted for recognizing that every hospital is as unique as the community it serves. This in-depth understanding of how health care works at the local level is one of our great strengths.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Contract Specialist will have the primary responsibility to manage contract process flow, track contract status monthly/quarterly, build relationships with Hospital Directors and Corporate Directors, and participate in capital meetings. In addition, the Contract Specialist will also communicate/ process mange directly with several Ardent Corporate Directors throughout the CER submission/review/approval process. This role's responsibilities will necessitate a high attention to detail to organize and keep market-level contracts (service, management, physician, etc.) orderly and processed accordingly. Additionally, the Contract Specialist will need to be kept current and monitored as the approval/renewal process is completed. Daily responsibilities will necessitate a high attention to detail to organize and keep market capital orderly and processed accordingly.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for administrative side of sourcing process: tracking projects, developing and distributing weekly updates/announcements, generating expiration reports, managing CLM, etc.

• Responsible for presenting contract strategies and final award recommendations to internal stakeholders including finance, legal, clinical, portfolio specialists and others.

• Formulates a clear vision of the strategy, articulates the vision, and executes the steps necessary to achieve the strategy.

• Maintains an accurate contracting work plan and contracting details in the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system.

• Reads situations, people/parties and adapting strategies or negotiations as necessary throughout the sourcing process. This individual must be able to work closely with individual stakeholders (clinicians, supply chain, physicians or other executives) to align the strategy.

• Plans and executes project timelines for assigned categories, with minimal oversight.

• Facilitates conversations with internal functional team during project kick-off to gather feedback, opinions, and alignment of resource needs to meet contracting initiative timelines

• Provides routine communication of bid process, negotiation status, agreement on terms, financial proposal concerns and other matters with supplier and internal team/enterprise stakeholders

• Collaborates with functional team throughout sourcing process (e.g. with legal staff on development and finalization of contract, with financial analysts on assessing supplier proposals, with contract analysts on product/price loading of awarded agreements, etc.).

• Collaborates with the senior supply chain team, market supply chain leaders/contracting teams and the local MMIS team of the IDN.

• Leads resources that may not be directly managed - skilled in upward communication as well as across and downward communication to inform and influence others no matter where they fit in the organizational chart.

Secondary/Stretch Functions

• Negotiates industry leading agreements for the enterprise. Objective is to ensure best in class industry pricing and contract terms and conditions.

• Responsible for the sourcing process for their assigned portfolio. The process includes market research, strategy development, RFI/RFP/Bid preparation, contract negotiations (pricing and terms), gaining consensus on award decisions, and launching the contracts.

• Responsible for developing the contracting strategy that will mitigate risks, address member needs, and maximize the best outcome.

• Participates in supplier business reviews and review new products/technologies as they arise.

• Collaborates with Director of Supply Chain Systems with the VP of Strategic Sourcing & Contracting to clean up courtesy and local agreements and improve pricing parity for the IDN.

• Establishes and meets expense savings goals.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree (Business, Health Administration, Nursing, or Pharmacy)

• Comply with regulatory requirements, guidelines, and policies of the hospitals

• Project management experience

• Multi-facility (Integrated Delivery Network, IDN) experience

• Demonstrates successful experience with project management and coordination and measurement of project deliverables

• Experience with pro formas and income statement review preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Advanced skills with Excel and PowerPoint required

• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills (in person, via email, via phone)

• Strong written and oral communication skills to a variety of stakeholders from executives to staff

• Excellent organizational and follow-through skills

• Ability to multi-task constantly and tolerate interruptions

• High attention to detail required for contract filing and maintenance

• Demonstrated ability to work in a professional, multi-disciplinary, matrix reporting team as a group leader, facilitator, or participant

• Demonstrates effective problem-solving skills which includes understanding issues, ability to simplify and process complex issues, understanding the difference between critical details and unimportant facts

• Possesses sound business judgement with a strong understanding of healthcare services, operations & finance