Emerge Medical Awarded an Orthopedic Trauma Agreement with the Premier Healthcare Alliance

    DENVER, CO., March 21, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Emerge Medical, Inc., a pioneer in generic orthopedic devices for the healthcare industry, announced today that it has signed a nationwide agreement with the Premier healthcare alliance. The agreement will make Emerge's orthopedic devices available to Premier's 2,500 hospital members at specially negotiated pricing and terms.

Emerge will provide Premier member hospitals with a high-quality, low-cost alternative to traditional medical device suppliers. Emerge manufactures standard orthopedic devices exclusively in the United States and provides them for 40 to 50% less than competitors. Price savings stem from Emerge's business model of focusing on quality manufacturing processes and products, eliminating costly sales reps, and streamlining the supply chain.

"Above all, Emerge enables hospitals and physicians to deliver high-quality orthopedic devices to patients," said Chaun Powell, Vice President Sales, Emerge Medical, Inc., "without having to pay premium prices."

Emerge's business model addresses two prominent economic issues in orthopedics: the high cost of legacy products and unsustainable annual price increases. Emerge solves the first by reducing the price of products like plates and screws by up to 50%, providing customers with significant immediate savings. Emerge also offers a radically different approach to long-term pricing. Rather than industry standard annual price increases of 5 to 15% on basic products, Emerge guarantees customers annual cost reductions for the term of their contract. Hence, fair pricing is now available to the orthopedic market.

"This approach is a game changer for hospitals," said Powell. "Our vision is akin to other game-changing trends in the healthcare industry, such as the transition to generic pharmaceuticals in the 1980s. We are currently focused on the orthopedic trauma market and are delighted to partner with another visionary organization in Premier."

"Premier's agreement with Emerge continues to validate the company's business model as a viable solution for meeting the economic demands facing the healthcare industry today," said John Marotta, CEO, Emerge Medical, Inc.

As the U.S. healthcare system is under increasing pressure to create efficiencies across the entire supply chain, Emerge Medical offers hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, group purchasing organizations and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) carefully researched products at lower costs due to its simplified distribution channel.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 81,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping to deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com

About Emerge Medical, Inc.
Emerge Medical, Inc., a pioneer in the delivery of orthopedic devices to the healthcare industry, provides high quality, orthopedic surgical products at fair prices to healthcare supply chain managers, material managers and procurement executives. Emerge Medical is committed to reducing healthcare costs through the development of standardized, generic implants and instruments. The company currently offers devices for the $2 billion orthopedic trauma market. Emerge is able to realize cost savings of up to 50% by streamlining the supply chain and working directly with hospital administrators, which eliminates the selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs traditionally associated with medical devices.

Emerge Medical, Inc. is based in Denver, Colorado. For more information on the company, please visit the news section of the Emerge site.

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