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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Hickey
Phone: 703-243-9262

Arlington, VA (April 29, 2004) – The Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) is pleased to announce its support for the Coalition for Healthcare eStandards (CHeS) endorsement of the global location number (GLN) for the health care industry. GLNs are used in twenty-three other industries in the United States and 93 other countries as the customer identification standard for global and domestic business transactions. To support current and future supply chain efficiencies in the U.S. health care sector, HIGPA endorses the GLN customer identification standard.

“HIGPA’s members share the belief that rapid adoption of emerging standards, such as the GLN, product data utility (PDU) and the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC), are critical to supply chain efficiency in the health care industry, and the GLN is clearly viable as a commonly accepted standard for a location identifier in our industry as well,” said HIGPA’s President and CEO Robert Betz, Ph.D. “We are pleased to see that the Uniform Code Council will provide the GLN Registry as the means for GLN adoption in health care."

CHeS, comprised of some of the largest group purchasing organizations (GPOs) in health care and several e-commerce companies serving hospitals and the health care industry, seeks to adopt and promote uniform industry data standards for supply chain transactions over the Internet and sought the endorsement of HIGPA for the adoption of the GLN as a global location identifier for the health care industry.

The GLN details the associated name, address, and class of trade associated to each unique 13 digit number and the number is specific to only one exact and very precise location within the world. Many companies that do business within the health care industry also sell to customers in other industries and are already using the GLN with these customers, like Wal-Mart, Kroger, and TrueValue. In turn, it is clear that the health care supply chain should share the same level of technological sophistication to ensure the safety and cost efficiency of products to the end user.

HIGPA is a chartered trade association of over 175 health care purchasing and supply chain organizations. HIGPA's Industry Members include purchasing groups, associations, and health care provider alliances. HIGPA's Trading Partner members include many of the world's leading health care product manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and related suppliers. According to a recent study conducted by a former principal analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, hospitals save patients over $30 billion each year by purchasing products through group contracts.

To learn more about HIGPA or the group purchasing industry, visit www.higpa.org or call 703-243-9262.

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