A Word from Andy Klearman: Managing Non-Clinical Spend
July 9, 2026 by Medigroup
Independent urgent care practices have easy access to thousands of negotiated discounts.
Large, multi-site health systems have learned that using a centralized procurement system works. Today, 45% of urgent care facilities operate either under corporate or private equity ownership, and they use organized purchasing to control their costs. These networks have negotiating power, vendor contracts that reflect their scale, and visibility into how they spend. These practices are smart, and they grant a major advantage to multi-site Urgent Care networks.
Many independent practices don’t pursue procurement advantages because they think they don’t have the scale to negotiate individually. That’s a problem that can be fixed by a GPO. GPO’s like MediGroup help both larger and smaller Urgent Care providers manage their costs.
What Multi-site Health Systems Know About Back-Office Spend
Health systems with multiple locations tend to manage their non-clinical expenses. Non-clinical expenses are often overlooked by smaller, independent practices. These are the back-office, administrative, and operational supplies and services that don’t impact patient care but make it possible to run an efficient business.
Examples of non-clinical expenses:
- Office supplies
- Shipping and courier services
- IT hardware and software
- Document services
- Waste management
- Uniform and laundry services
- Language and translation services
- Facility services
- Pest control
- Mobile phone plans
- Break room supplies
In my experience, when a standalone Urgent Care orders these services and supplies, they order one category at a time, from whoever is convenient. There’s no visibility into whether they could be getting a better price, and no leverage to use. Larger health systems gain a major advantage by doing exactly the opposite. They centralize purchasing for all of their locations, which creates enough volume (and therefore leverage) to negotiate discounts that reflect their scale.
That’s exactly the kind of system that independent operators need. Multi site systems are not being unethical; they’re actually being smart. Independent Urgent Care operators should grasp the opportunity to do the same thing.
The Problem of Spending Visibility
Most independent Urgent Care operators don’t have a clear view of how much they spend on non-clinical supplies and services. That’s because the expenses are distributed across different vendors, payment categories and methods. For example, a cell phone plan typically comes out of payroll, while office supplies go through one vendor for the clinic and another for the back office. Shipping is split between FedEx, UPS, and an occasional third party vendor. Waste removal gets automatically renewed every few years. For independents, there’s no easy, organized way to see how much they’re spending or saving.
Corporate chains solve the spending visibility problem by using centralized purchasing platforms and unified spending data. Independent operators rarely have that infrastructure. For them, the opportunity to save money stays invisible.
How a GPO Works
GPOs exist to negotiate on behalf of their members, be they large or small. For independent Urgent Care practices, a qualified GPO will do the work that larger health systems often do internally: negotiate contracts with vendors. A qualified GPO will have relationships with more than 1,000 vendors, and know what the best possible pricing looks like in each category.
“At MediGroup, our large-scale urgent care members use centralized procurement to lower their costs. Smaller, owner-operated clinics are able to access the exact same procurement advantages.”
If you join a GPO, you don’t negotiate alone. You don’t have to figure out which vendor offers the best pricing in each category. You get immediate access to the contracts already negotiated, at the pricing the GPO has already secured. This means a single-location Urgent Care gets access to the same negotiated pricing as a large health care system. A smaller practice gets the same Staples pricing, the same FedEx rates, the same Verizon discount that the largest networks get. MediGroup members don’t have to be big to get the best pricing.
No matter the size of your practice, when you join a GPO, you will gain access to these significant savings. There’s usually no long-term commitment required to access GPO pricing. We have seen independent urgent care groups merge with non-member groups and bring the combined entity into MediGroup. The cost savings impact margin at every scale. One location often gets the same discounts that 50 location health systems get.
How to Join MediGroup
Joining MediGroup is free. No catch, that is the MediGroup guarantee. You fill out our Participation Agreement: facility details, your main contact, your current distributor(s). That’s basically it. Then the fun part: you send us your accounts payable file and a list of your clinical distributors. My team combs through your information, matches your vendors against our contracts, and flags where you’re already saving and where you’re leaving money on the table. Whether you’re one clinic or forty, the process is exactly the same.
Compete on the Same Terms
Larger health systems have some powerful advantages: scale, centralization, deep pockets and consistency. But independent operators also have advantages: agility, local presence, provider relationships and autonomy. You don’t have to choose between keeping those strengths and competing on cost. As a MediGroup member, you can do both.
When you’re ready to see what that pricing looks like for your practice, send us your accounts payable file. We’ll perform the analysis and show you the benefit of becoming a MediGroup member.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/28/business/urgent-care-centers-growth-health-care
https://urgentcareassociation.org/about/urgent-care-data/
ABOUT ANDY KLEARMAN, CEO – Before he was CEO of MediGroup, Andy spent 10 years in leadership at a medical supply distribution company. His experience led him to found MediGroup, which is the largest group purchasing organization for non-acute care in the United States. He has spent his career helping physicians lower their operating costs.
ABOUT MEDIGROUP – MediGroup helps physician practices, surgery centers, and urgent care facilities lower overhead through pre-negotiated contracts across medical, operational, and indirect spend. Membership is free. Visit medigroup.com.
