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PART I
Item 1. Business
The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion includes certain forward-looking statements. For a discussion of important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results referred to in the historical information and the forward-looking statements presented herein, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” contained in this Annual Report.
Our Company
Premier, Inc. (“Premier”, the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a publicly held, for-profit corporation, incorporated in Delaware on May 14, 2013, is a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of United States (“U.S.”) hospitals, health systems and other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. We partner with hospitals, health systems, physicians, employers, product suppliers, service providers and other healthcare providers and organizations with the common goal of improving and innovating in the clinical, financial and operational areas of their businesses to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving healthcare industry, and we continue to expand our capabilities to more fully address and coordinate care improvement and standardization in the employer, payer and life sciences markets. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain services, consulting and other services, Premier enables healthcare providers to deliver better care and outcomes at a lower cost. We believe that we play a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members and other customers to co-develop long-term innovative solutions that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients and paid for nationwide. We deliver value through a comprehensive technology-enabled platform that offers critical supply chain services, clinical, financial, operational and value-based care software as a service (“SaaS”) as well as clinical and enterprise analytics licenses, consulting services, performance improvement collaborative programs, third-party administrator services, access to our centers of excellence program, cost containment and wrap network and digital invoicing and payables automation processes which provide financial support services to healthcare suppliers and providers. Additionally, we provide some of the various products and services noted above to non-healthcare businesses, including through our direct sourcing activities as well as continued access to our group purchasing organization (“GPO”) programs for non-healthcare members whose contracts were sold to OMNIA Partners, LLC (“OMNIA”) (refer below to Sale of Non-Healthcare GPO Member Contracts).
As a healthcare alliance, our mission, products and services, and long-term strategy have been developed in partnership with hospitals, health systems, physicians and other healthcare providers and organizations. We believe that this partnership-driven business model creates a relationship between our members and us that is characterized by aligned incentives and mutually beneficial collaboration. This relationship affords us access to critical de-identified proprietary data and encourages member participation in the development and introduction of new products and services. Our interaction with our members provides us additional insights into the latest challenges confronting the healthcare industry and innovative best practices that we can share broadly across the healthcare industry, including throughout our membership. This model has enabled us to develop size and scale, data and analytics assets, expertise and customer engagement required to accelerate innovation, provide differentiated solutions and facilitate growth.
We seek to address challenges facing healthcare providers through our comprehensive suite of solutions that we believe:
•improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare supply chain;
•deliver improvement in cost, quality and safety;
•innovate and enable success in emerging healthcare delivery and payment models to manage the health of populations;
•utilize data and analytics to drive increased connectivity as well as clinical, financial and operational improvement; and
•through employers, payers and life sciences, expand the capabilities within these markets to improve healthcare.
Our business model and solutions are designed to provide our members and other customers access to scale efficiencies, spread the cost of their development, provide actionable intelligence derived from anonymized data in our enterprise data warehouse, mitigate the risk of innovation and disseminate best practices to help our members and other customers succeed in their transformation to higher quality and more cost-effective healthcare.
We deliver our integrated platform of solutions that address the areas of clinical intelligence, margin improvement and value-based care through two business segments: Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. The Supply Chain Services segment includes our GPO program, supply chain co-management, purchased services and direct sourcing activities. The Performance Services segment consists of three sub-brands: PINC AITM, our technology and services platform with offerings
that help optimize performance in three main areas – clinical intelligence, margin improvement and value-based care – using advanced analytics to identify improvement opportunities, consulting and managed services for clinical and operational design, and workflow solutions to hardwire sustainable change in the provider, life sciences and payer markets; Contigo Health®, our direct-to-employer business which provides third-party administrator services and management of health-benefit programs that enable payviders and employers to contract directly with healthcare providers as well as partners with healthcare providers to provide employers access to a specialized care network through Contigo Health’s centers of excellence program and cost containment and wrap network; and Remitra®, our digital invoicing and payables automation business which provides financial support services to healthcare suppliers and providers.
Fiscal 2023 Developments
Sales and Acquisitions
Acquisition of TRPN Direct Pay, Inc. and Devon Health, Inc. Assets
On October 13, 2022, we acquired, through our consolidated subsidiary, Contigo Health, LLC (“Contigo Health”), certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of TRPN Direct Pay, Inc. and Devon Health, Inc. (collectively, “TRPN”) for an adjusted purchase price of $177.5 million. The assets acquired and liabilities assumed relate to certain businesses of TRPN focused on improving access to quality healthcare and reducing the cost of medical claims through pre-negotiated discounts with network providers, including acute care hospitals, surgery centers, physicians and other continuum of care providers in the United States. Contigo Health also agreed to license proprietary cost containment technology of TRPN. TRPN has been integrated under Contigo Health and is reported as part of the Performance Services segment. See Note 3 - Business Acquisitions to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further information.
Sale of Non-Healthcare GPO Member Contracts
On June 14, 2023, we announced that we entered into an equity purchase agreement with OMNIA Partners, LLC (“OMNIA”) to sell the contracts pursuant to which substantially all of our non-healthcare GPO members participate in our GPO program, for an estimated purchase price of approximately $800.0 million, subject to certain adjustments. For a period of at least 10 years following the closing, the non-healthcare GPO members will continue to be able to make purchases through our group purchasing contracts. The sale of the non-healthcare GPO contracts closed on July 25, 2023. See Note 20 - Subsequent Events to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further information.
Impact of Inflation
The U.S. economy is experiencing the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s. We have continued to limit the impact of inflation on our members and believe that we maintain significantly lower inflation impacts across our diverse product portfolio than national levels. However, in certain areas of our business, there is still some level of risk and uncertainty for our members and other customers as labor costs, raw material costs and availability, rising interest rates and inflation continue to pressure supplier pricing as well as apply significant pressure on our margin.
We continue to evaluate the contributing factors, specifically logistics, raw materials and labor, that have led to adjustments to selling prices. We have begun to see logistics costs normalize to pre-pandemic levels as well as some reductions in the costs of specific raw materials; however, the cost of labor remains high. We are continuously working to manage these price increases as market conditions change. The impact of inflation to our aggregated product portfolio is partially mitigated by contract term price protection for a large portion of our portfolio, as well as negotiated price reductions in certain product categories such as pharmaceuticals. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business Operations” below.
Furthermore, as the Federal Reserve seeks to curb rising inflation, market interest rates have steadily risen, and may continue to rise, increasing the cost of borrowing under our Credit Facility (as defined in Note 9 - Debt and Notes Payable to the accompanying consolidated financial statements) as well as impacting our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
Geopolitical Tensions
Geopolitical tensions, such as the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and tensions between the U.S. and China, continue to affect the global economy and financial markets, as well as exacerbate ongoing economic challenges, including issues such as rising inflation, energy costs and global supply-chain disruption.
We continue to monitor the impacts of the geopolitical tensions on macroeconomic conditions and prepare for any implications they may have on member demand, our suppliers’ ability to deliver products, cybersecurity risks and our liquidity and access to capital. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business Operations” below.
COVID-19 Pandemic or Other Pandemics, Epidemics or Public Health Emergencies
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and the resulting global pandemic impacted our sales, operations and supply chains, our members and other customers and workforce and suppliers. While both the U.S. and the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency in May 2023, the risks associated with the resurgence of COVID-19 or another pandemic remains and the resulting impact on our business, results of operations, financial conditions and cash flows as well as the U.S. and global economies is uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time.
Refer to “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for significant risks we have faced and may continue to face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or other pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies.
Industry Overview
According to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), healthcare expenditures are a large component of the U.S. economy and are expected to grow by an average of 5.4% per year for the period 2022-2031, reaching 19.6% of gross domestic product, or GDP, by 2031. According to data from the 2021 American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey, published in the 2023 edition of the AHA Hospital Statistics™, there were more than 5,100 U.S. community hospitals with approximately 788,000 staffed beds in the United States. Of these acute care facilities, approximately 3,600 were part of either multi-hospital or diversified single hospital systems, meaning they were owned, leased, sponsored or contract managed by a central organization. Based upon 2022 reporting from the United States Department of Labor and healthcare industry sources, in addition to U.S. hospitals, there were approximately 851,000 facilities and providers across the continuum of care in the United States. These facilities include primary/ambulatory care and post-acute care providers.
Healthcare Supply Chain Services Industry
According to CMS data, total spending on hospital services in the United States is projected to be $1.5 trillion, or approximately 31% of total healthcare expenditures, in calendar year 2023. Expenses associated with the hospital supply chain, such as supplies as well as operational and capital expenditures, typically represent a material portion of a hospital’s budget. With continued reimbursement rate pressure across government and managed care payers, a transitioning payment model from fee-for-service to value-based payment, and national health expenditures representing a material portion of the economy, healthcare providers are examining all sources of cost savings, with supply chain spending a key area of focus. We believe opportunities to drive cost out of the healthcare supply chain include improved pricing for medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, purchased services, facilities expenditures, food service supplies, and information technology, as well as appropriate resource utilization, mitigating pharmaceuticals and medical device shortages and increased operational efficiency.
From origination at the supplier to final consumption by the provider or patient, healthcare products pass through an extensive supply chain incorporating manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, GPOs, pharmacy benefit managers, and retail, long-term care and integrated pharmacies, among others. In response to the national focus on health spending and managing healthcare costs, supply chain participants are seeking more convenient and cost-efficient ways to deliver products to patients and providers. We believe that improvements to the healthcare supply chain to bring it on par with other industries that have more sophisticated supply chain management can drive out material inefficiencies and cost.
Healthcare Performance Services Industry
State and federal budget pressures stemming from increased deficit spending and employer and consumer demands for lower costs, and the need for improved quality and outcomes have generated greater focus among healthcare providers on cost management, quality and safety, and value-based care. As a result, over the past two decades, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) has pushed to move from fee-for-service to alternative payment models (“APMs”). APMs, such as capitated and bundled payment arrangements with accountable care organizations (“ACOs”) and other providers, make healthcare providers more accountable for cost and quality goals. This movement was advanced further with the bipartisan enactment of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which created incentives for physicians to move to APMs and was recently extended by Congress in December 2022. This movement will continue given the strong bipartisan support for these models. Over the long-term, health systems will need to continually monitor performance and manage costs, while demonstrating high levels of quality and implementing new care delivery models.
We expect information technology to continue to play a key enabling role in workflow efficiency and cost reduction, performance improvement and care delivery transformation across the healthcare industry in both acute and continuum of care settings. In particular, the trends toward value-based payment models and healthcare require more sophisticated business intelligence, expanded data sets and technology solutions. To achieve higher-quality outcomes and control total cost of care, providers exhibit a strong and continuing need for more comprehensive data and analytic capabilities to help them understand their current and future performance, identify opportunities for improvement and manage value-based care risk. Similarly, our
consulting services business is growing in the areas of business model strategy and redesign, process and margin improvement, labor productivity, non-labor cost management, clinical integration and change management.
Our Membership
Our current membership base includes many of the country’s most progressive and forward-thinking healthcare organizations. The participation of these organizations in our membership provides us additional insights into the latest challenges confronting the industry we serve and innovative best practices that we can share broadly throughout our membership. We continually seek to add new members that are at the forefront of innovation in the healthcare industry. At June 30, 2023, our members included more than 4,350 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 300,000 other providers and organizations. Over 450 individuals, representing approximately 150 of our U.S. hospital members, sit on 29 of our strategic and sourcing committees, and as part of these committees, use their industry expertise to advise on ways to improve the development, quality and value of our products and services. In addition, at June 30, 2023, four senior executives from our U.S. hospital member systems served on our Board of Directors providing valuable and unique insights into the challenges faced by hospitals and hospital systems and the innovations necessary to address these challenges. No individual member or member systems accounted for more than 10% of our net revenue for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2023 and 2022. Total GPO purchasing volume by all members participating in our GPO was more than $83 billion and $82 billion for the calendar years 2022 and 2021, respectively.
The following table sets forth certain information with respect to retention rates for members participating in our GPO in the Supply Chain Services segment and renewal rates for our SaaS informatics products subscriptions and licenses in the Performance Services segment for the fiscal years shown:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended June 30, | | |
| 2023 | | 2022 | | 2021 | | 3 Year Average |
GPO retention rate (a)(b) | 98% | | 97% | | 94% | | 96% |
SaaS institutional renewal rate (c) | 94% | | 96% | | 96% | | 95% |
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(a)The GPO retention rate is calculated based upon the aggregate purchasing volume among all members participating in our GPO for such fiscal year less the annualized GPO purchasing volume for departed members for such fiscal year, divided by the aggregate purchasing volume among all members participating in our GPO for such fiscal year.
(b)Fiscal 2021 GPO retention rate decreased primarily as a result of amendments to GPO participation agreements, effective July 1, 2020, and the August 2020 Restructuring.
(c)The SaaS institutional renewal rate is calculated based upon the total number of members that have SaaS or license revenue in a given period that also have revenue in the corresponding prior year period divided by the total number of members that have SaaS or license revenue in the same period of the prior year.
Our Business Segments
We deliver our integrated platform of solutions that address the areas of clinical intelligence, margin improvement and value-based care and manage our business through two business segments: Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. Refer to Note 18 - Segments to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further information. We have no significant foreign operations or revenues.
Supply Chain Services
Our Supply Chain Services segment assists our members and other customers in managing their non-labor expense and capital spend through a combination of products, services and technologies, including one of the largest national healthcare GPO programs in the United States serving acute and continuum of care sites, and providing supply chain co-management, purchased services, direct sourcing and supply chain resiliency activities. Membership in our GPO also provides access to certain supply chain-related SaaS informatics products and the opportunity to participate in our ASCENDriveTM and SURPASS® performance groups. Our Supply Chain Services segment consists of the following products and solutions:
Group Purchasing. Our portfolio of over 3,300 contracts with over 1,400 suppliers provides our members with access to a wide range of products and services, including medical and surgical products, pharmaceuticals, laboratory supplies, capital equipment, information technology, facilities and construction, food and nutritional products and purchased services (such as clinical engineering and workforce solutions). We use our members’ aggregate purchasing power to negotiate pricing discounts, improved quality and resiliency of products and improved contract terms with suppliers. Contracted suppliers pay us administrative fees based on the net negotiated price and purchase volume of goods and services sold to our members under the contracts we have negotiated. We also partner with other organizations, including regional GPOs, to extend our network base to their members.
Our contract portfolio is designed to offer our members a flexible solution comprised of multi-sourced supplier contracts, as well as pre-commitment and/or single-sourced contracts that offer higher discounts. Our multi-sourced contracts offer pricing tiers based on purchasing volume and/or commitment and multiple suppliers for many products and services. Our pre-commitment contracts require that a certain amount of our members commit in advance to a specified amount or percentage of purchasing volume before we enter into a contract with a particular supplier. Our single-source contracts are entered into with a specified supplier, and through this exclusive relationship, allow us to contract for products that meet our members’ specifications. In the case of pre-commitment contracts, we provide the particular supplier with a list of members that have pre-committed to a specified amount or percentage of purchasing volume and the supplier directly handles the tracking and monitoring of fulfillment of such purchasing volume. In the case of single and multi-sourced contracts, we negotiate and execute the contracts with suppliers on behalf of our members and make such contracts available to our members to access. The utilization of such single and multi-sourced contracts is determined by each particular member with assistance from our field force. Since there are no specific fulfillment requirements needed in our single and multi-source contracts in order to obtain certain pricing levels, each particular member and supplier agree on the appropriate pricing tier based on expected purchasing volume with tracking and ongoing validation of such purchasing volume provided by the supplier. The flexibility provided by our expansive contract portfolio allows us to effectively address the varying needs of our members and the significant number of factors that influence and dictate these needs, including overall size, service mix, and the degree of integration between hospitals in a healthcare system.
We continually innovate our GPO programs and supply chain platforms while targeting multiple markets, including acute and continuum of care site settings. In addition to our core base of more than 4,350 acute care healthcare providers, Premier’s continuum of care program, one of the largest in the United States, which covers over 80 classes of trade, had approximately 300,000 active members as of June 30, 2023, which represents an increase of approximately 50,000 members, or 20%, over fiscal year 2022. A number of these members in Premier’s continuum of care program are affiliated, owned, leased or managed by our members.
Premier’s continuum of care program includes direct members, group affiliates and healthcare provider offices affiliated, owned, leased or managed by health systems. Key classes of trade include long-term care pharmacies, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, home infusion providers, home health providers and surgery centers. Premier continuum of care members have access to most of our GPO supplier contracts, including, but not limited to, pharmaceuticals, medical and surgical supplies, facilities, food and nutritional products and other purchased services.
Premier’s continuum of care program provides business operations and technology to ensure members and other customers, including former non-healthcare members, are connected to agreements and receiving proper contracted pricing.
Supply Chain Co-Management. We manage and co-manage the supply chain operations for contracted members to drive down costs through processes, including value analysis, product standardization and strategic resource allocation and improved operational efficiency.
Purchased Services Contracts. Our purchased services contracts business, which is separate from the purchased services under our national contract portfolio, includes Conductiv, Inc. (“Conductiv”) and Conductiv Contracts, LLC (“Conductiv Contracts”). Conductiv is a SaaS provider of technology solutions and expert services that enable hospitals and other organizations to analyze, benchmark and source purchased service contracts independent of any existing GPO affiliation. Combined with our purchased services spend data and our performance improvement technology suite, we are able to be a single source provider for healthcare margin improvement. Conductiv Contracts is a regionally focused group purchasing organization independent of any existing GPO affiliation that exclusively focuses on purchased services contracting.
Direct Sourcing. Our direct sourcing business, SVS, LLC d/b/a S2S Global (“S2S Global”), helps our members and other customers access a diverse product portfolio and helps provide transparency to manufacturing costs and competitive pricing. Through S2S Global, we facilitate the development of product specifications with our members and other customers, source or contract manufacture the products to member specifications and sell products directly to our members, other customers or distributors. By engaging with our members and other customers at the beginning of the sourcing process to define product specifications and then sourcing, or contract manufacturing, products to meet the exact needs of our members, we eliminate the need for unnecessary product features and specifications that may typically be included by suppliers and result in higher prices for our members without providing incremental value. Therefore, our direct sourcing activities benefit our members and other customers by providing them with an expanding portfolio of medical products through more efficient means, and with greater cost transparency, than if such products were purchased from other third-party suppliers. We market our direct sourcing activities to our members primarily under the PREMIERPRO® brand.
Supply Chain Resiliency Program. In partnership with our members, we have created a program designed to promote domestic and geographically diverse manufacturing and ensure a robust and resilient supply chain for essential medical products. The program is intended to provide a means to invest in or partner with businesses that can supply shortage
products, co-fund the development of affordable products that address specific market needs and create strategic sourcing contracts to ensure continuous supply for our members and customers. We believe this program is most successful when we are able to partner with our members through investments or long-term purchasing commitments on these initiatives.
Our Supply Chain Resiliency Program includes, but is not limited to, the following:
PRAM Holdings, LLC. We formed PRAM Holdings, LLC (“PRAM”) in 2020 in partnership with member health systems to invest in Prestige Ameritech Ltd. (“Prestige”), a domestic manufacturer of masks, sterile intravenous solutions and other personal protective equipment (“PPE”), whereby our members obtain a direct domestic source to critical PPE.
DePre Holdings, LLC. We formed DePre Holdings, LLC (“DPH”) in 2021 in partnership with member health systems to invest in DePre, LLC (“DePre”), a joint venture between DPH and DeRoyal Industries Inc., a global medical manufacturer, whereby our members obtain a direct source dedicated to the domestic production of isolation gowns.
ExPre Holdings, LLC. We formed ExPre Holdings, LLC (“ExPre”) in 2022 in partnership with member health systems to invest in Exela Holdings, Inc. (“Exela”), a domestic manufacturer of proprietary and generic sterile injectable products, whereby our members obtain a direct source to certain critical pharmaceutical products.
Premco, LLC. We formed Premco, LLC (“Premco”) in 2023 in partnership with member health systems to invest in Princo, LLC (“Princo”), a joint venture between Premco, Vario Labs LLC and Caretrust LLC, whereby our members obtain a direct source dedicated to the domestic production of incontinence pads.
SaaS Informatics Products. Members of our GPO have access to certain SaaS informatics products related to the supply chain and have the ability to purchase additional elements that are discussed in more detail below under “Our Business Segments - Performance Services”.
Performance Groups. Our Performance Groups are highly committed purchasing programs, which enable members to benefit from coordinated purchasing decisions and maintain standardization across their facilities. Our Performance Groups include the ASCENDrive and the SURPASS Performance Groups.
ASCENDrive Performance Group. Our ASCENDrive Performance Group (“ASCENDrive”) has developed a process to aggregate purchasing data for our members, enabling such members to benefit from committed group purchases within the Performance Group. Through ASCENDrive, members receive group purchasing programs, tiers and prices specifically negotiated for them and knowledge sharing with other member participants. As of June 30, 2023, approximately 1,700 U.S. hospital members, which represent over 131,000 hospital beds, participated in ASCENDrive. These hospital member participants have identified over $910.0 million in additional savings as compared to their U.S. hospital peers not participating in ASCENDrive since its inception in 2009. For calendar year 2022, these member participants had approximately $17.4 billion in annual supply chain purchasing spend.
SURPASS Performance Group. Our SURPASS Performance Group (“SURPASS”) builds upon and complements ASCENDrive and drives even greater savings for members at a correspondingly higher level of commitment. SURPASS brings together our most committed members that are able to coordinate purchasing decisions, review utilization and achieve and maintain standardization across their facilities. SURPASS utilizes our PACER (Partnership for the Advancement of Comparative Effectiveness Review) methodology, which brings together clinically led cohorts to make evidence-based decisions about physician and clinician preference items with the goal of materially reducing the total cost of care. As of June 30, 2023, a group of 33 members representing approximately 530 acute care sites and 11,000 continuum of care sites participate in SURPASS. These hospital member participants have identified over $273.0 million in additional savings via their efforts in more than 160 categories since its inception in 2018. SURPASS has another 49 potential categories slated for the coming year as well as select initiatives related to utilization and standardization. For calendar year 2022, these member participants had approximately $13.0 billion in annual supply chain purchasing spend.
Performance Services
Our Performance Services segment consists of three sub-brands: PINC AI, Contigo Health and Remitra. Each sub-brand serves different markets but are all united in our vision to optimize provider performance and accelerate industry innovation for better, smarter healthcare. Our PINC AI platform enables us to better reflect our current product offerings and strategy to expand and responsibly incorporate artificial intelligence (“AI”) across our portfolio of solutions. This platform further enables connectivity and scale between providers, the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industry and payers, including large employers, to help lower the cost and improve the quality of care. We believe that we house one of the largest clinical, operational and financial datasets in the United States which enables actionable insight and real-world evidence needed to accelerate healthcare
improvements. We currently incorporate AI into several use cases, including prior authorization between payers and providers; clinical intelligence through the decision support process; and automating the invoicing and payables process. Our AI use cases are focused on helping key healthcare stakeholders improve the quality, efficiency and value of healthcare delivery. Using our data and scale, we seek to expand our AI capabilities, grow our overall portfolio of solutions and provide our members and customers with technologically advanced products so they can provide better, smarter healthcare.
PINC AI:
With a broad provider network, advanced analytics, and the incorporation and desired expansion of AI-powered technology backed by our large dataset, we believe PINC AI has the ability to accelerate ingenuity in healthcare.
PINC AI helps optimize performance in three main areas – clinical intelligence, margin improvement and value-based care – using advanced analytics to identify improvement opportunities, consulting services for clinical and operational design and workflow solutions to hardwire sustainable change.
Clinical intelligence solutions help drive greater clinical effectiveness and efficiency across the care continuum by:
•Surfacing analytics and peer benchmarking on hard-to-find, high-value quality improvement areas, helping providers improve care delivery;
•Delivering real-time clinical surveillance to help providers drive faster, more informed decisions regarding patient safety, including ongoing infection prevention (like COVID-19), antimicrobial stewardship, and reduction of hospital acquired conditions;
•Using AI-enabled clinical decision support integrated into the provider workflow to support evidence-based decisions by providers at the point of care, and improve prior authorization automation;
•Operating the QUEST Collaborative, which works to develop quality, safety and cost metrics with a consistency and standardization. We believe participation in the QUEST Collaborative better prepares providers to deal with evolving and uncertain healthcare reform requirements and differentiate on care delivery in their markets; and
•Providing life sciences services through PINC AI Applied Science for the development of research, real-world evidence and clinical trials innovation for medical device, diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies.
Margin improvement solutions help lower total costs and improve provider operating margins by:
•Surfacing analytics and peer benchmarking on hard-to-find, supply savings and workforce management opportunities that lower costs without impacting quality;
•Optimizing workforce management with integrated financial reporting and budgeting across the continuum of care;
•Providing savings through an enterprise resource planning solution built specifically for healthcare;
•Deploying consulting services to deliver clinically integrated, margin improvement transformation throughout a health system; and
•Providing management services to insurance programs to assist U.S. hospital and healthcare system members with liability and benefits insurance services, along with risk management services to improve their quality, patient safety and financial performance while lowering costs.
Value-based care solutions help health systems implement effective models of care to succeed in new, value-based payment arrangements by:
•Surfacing analytics and peer benchmarking to help identify hard-to-find, population-based improvement opportunities necessary to take financial risk and succeed in value-based care;
•Optimizing and managing the physician enterprise to rationalize medical group investment via revenue enhancement, cost reduction strategies and implementation of sustainable evidence-based practices; and
•Participating in the Population Health Management, Bundled Payment and Physician Enterprise Collaboratives, for the opportunity to share value-based care and payment developmental strategies, programs and best practices.
The data yielded through PINC AI is de-identified and aggregated in what we believe to be the nation’s leading comprehensive database, representing over 20 years of data from more than 1,000 hospitals spanning multiple therapeutic areas. A research team including clinicians, epidemiologists, health economists, health services researchers, statisticians and other subject matter experts leverage the dataset to deliver real world evidence, in partnership with Life Science
innovators. Studies, test methods, strategies and tools created can promote the adoption and integration of evidence-based practices to help improve outcomes and the quality and effectiveness of care.
Contigo Health:
Contigo Health creates new ways for clinicians, health systems and employers to work together supporting a common goal for all stakeholders to help increase access to high-quality care, enhance employee engagement, control costs and get employees back to work and life faster. Contigo Health delivers comprehensive services for optimizing employee health benefits, including:
•Contigo Health Sync Health Plan TPA empowers self-funded employers with a flexible approach to employee benefits to help improve access to quality care, achieve cost savings and improve health plan member satisfaction;
•Contigo Health Centers of Excellence 360 delivers access to high-quality care by bringing together specialty medical and behavioral health programs for a bundled cost through a network of healthcare facilities, surgeons, physicians and leading-edge virtual providers; and
•Contigo Health ConfigureNet Out-of-Network Wrap delivers an out-of-network wrap product to improve access to healthcare and reduce the cost of medical claims through pre-negotiated discounts with its network of 900,000 providers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Remitra:
Remitra provides health systems and suppliers cost management solutions with our procure-to-pay technology designed to support greater efficiencies in the procurement process through automated purchasing and payment solutions.
•Remitra’s Procure-to-Pay platform powers supplier and provider networks and uses optical character recognition to automate invoicing and payables. Remitra seeks to streamline financial processes, reduce errors and fraud, unlock cost and labor efficiencies and become a leading digital invoicing and payables platform for all of healthcare, agnostic of ERP, GPO or treasury partner.
•Remitra’s Cash Flow Optimizer platform offers a financial solution for suppliers and providers including a reduction in days sales outstanding, improving on-time payments, improved working capital and a potential reduction over time of allowance of credit losses associated with bad debt.
•Remitra’s Managed Account Payable services offers a financial solution for acute and continuum of care members and other customers including an extension in days payable outstanding, improving on-time payments for suppliers and improving working capital for the customer.
Both Remitra’s Cash Flow Optimizer platform and Managed Account Payable services offer financial solutions by leveraging Remitra’s Procure-to-Pay platform and providing opportunities for financial improvements for suppliers, members and other customers.
The Performance Services sub-brands support Premier’s long-term strategy to diversify revenue into adjacent markets, which we define as non-traditional markets penetrated by Premier’s businesses and brands. This includes PINC AI Clinical Decision Support serving providers and payers; PINC AI Applied Sciences serving biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies; Contigo Health that serves self-insured employers, including payviders; and Remitra that serves healthcare suppliers and providers.
Pricing and Contracts
Supply Chain Services
GPO Programs:
Our GPO primarily generates revenue through administrative fees received from contracted suppliers for a percentage of the net negotiated purchase price of goods and services, including purchased services activities, sold to members under negotiated supplier contracts. Pursuant to the terms of GPO participation agreements entered into by the members, our members currently receive revenue share based upon purchasing by such member’s owned, leased, managed and affiliated facilities through our GPO supplier contracts.
The majority of our current GPO participation agreements with our members have terms that commenced in July 2020 and primarily range from five to seven years. Generally, our GPO participation agreements may not be terminated without penalty except for cause or in the event of a change of control of the GPO member. The GPO member can terminate the GPO participation agreement at the end of the then-current term by notifying Premier of the member’s decision not to
renew. Our GPO participation agreements generally provide for liquidated damages in the event of a termination not otherwise permitted under the agreement. Due to competitive market conditions, we have experienced, and expect to continue to experience requests to provide existing and prospective members increases in revenue share on incremental and/or overall purchasing volume.
Our GPO also generates revenue from suppliers through the members that participate in our performance groups.
Supply Co-Management:
In our supply chain co-management activities, we earn revenue in the form of a service fee for services performed under the supply chain management contracts. Service fees are billed as stipulated in the contract, and revenue is recognized on a proportional performance method as services are performed.
Purchased Services:
In our purchased services activities, we generate revenue through administrative fees, as described above, subscription fees and term licenses. Subscription fees, which we generate through our SaaS-based products, are generally billed on a monthly basis and revenue is recognized as a single deliverable on a straight-line basis over the remaining contractual period following implementation. Revenue on licensing is recognized upon delivery of the software code and revenue from hosting and maintenance is recognized ratably over the life of the contract.
Direct Sourcing:
In our direct sourcing activities, we earn revenue from product sales, including sales from aggregated purchases of certain products. Products are sold to our members and other customers through direct shipment and distributor and wholesale channels. Products are also sold to regional medical-surgical distributors and other non-healthcare industries (i.e., foodservice). We have contracts with our members and other customers that buy products through our direct shipment option, which usually do not provide a guaranteed purchase or volume commitment requirement.
Performance Services
Performance Services revenue consists of revenue generated through our three sub-brands: PINC AI, Contigo Health and Remitra. The main sources of revenue under PINC AI are (i) subscription agreements to our SaaS-based clinical intelligence, margin improvement and value-based care products, (ii) licensing revenue, (iii) professional fees for consulting services and (iv) other miscellaneous revenue including PINC AI data licenses, annual subscriptions to our performance improvement collaboratives, insurance services management fees and commissions from endorsed commercial insurance programs. Contigo Health’s main sources of revenue are third-party administrator fees, fees from the centers of excellence program and cost containment and wrap network fees. Remitra’s main source of revenue is fees from healthcare suppliers and providers.
PINC AI:
SaaS-based clinical analytics products subscriptions include the right to access our proprietary hosted technology on a SaaS basis, training and member support to deliver improvements in cost management, margin improvement, quality and safety, value-based care and provider analytics. Pricing varies by application and size of the healthcare system. Clinical analytics products subscriptions are generally three- to five-year agreements with automatic renewal clauses and annual price escalators that typically do not allow for early termination. These agreements do not allow for physical possession of the software. Subscription fees are typically billed on a monthly basis and revenue is recognized as a single deliverable on a straight-line basis over the remaining contractual period following implementation. Implementation involves the completion of data preparation services that are unique to each member's data set in order to access and transfer member data into our hosted SaaS-based clinical analytics products. Implementation is generally 60 to 240 days following contract execution before the SaaS-based clinical analytics products can be fully utilized by the member.
Enterprise analytics licenses include term licenses that range from three to ten years and offer clinical analytics products, improvements in cost management, quality and safety, value-based care and provider analytics. Pricing varies by application and size of healthcare system. Revenue on licensing is recognized upon delivery of the software code and revenue from hosting and maintenance is recognized ratably over the life of the contract.
Professional fees for consulting services are sold under contracts, the terms of which vary based on the nature of the engagement. These services typically include general consulting, report-based consulting, managed services and cost savings initiatives. Fees are billed as stipulated in the contract, and revenue is recognized on a proportional performance method as services are performed or when deliverables are provided. In situations where the contracts have significant contract performance guarantees or member acceptance provisions, revenue recognition occurs when the fees are fixed and
determinable and all contingencies, including any refund rights, have been satisfied. Fees are based either on the savings that are delivered or a fixed fee.
Other miscellaneous revenue generated through PINC AI includes:
•Revenue from PINC AI data licenses which provide customers data from the PINC AI healthcare database. The revenue from the data deliverables is recognized upon delivery of the data;
•Revenue from performance improvement collaboratives that support our offerings in cost management, quality and safety and value-based care and is recognized over the service period as the services are provided, which is generally one to three years; and
•Revenue through insurance services management fees are recognized in the period in which such services are provided. Commissions from endorsed commercial insurance programs are earned by acting as an intermediary in the placement of effective insurance policies. Under this arrangement, revenue is recognized at a point in time on the effective date of the associated policies when control of the policy transfers to the customer and is constrained for estimated early terminations.
Contigo Health:
Contigo Health’s main sources of revenue consists of third-party administrator fees, fees from the centers of excellence program and cost containment and wrap network fees.
•Revenue from third-party administrator fees consist of integrated fees for the processing of self-insured healthcare plan claims and is recognized in the period in which the services have been provided.
•Revenue from the centers of excellence program consist of administrative fees for access to a specialized care network of proven healthcare providers and is recognized in the period in which the services have been provided.
•Revenue from cost containment and wrap network fees consist of fees associated with the repricing of insurance claims and is estimated and recognized in the period in which the services have been provided.
Remitra:
The main source of revenue for Remitra primarily consists of fees from healthcare suppliers and providers. For fixed fee contracts, revenue is recognized in the period in which the services have been provided. For variable rate contracts, revenue is recognized as customers are invoiced. Additional revenue consists of fees from check replacement services which consist of monthly rebates from bank partners.
Revenue Concentration
Our customers consist of members and other healthcare and non-healthcare businesses. Our top five customers generated revenue of approximately 15% and 21% of our consolidated net revenues for the years ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. No customer accounted for more than 10% of our net revenue during each of the years ended June 30, 2023 and 2022.
Intellectual Property
We offer our members a range of products to which we have appropriate intellectual property rights, including online services, best practices content, databases, electronic tools, web-based applications, performance metrics, business methodologies, proprietary algorithms, software products and consulting services deliverables. We own and control a variety of trade secrets, confidential information, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, domain names and other intellectual property rights that, in the aggregate, are of material importance to our business.
We protect our intellectual property by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual arrangements. We are licensed to use certain technology and other intellectual property rights owned and controlled by others, and, similarly, other companies are licensed to use certain technology and other intellectual property rights owned and controlled by us.
Research and Development
Our research and development (“R&D”) expenditures primarily consist of our strategic investment in internally-developed software to develop new and enhance existing SaaS- and license-based products offerings and new product development in the areas of cost management, quality and safety and value-based care. From time to time, we may experience fluctuations in our research and development expenditures, including capitalized software development costs, across reportable periods due to the
timing of our software development life cycles, with new product features and functionality, new technologies and upgrades to our service offerings.
Information Technology and Cybersecurity Risk Management
We rely on digital technology to conduct our business operations and engage with our members and business partners. The technology we, our members, and business partners use grows more complex over time as do threats to our business operations from cyber intrusions, denial of service attacks, manipulation and other cyber misconduct. Through a risk management approach that continually assesses and improves our Information Technology (IT) and cybersecurity threat deterrence capabilities, our Information Security and Risk Management groups have formed a functional collaboration to provide leadership and oversight when managing IT and cybersecurity risks.
Through a combination of Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) resources, we (i) proactively monitor IT controls to better ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, (ii) assess adherence by third parties we partner with to ensure that the appropriate risk management standards are met, (iii) ensure essential business functions remain available during a business disruption, and (iv) continually develop and update response plans to address potential IT or cyber incidents should they occur. Our GRC resources are designed to prioritize IT and cybersecurity risks areas, identify solutions that minimize such risks, pursue optimal outcomes and maintain compliance with contractual obligations. We also maintain an operational security function that has a real time 24x7x365 response capability that triages potential incidents and triggers impact mitigation protocols. These capabilities allow us to apply best practices and reduce exposure in the case of a security incident. For more information regarding the risks associated with these matters, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors-We could suffer a loss of revenue and increased costs, exposure to material legal liability, reputational harm, and other serious negative consequences if we sustain cyber-attacks or other data security breaches that disrupt our operations or result in the dissemination of proprietary or confidential information about us or our members or other third parties.”
Competition
The markets for our products and services in both our Supply Chain Services segment and Performance Services segment are fragmented, highly competitive and characterized by rapidly evolving technology and product standards, user needs and the frequent introduction of new products and services. We have experienced and expect to continue to experience intense competition from a number of companies.
Our Supply Chain Services segment’s competitors primarily compete with our group purchasing, direct sourcing and supply chain co-management activities. Our group purchasing business competes with other large GPOs such as HealthTrust Purchasing Group (a subsidiary of HCA Holdings, Inc.), Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. and Vizient, Inc. In addition, we compete against certain healthcare provider-owned GPOs and on-line retailers in this segment. Our direct sourcing business competes primarily with private label offerings and programs, product manufacturers, and distributors, such as Cardinal Health, Inc., McKesson Corporation, Medline Industries, Inc. and Owens & Minor, Inc. Our supply chain co-management business competes with organizations that provide supply chain outsourcing or embedded resources and supply chain transformation services, such as The Resource Group and CPS Solutions, LLC.
Our Performance Services segment’s competitors compete with our three sub-brands: PINC AI, Contigo Health and Remitra. The primary competitors of PINC AI range from smaller niche companies to large, well-financed and technologically sophisticated entities. Our primary competitors for PINC AI include (i) information technology providers such as Veradigm, Inc. (f/k/a Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.), Epic Systems Corporation, Health Catalyst, Inc., IBM Corporation, Infor, Inc. and Oracle Corporation, and (ii) consulting and outsourcing firms such as Deloitte & Touche LLP, Evolent Health, Inc., Healthagen, LLC (a subsidiary of Aetna, Inc.), Huron Consulting, Inc., Guidehouse Consulting, Inc., Optum, Inc. (a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, Inc.) and Vizient, Inc. The primary competitors for Contigo Health include AmeriBen, Meritan Health, UMR, WebTPA and Benefit and Risk Management Services for our third-party administrative services product; Carrum Health, Transcarent, Edison Healthcare, AccessHope and MSK Direct for our Centers of Excellence product; and First Health, MultiPlan, Zelis and other wrap network providers and major carriers (such as Aetna, United and Cigna) for our ConfigureNet product. The primary competitors for Remitra include Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC for our digital invoicing product, Coupa Software Inc. and Taulia for our digital payables product, and tier one treasury banks (e.g., JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc.) as well as niche factoring companies for our financing solutions product.
With respect to our products and services across both segments, we compete on the basis of several factors, including price, breadth, depth and quality of product and service offerings, ability to deliver clinical, financial and operational performance improvements through the use of products and services, quality and reliability of services, ease of use and convenience, brand recognition and the ability to integrate services with existing technology.
Government Regulation
General
The healthcare industry is highly regulated by federal and state authorities and is subject to changing legal, political, economic and regulatory influences. Factors such as changes in reimbursement policies for healthcare expenses, consolidation in the healthcare industry and general economic conditions affect the purchasing practices, operations and the financial health of healthcare organizations. In particular, changes in laws and regulations affecting the healthcare industry, such as increased regulation of the purchase and sale of medical products, or restrictions on permissible discounts and other financial arrangements, could require us to make unplanned and costly modifications to our products and services, and may result in delays or cancellations of orders or a reduction of funds and demand for our products and services.
We are subject to numerous risks arising from governmental oversight and regulation. You should carefully review the following discussion and the risks discussed under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for a more detailed discussion.
Affordable Care Act
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) in 2010 aimed to expand access to affordable health insurance, control healthcare spending and improve healthcare quality. The law included provisions to tie Medicare provider reimbursement to healthcare quality and incentives, mandatory compliance programs, enhanced transparency disclosure requirements, increased funding and initiatives to address fraud and abuse and incentives to state Medicaid programs to promote community-based care as an alternative to institutional long-term care services. In addition, the law created an innovation center to test and scale new APMs and ACOs. These programs are creating fundamental changes in the delivery of healthcare.
Since its passage, the ACA has been subject to continued scrutiny and threats to repeal it in parts or in whole. The current Biden administration is supportive of the ACA and there are no imminent threats to it. However, any future changes may ultimately impact the provisions of the ACA or other laws or regulations that either currently affect, or may in the future affect, our business. We believe it is important to note that most of the controversy related to the ACA relates to coverage expansion and not the issues related to quality improvement and cost reduction which are core to our business.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Regulation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) extensively regulates, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, labeling, packaging, storage, record-keeping, promotion, advertising, distribution, marketing and export and import of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. To the extent that functionality or intended use in one or more of our current or future software products causes the software to be regulated as a medical device under existing or future FDA laws or regulations, we could be required to register our product(s) with the FDA and undergo the regulatory approval process, which may include being required to conduct clinical trials. There is risk that the product may not be approved by the FDA or that we may not be able to market the product during the approval process. In addition, registering a product with the FDA can be a costly and timely endeavor creating additional regulatory scrutiny and risk for Premier, as well as additional compliance requirements with all associated FDA laws, regulations and guidance.
Civil and Criminal Fraud, Waste and Abuse Laws
We are subject to federal and state laws and regulations designed to protect patients, governmental healthcare programs and private health plans from fraudulent and abusive activities. These laws include anti-kickback restrictions and laws prohibiting the submission of false or fraudulent claims. These laws are complex and broadly worded, and their application to our specific products, services and relationships may not be clear and may be applied to our business in ways that we do not anticipate. Federal and state regulatory and law enforcement authorities have over time increased enforcement activities with respect to Medicare and Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse regulations and other reimbursement laws and rules. These laws and regulations include:
Anti-Kickback Laws. The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits the knowing and willful offer, payment, solicitation or receipt of remuneration, directly or indirectly, in return for the referral of patients or arranging for the referral of patients, or in return for the recommendation, arrangement, purchase, lease or order of items or services that are covered, in whole or in part, by a federal healthcare program such as Medicare or Medicaid. The definition of "remuneration" has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value such as gifts, discounts, rebates, waiver of payments or providing anything at less than its fair market value. Many states have adopted similar prohibitions against kickbacks and other practices that are intended to influence the purchase, lease or ordering of healthcare items and services regardless of whether the item or service is covered under a governmental health program or private health plan. Certain statutory and regulatory safe harbors exist that protect specified business arrangements from prosecution under the Anti-Kickback Statute if all elements of an applicable safe harbor are met,
however these safe harbors are narrow and often difficult to comply with. Congress has appropriated an increasing amount of funds in recent years to support enforcement activities aimed at reducing healthcare fraud and abuse.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, created certain safe harbor regulations which, if fully complied with, assure parties to a particular arrangement covered by a safe harbor that they will not be prosecuted under the Anti-Kickback Statute. We structure our group purchasing services, pricing discount arrangements with suppliers, and revenue share arrangements with applicable members to meet the terms of the safe harbor for GPOs set forth at 42 C.F.R. § 1001.952(j) and the discount safe harbor set forth at 42 C.F.R. § 1001.952(h). Although full compliance with the provisions of a safe harbor ensures against prosecution under the Anti-Kickback Statute, failure of a transaction or arrangement to fit within a safe harbor does not necessarily mean that the transaction or arrangement is illegal or that prosecution under the Anti-Kickback Statute will be pursued. From time to time, HHS, through its Office of Inspector General, makes formal and informal inquiries, conducts investigations and audits the business practices of GPOs, including our GPO, the result of which could be new rules, regulations or in some cases, a formal enforcement action.
To help ensure regulatory compliance with HHS rules and regulations, our members that report their costs to Medicare are required under the terms of the Premier Group Purchasing Policy to appropriately reflect all elements of value received in connection with our initial public offering (“IPO”), including under the various agreements entered into in connection therewith, on their cost reports. We are required to furnish applicable reports to such members setting forth the amount of such value, to assist their compliance with such cost reporting requirements. There can be no assurance that the HHS Office of Inspector General or the U.S. Department of Justice, or DOJ, will concur that these actions satisfy their applicable rules and regulations.
False Claims Act. Our business is also subject to numerous federal and state laws that forbid the submission or “causing the submission” of false or fraudulent information or the failure to disclose information in connection with the submission and payment of claims for reimbursement to Medicare, Medicaid or other governmental healthcare programs or private health plans. In particular, the False Claims Act, or FCA, prohibits a person from knowingly presenting or causing to be presented a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval by an officer, employee or agent of the United States. In addition, the FCA prohibits a person from knowingly making, using, or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to such a claim. Violations of the FCA may result in treble damages, material monetary penalties, and other collateral consequences including, potentially, exclusion from participation in federally funded healthcare programs. A claim that includes items or services resulting from a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA.
Privacy and Security Laws. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, contains substantial restrictions and requirements with respect to the use and disclosure of certain individually identifiable health information, referred to as “protected health information.” The HIPAA Privacy Rule prohibits a covered entity or a business associate (essentially, a third party engaged to assist a covered entity with enumerated operational and/or compliance functions) from using or disclosing protected health information unless the use or disclosure is validly authorized by the individual or is specifically required or permitted under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and only if certain complex requirements are met. In addition to following these complex requirements, covered entities and business associates must also meet additional compliance obligations set forth in the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Security Rule establishes administrative, organizational, physical and technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic protected health information maintained or transmitted by covered entities and business associates. The HIPAA Security Rule requirements are intended to mandate that covered entities and business associates regularly re-assess the adequacy of their safeguards in light of changing and evolving security risks. Finally, the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires that covered entities and business associates, under certain circumstances, notify patients/beneficiaries, media outlets and HHS when there has been an improper use or disclosure of protected health information.
Our self-funded health benefit plan and our healthcare provider members (provided that these members engage in HIPAA-defined standard electronic transactions with health plans, which will be all or the vast majority) are directly regulated by HIPAA as “covered entities.” Additionally, because most of our U.S. hospital members disclose protected health information to us so that we may use that information to provide certain data analytics, benchmarking, consulting or other operational and compliance services to these members, we are a “business associate” of those members. In these cases, in order to provide members with services that involve the use or disclosure of protected health information, HIPAA requires us to enter into “business associate agreements” with our covered entity members. Such agreements must, among other things, provide adequate written assurances:
(i)as to how we will use and disclose the protected health information within certain allowable parameters established by HIPAA,
(ii)that we will implement reasonable and appropriate administrative, organizational, physical and technical safeguards to protect such information from impermissible use or disclosure,
(iii)that we will enter into similar agreements with our agents and subcontractors that have access to the information,
(iv)that we will report breaches of unsecured protected health information, security incidents and other inappropriate uses or disclosures of the information, and
(v)that we will assist the covered entity with certain of its duties under HIPAA.
With the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, or HITECH Act, the privacy and security requirements of HIPAA were modified and expanded. The HITECH Act applies certain of the HIPAA privacy and security requirements directly to business associates of covered entities. Prior to this change, business associates had contractual obligations to covered entities but were not subject to direct enforcement by the federal government. In 2013, HHS released final rules implementing the HITECH Act changes to HIPAA. These amendments expanded the protection of protected health information by, among other things, imposing additional requirements on business associates, further restricting the disclosure of protected health information in certain cases where the covered entity or business associate is remunerated in return for making the transaction, and modifying the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, which has been in effect since September 2009, to create a rebuttable presumption that an improper use or disclosure of protected health information under certain circumstances requires notice to affected patients/beneficiaries, media outlets and HHS.
Transaction Requirements. HIPAA also mandates format, data content and provider identifier standards that must be used in certain electronic transactions, such as claims, payment advice and eligibility inquiries. Although our systems are fully capable of transmitting transactions that comply with these requirements, some payers and healthcare clearinghouses with which we conduct business may interpret HIPAA transaction requirements differently than we do or may require us to use legacy formats or include legacy identifiers as they make the transition to full compliance. In cases where payers or healthcare clearinghouses require conformity with their interpretations or require us to accommodate legacy transactions or identifiers as a condition of successful transactions, we attempt to comply with their requirements, but may be subject to enforcement actions as a result. In 2009, CMS published a final rule adopting updated standard code sets for diagnoses and procedures known as ICD-10 code sets and changing the formats to be used for electronic transactions subject to the ICD-10 code sets, known as Version 5010. All healthcare providers are required to comply with Version 5010 and use the ICD-10 code sets.
Other Federal and State Laws. In addition to our obligations under HIPAA there are other federal laws that impose specific privacy and security obligations, above and beyond HIPAA, for certain types of health information and impose additional sanctions and penalties. These rules are not preempted by HIPAA. Most states have enacted patient and/or beneficiary confidentiality laws that protect against the disclosure of confidential medical information, and many states have adopted or are considering adopting further legislation in this area, including privacy safeguards, security standards, data security breach notification requirements, and special rules for so-called “sensitive” health information, such as mental health, genetic testing results, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, status. These state laws, if more stringent than HIPAA requirements, are not preempted by the federal requirements, and we are required to comply with them as well.
We are unable to predict what changes to HIPAA or other federal or state laws or regulations might be made in the future or how those changes could affect our business or the associated costs of compliance.
Antitrust Laws
The Sherman Antitrust Act and related federal and state antitrust laws are complex laws that prohibit contracts in restraint of trade or other activities that are designed to or that have the effect of reducing competition in the market. The federal antitrust laws promote fair competition in business and are intended to create a level playing field so that both small and large companies are able to compete in the market. In their 1996 Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care, or the Healthcare Statements, the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, set forth guidelines specifically designed to help GPOs gauge whether a particular purchasing arrangement may raise antitrust concerns and established an antitrust safety zone for joint purchasing arrangements among healthcare providers.
Earlier in 2023, the DOJ and FTC withdrew the Healthcare Statements, stating that they were outdated and overly permissive and indicating that the agencies would provide future guidance through case-by-case enforcement. In the absence of current guidance, we have continued to attempt to structure our contracts and pricing arrangements in accordance with the Healthcare Statements and believe that our GPO supplier contracts and pricing discount arrangements should not be found to violate the antitrust laws. No assurance can be given that enforcement authorities will agree with this assessment. In addition, private parties also may bring suit for alleged violations under the U.S. antitrust laws. From time to time, the group purchasing industry comes under review by Congress and other governmental bodies with respect to antitrust laws, the scope of which includes, among other things, the relationships between GPOs and their members, distributors, manufacturers and other suppliers, as well as the services performed and payments received in connection with GPO programs.
Congress, the DOJ, the FTC, the U.S. Senate or another state or federal entity could at any time open a new investigation of the group purchasing industry, or develop new rules, regulations or laws governing the industry, that could adversely impact our ability to negotiate pricing arrangements with suppliers, increase reporting and documentation requirements, or otherwise require us to modify our arrangements in a manner that adversely impacts our business. We may also face private or government lawsuits alleging violations arising from the concerns articulated by these governmental factors or alleging violations based solely on concerns of individual private parties.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our business, operations, and financial position are subject to various risks. Before making an investment in our Class A common stock or other securities we may have outstanding from time to time, you should carefully consider the following risks, as well as the other information contained in this Annual Report. Any of the risks described below could materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and as a result, the value of an investment in our Class A common stock or other securities we may have outstanding from time to time could decline, and you may lose part or all of such investment value. This section does not describe all risks that are or may become applicable to us, our industry or our business, and it is intended only as a summary of certain material risk factors. Some statements in this Annual Report, including certain statements in the following risk factors, constitute forward-looking statements. See the section titled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for a discussion of such statements and their limitations. More detailed information concerning other risks or uncertainties we face, as well as the risk factors described below, is contained in other sections of this Annual Report.
Risk Factors Summary
The following is a summary of the risk factors that could adversely affect our Company and the value of an investment in our Company’s securities.
Risks Related to our Business Operations
•We face risks related to competition and consolidation in the healthcare industry.
•We may experience delays recognizing or increasing revenue if the sales cycle or implementation period takes longer than expected.
•We face risks to our business if members of our group purchasing organization (“GPO”) programs reduce activity levels, terminate or elect not to renew their contracts on substantially similar terms or at all.
•We rely on administrative fees that we receive from GPO suppliers.
•We face increased pressure to increase the percentage of administrative fees we share with our GPO members as well as to provide enhanced value through savings guarantees and other arrangements, including as a result of very aggressive competition from other GPOs, which is likely to result in increases in revenue share obligations, some of which may be material, particularly as our current GPO participation agreements approach renewal or if a member undergoes a change of control that triggers a termination right, or as new members join our GPO program.
•We face risks of the markets for our software as a service (“SaaS”) or licensed-based analytics products and services may develop more slowly than we expect, or we may convert more SaaS-based products to license-based analytics products, which could adversely affect our revenue, growth rates and our ability to maintain or increase our profitability.
•Our members are highly dependent on payments from third-party payers, such as Medicare and Medicaid, the denial or reduction of which could adversely affect demand for our products and services.
•Our growth may be affected by our ability to offer new and innovative products and services as well as our ability to maintain third-party provider and strategic alliances or enter into new alliances.
•We face risks and expenses related to future acquisition opportunities and integration of acquisitions, as well as risks associated with non-controlling investments in other businesses or joint ventures.
•Our evaluation of potential strategic alternatives to enhance value for stockholders may not be successful and have negative impacts on our business and stock price.
•We rely on Internet infrastructure, bandwidth providers, data center providers and other third parties and face risks related to data loss or corruption and cyber-attacks or other data security breaches.
•We depend on our ability to use, disclose, de-identify or license data and to integrate third-party technologies.
•We face risks related to our use of “open source” software.
•We face risks associated with our reliance on contract manufacturing facilities located in various parts of the world.
•We may face inventory risk for (i) the personal protective equipment or other products we may purchase at elevated prices during a supply shortage, and (ii) items we purchase in bulk or pursuant to fixed price purchase commitments if we cannot sell such inventory at or above our cost.
•We depend on our ability to attract, hire, integrate and retain key personnel.
•We have risks to our business operations due to continuing uncertain economic conditions, including but not limited to inflation and the risk of a global recession, which could impair our ability to forecast and may harm our business, operating results, including our revenue growth and profitability, financial condition and cash flows.
•We may continue to face financial and operational uncertainty due to pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated supply chain disruptions.
•We may face financial and operational uncertainty due to global economic and political instability and conflicts.
•We may be adversely affected by global climate change or by regulatory responses to such change.
Risks Related to Healthcare and Employee Benefit Regulation
•We are subject to changes and uncertainty in the legal, political, economic and regulatory environment affecting healthcare organizations.
•We must comply with complex international, federal and state laws and regulations governing financial relationships among healthcare providers and the submission of false or fraudulent healthcare claims, antitrust and employee benefit laws and regulations and privacy, security and breach notification laws.
•We may be subject to regulation for certain of our software products regarding health information technology, artificial intelligence and medical devices.
Legal and Tax-Related Risks
•We are subject to litigation from time to time, including the pending stockholder derivative action against certain of our current and former officers and directors.
•We must adequately protect our intellectual property, and we face potential claims against our use of the intellectual property of third parties.
•We face tax risks, including potential sales and use, franchise and income tax liability in certain jurisdictions, future changes in tax laws and potential material tax disputes.
Risks Related to our Corporate Structure
•We are obligated to make payments under our Unit Exchange and Tax Receivable Acceleration Agreements, and we may not realize all of the expected tax benefits corresponding to the termination of our prior Tax Receivable Agreement.
•Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and provisions of Delaware law may impede or prevent strategic transactions, including a takeover of the company.
Risks Related to our Capital Structure, Liquidity and Class A Common Stock
•We face risks related to our current and future indebtedness, including our existing long-term credit facility.
•We experience fluctuation in our quarterly cash flows, revenues and results of operations.
•We are required to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting and remediate any material weaknesses and significant deficiencies identified.
•We face risks related to our Class A common stock, including potentially dilutive issuances and uncertainty regarding future dividend payments and stock repurchases.
For a more complete discussion of the material risks facing our business, see below.
Risks Related to Our Business Operations
We face intense competition, which could limit our ability to maintain or expand market share within our industry and harm our business and operating results.
The market for products and services in each of our operating segments is fragmented, intensely competitive and characterized by rapidly evolving technology and product standards, dynamic user needs and the frequent introduction of new products and services. We face intense competition from a number of companies, including the companies listed under “Item 1 - Business - Competition.”
The primary competitors for our Supply Chain Services segment compete with our group purchasing, direct sourcing and supply chain co-management activities. Our group purchasing business competes with other large GPOs, including in certain cases GPOs owned by healthcare providers and on-line retailers. Our direct sourcing business competes primarily with private label offerings and programs, product manufacturers and distributors. Our supply chain co-management business competes with organizations that provide supply chain outsourcing or embedded resources and supply chain transformations services.
The competitors in our Performance Services segment compete with our three sub-brands: PINC AI, Contigo Health and Remitra. The primary competitors of PINC AI range from smaller niche companies to large, well-financed and technologically sophisticated entities, and include information technology providers and consulting and outsourcing firms. The primary competitors for Contigo Health are smaller niche and larger well-financed healthcare and insurance companies and providers of wrap network services. The primary competitors for Remitra are smaller niche and larger technology companies and financial institutions.
With respect to our products and services in both segments, we compete based on several factors, including breadth, depth and quality of our product and service offerings, ability to deliver clinical, financial and operational performance improvement through the use of our products and services, quality and reliability of services, ease of use and convenience, brand recognition and the ability to integrate services with existing technology. Some of our competitors have larger scale, benefit from greater name recognition, and have substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources. Other of our competitors have proprietary technology that differentiates their product and service offerings from our offerings. As a result of these competitive advantages, our competitors and potential competitors may be able to respond more quickly to market forces, undertake more extensive marketing campaigns for their brands, products and services and make more attractive offers to our current members and customers and potential new members and customers.
We also compete based on price in our Supply Chain Services and Performance Services businesses. We may be subject to pricing pressures as a result of, among other things, competition within the industry, consolidation of healthcare industry participants, practices of managed care organizations, changes in laws and regulations applicable to our business operations, government action affecting reimbursement, financial stress experienced by our members and customers, and increased revenue share obligations to members. In our Supply Chain Services segment, competitive pressure is likely to result in increases in revenue share obligations, some of which may be material, particularly as our current GPO participation agreements approach renewal or if a member undergoes a change of control that triggers a termination right, or as new GPO members join our GPO programs. Material increases in revenue share obligations to existing or new GPO members could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. In this competitive environment, we may not be able to retain our current GPO members or expand our member base at historical terms, favorable terms or at all, and the failure to do so may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, if pricing of our other products and services experiences material downward pressure, our business will be less profitable, and our results of operations will be materially, adversely affected.
Furthermore, our Performance Services business also competes on features and functionality of the solutions we offer through our PINC AI, Contigo Health and Remitra brands.
Moreover, we expect that competition will continue to increase as a result of consolidation in both the healthcare information technology and healthcare services industries. If one or more of our competitors or potential competitors were to merge or partner with another of our competitors, or if new competitors were to enter the healthcare space, the change in the competitive landscape could also adversely affect our ability to compete effectively and could materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Consolidation in the healthcare industry could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Many healthcare industry participants are consolidating to create larger and more integrated healthcare delivery systems with greater market power. We expect legal, regulatory and economic conditions to lead to additional consolidation in the healthcare industry in the future. As consolidation accelerates, the economies of scale of our members’ organizations may grow. If a member experiences sizable growth following consolidation, it may determine that it no longer needs to rely on us and may reduce its demand for our products and services. Some of these large and growing healthcare systems and continuum of care providers may choose to contract directly with suppliers for certain supply categories, and some suppliers may seek to contract directly with the healthcare providers rather than with GPOs such as ours. In connection with any consolidation, our members may move their business to another GPO, particularly when the acquiring hospital or health system is a member of a competing GPO or where the post-acquisition management of our member is aligned with a competing GPO. In addition, as healthcare providers consolidate to create larger and more integrated healthcare delivery systems with greater market power, these providers may try to use their market power to negotiate materially increased revenue share obligations and fee reductions for our products and services across both of our business segments. Finally, consolidation may also result in the acquisition or future development by our members of products and services that compete with our products and services. Any of these potential results of consolidation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may experience material delays in recognizing revenue or increasing revenue, or be required to reverse prior revenue recognition, if the sales cycle or implementation period with potential new members takes longer than anticipated or our related project estimates are not accurate.
A key element of our strategy is to market the various products and services in our Supply Chain Services and Performance Services segments directly to healthcare providers and to increase the number of our products and services utilized by existing members. The evaluation and purchasing process is often lengthy and involves material technical evaluation and commitment of personnel by these organizations. Further, the evaluation process depends on a number of factors, many of which we may not be able to control, including potential new members’ internal approval processes, budgetary constraints for technology spending, member concerns about implementing new procurement methods and strategies and other timing effects. In addition, the contract or software implementation process for new products or services can take six months or more and, accordingly, delay our ability to recognize revenue from the sale of such products or services. If we experience an extended or delayed implementation cycle in connection with the sale of additional products and services to existing or new members, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we are required to use estimates to determine revenue recognition for performance-based consulting engagements. These estimates are based on a number of inputs from management regarding project timing, milestone and goal achievement and expected completion dates, each of which may change during the course of the engagement and could result in either delayed revenue recognition or revenue reversals resulting in out of period revenue adjustments, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, changes in accounting standards that impact revenue recognition as well as conversion of SaaS-based products to licensed-based products, as discussed in the below risk factor “The markets for our SaaS- or licensed-based products and services may develop more slowly than we expect, or we may convert more SaaS-based products to license-based products, which could adversely affect our revenue, growth rates and our ability to maintain or increase our profitability” could adversely impact our ability to recognize revenue consistent with our historical practices and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If members of our GPO programs reduce activity levels or terminate or elect not to renew their contracts, our revenue and results of operations may decrease materially.
We have GPO participation agreements with all of our GPO members. Our GPO participation agreements may generally be terminated for cause or in the event of a change of control of the GPO member. In addition, the GPO member can terminate the GPO participation agreement at the end of the then-current term by notifying us of the member’s decision not to renew. Although we renewed most of our then existing GPO participation agreements primarily for terms of five to seven years at the beginning of fiscal 2021, there can be no assurance that our GPO members will extend or renew their GPO participation agreements on the same or similar economic terms at the end of the term of the agreement, or at all, or that the GPO members will not terminate their GPO participation agreements for cause or due to a change of control of the GPO member. Failure of our GPO members to maintain, extend or renew their GPO participation agreements on the same or similar economic terms, or at all, may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success in retaining member participation in our GPO programs depends upon our reputation, strong relationships with GPO members and our ability to deliver consistent, reliable and high-quality products and services, and a failure in any of these areas may result in the loss of GPO members. Some of our GPO competitors offer higher revenue share arrangements compared to our average arrangements. Our ability to retain and expand participation in our GPO programs depends upon our ability to provide overall value to GPO members, including competitive revenue share arrangements, in an economically competitive environment. In addition, GPO members may seek to modify or elect not to renew their contracts due to factors that are beyond our control and are unrelated to our performance, including a change of control of the GPO member, changes in their strategies, competitive analysis or business plans, changes in their supply chain personnel or management, or economic conditions in general. When contracts are reduced by modification or not renewed for any reason, we lose the anticipated future revenue associated with such contracts and, consequently, our revenue and results of operations may decrease materially.
Historically, we have enjoyed a strong strategic alignment with our GPO members, in many cases as a result of such GPO members being significant equity owners of both us and Premier LP. As a result of the August 2020 Restructuring, our former member-owners’ equity holdings in Premier LP were canceled and converted into shares of our Class A common stock which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) under the ticker symbol “PINC.” Furthermore, former member-owners who received shares of our Class A common stock as part of the August 2020 Restructuring are free to sell those shares at any time. Any material reduction in our member-owners’ equity holdings in us could result in reduced alignment between us and such member-owners, which may make it more difficult to retain these GPO members or to ensure that they extend or renew their GPO participation agreements on the same or similar economic terms, or at all, the failure of which may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on the administrative fees we receive from our GPO suppliers, and the failure to maintain contracts with these GPO suppliers could have a generally negative effect on our relationships with our members and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Historically, we have derived a substantial amount of our revenue from the administrative fees that we receive from our GPO suppliers. We maintain contractual relationships with these suppliers which provide products and services to our members at reduced costs and which pay us administrative fees based on the dollars spent by our members for such products and services. Our contracts with these GPO suppliers generally may be terminated upon 90 days’ notice. A termination of any relationship or agreement with a GPO supplier would result in the loss of administrative fees pursuant to our arrangement with that supplier, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we lose a relationship with a GPO supplier we may not be able to negotiate similar arrangements for our members with other suppliers on the same terms and conditions or at all, which could damage our reputation with our members and adversely impact our ability to maintain our member agreements or expand our membership base and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, CMS, which administers the Medicare and federal aspects of state Medicaid programs, has issued complex rules requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to calculate and report drug pricing for multiple purposes, including the limiting of reimbursement for certain drugs. These rules generally exclude from the pricing calculation administrative fees paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers to GPOs to the extent that such fees meet CMS’s “bona fide service fee” definition. There can be no assurance that CMS will continue to allow exclusion of GPO administrative fees from the pricing calculation, which could negatively affect the willingness of pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay administrative fees to us, which could have a material adverse effect on our member retention, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We derive a material portion of our revenues from our largest members and certain other customers and the sudden loss of one or more of these members or customers could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our top five customers generated revenue of approximately 15% and 21% of our consolidated net revenues for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2023 and 2022. The sudden loss of any material customer or a number of smaller customers that are participants in our group purchasing programs, or utilize any of our programs or services, or a material change in revenue share or other economic terms we have with such customers could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The markets for our SaaS- or licensed-based products and services may develop more slowly than we expect, or we may convert more SaaS-based products to license-based products, which could adversely affect our revenue, growth rates and our ability to maintain or increase our profitability.
As SaaS licensing deals have become a more material aspect of our business, our success will depend on the willingness of existing and potential new customers to increase their use of our SaaS- or licensed-based products and services as well as our ability to sell license-based products to existing and potential new customers at rates sufficient to offset the loss of SaaS-based product sales. Fluctuating member demand and timing for SaaS- or license-based products that materially alter our mix of SaaS- and licensed-based product sales and conversion of SaaS-based products to license-based products can result in volatility of revenue and lower growth rates in any given year which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, many companies have invested substantial resources to integrate established enterprise software into their businesses and therefore may be reluctant or unwilling to switch to our products and services and some companies may have concerns regarding the risks associated with the security and reliability of the technology delivery model associated with these services. If companies do not perceive the benefits of our products and services, then the market for these products and services may not expand as much or develop as quickly as we expect, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our members and other customers are highly dependent on payments from third-party healthcare payers, including Medicare, Medicaid and other government-sponsored programs, and reductions or changes in third-party reimbursement could adversely affect these members and other customers and consequently our business.
Our members and other customers derive a substantial portion of their revenue from third-party private and governmental payers, including Medicare, Medicaid and other government sponsored programs. Our sales and profitability depend, in part, on the extent to which coverage of and reimbursement for our products and services our members and other customers purchase or otherwise obtain through us is available to our members and other customers from governmental health programs, private health insurers, managed care plans and other third-party payers. These third-party payers are increasingly using their enhanced bargaining power to secure discounted reimbursement rates and may impose other requirements that adversely impact our members and other customers’ ability to obtain adequate reimbursement for our products and services. If third-party payers do
not approve our products and services for reimbursement or fail to reimburse for them adequately, our members and other customers may suffer adverse financial consequences which, in turn, may reduce the demand for and ability to purchase our products or services.
In addition, government actions or changes in laws or regulations could limit government spending generally for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, limit payments to healthcare providers and increase emphasis on financially accountable payment programs such as accountable care organizations, bundled payments and capitated primary care that could have a material adverse impact on our members and other customers and, in turn, on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to maintain our relationships with third-party providers or maintain or enter into new strategic alliances, we may be unable to grow our current base business.
Our business strategy includes entering into and maintaining strategic alliances and affiliations with leading service providers. These companies may pursue relationships with our competitors, develop or acquire products and services that compete with our products and services, experience financial difficulties, be acquired by one of our competitors or other third party or exit the healthcare industry, any of which may adversely affect our relationship with them. In addition, in many cases, these companies may terminate their relationships with us for any reason with limited or no notice. If existing relationships with third-party providers or strategic alliances are adversely impacted or are terminated or we are unable to enter into relationships with leading healthcare service providers and other GPOs, we may be unable to maintain or increase our industry presence or effectively execute our business strategy.
If we are not able to timely offer new and innovative products and services, we may not remain competitive and our revenue and results of operations may suffer.
Our success depends on providing products and services within our Supply Chain Services and Performance Services segments that healthcare providers use to improve clinical, financial and operational performance. Information technology providers and other competitors are incorporating enhanced analytical tools and functionality and otherwise developing products and services that may become viewed as more efficient or appealing to our members. If we cannot adapt to rapidly evolving industry standards, technology, member and other customers’ needs, including changing regulations and provider reimbursement policies, we may be unable to anticipate changes in our current and potential new members’ and other customers’ requirements that could make our existing technology, products or service offerings obsolete. We must continue to invest material resources in software development or acquisitions in order to enhance our existing products and services, maintain or improve our product category rankings and introduce new high-quality products and services that members and potential new members and customers will want. If our enhanced existing or new products and services are not responsive to the needs of our members or potential new members and customers, are not appropriately timed with market opportunity or are not effectively brought to market, we may lose existing members and be unable to obtain new members and customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our acquisition activities could result in operating difficulties, dilution, unrecoverable costs and other negative consequences, any of which may adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.
Our business strategy includes growth through acquisitions of additional businesses and assets. Future acquisitions may not be completed on preferred terms and acquired assets or businesses may not be successfully integrated into our operations or provide anticipated financial or operational benefits. Any acquisitions we complete will involve risks commonly encountered in acquisitions of businesses or assets. Such risks include, among other things:
•failing to integrate the operations and personnel of the acquired businesses in an efficient, timely manner;
•failure of a selling party to produce all material information during the pre-acquisition due diligence process, or to meet their obligations under post-acquisition agreements;
•potential liabilities of or claims against an acquired company or its assets, some of which may not become known until after the acquisition;
•an acquired company’s lack of compliance with applicable laws and governmental rules and regulations, and the related costs and expenses necessary to bring such company into compliance;
•an acquired company’s general information technology controls or their legacy third-party providers may not be sufficient to prevent unauthorized access or transactions, cyber-attacks or other data security breaches;
•managing the potential disruption to our ongoing business;
•distracting management focus from our existing core businesses;
•encountering difficulties in identifying and acquiring products, technologies, or businesses that will help us execute our business strategy;
•entering new markets in which we have little to no experience;
•impairing relationships with employees, members, and strategic partners;
•failing to implement or remediate controls, procedures and policies appropriate for a public company at acquired companies lacking such financial, disclosure or other controls, procedures and policies, potentially resulting in a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting;
•unanticipated changes in market or industry practices that adversely impact our strategic and financial expectations of an acquired company, assets or business and require us to write-off or dispose of such acquired company, assets, or business;
•the amortization of purchased intangible assets;
•incurring expenses associated with an impairment of all or a portion of goodwill and other intangible assets due to the failure of certain acquisitions to realize expected benefits; and
•diluting the share value and voting power of existing stockholders.
In addition, anticipated benefits of our previous and future acquisitions may not materialize. Future acquisitions or dispositions of under-performing businesses could result in the incurrence of debt, material exit costs, contingent liabilities or amortization expenses, impairments or write-offs of goodwill and other intangible assets, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, expenses associated with potential acquisitions, including, among others, due diligence costs, legal, accounting, technology and financial advisory fees, travel and internal resources utilization, can be material. These expenses may be incurred regardless of whether any potential acquisition is completed. In instances where acquisitions are not ultimately completed, these expenses typically cannot be recovered or offset by the anticipated financial benefits of a successful acquisition. As we pursue our business strategy and evaluate opportunities, these expenses may adversely impact our results of operations and earnings per share.
Our business and growth strategies also include non-controlling investments in other businesses and joint ventures. In the event the companies or joint ventures we invest in do not perform as well as expected, we could experience the loss of some or all of the value of our investment, which loss could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.
Although we conduct accounting, financial, legal and business due diligence prior to making investments, we cannot guarantee that we will discover all material issues that may affect a particular target business, or that factors outside the control of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. Occasionally, current and future investments are, and will be, made on a non-controlling basis, in which case we have limited ability to influence the financial or business operations of the companies in which we invest. To the extent we invest in a financially underperforming or unstable company or an entity in its development stage that does not successfully mature, we may lose the value of our investment. We have in the past and may in the future be required to write down or write off our investment or recognize impairment or other charges that could adversely impact our financial condition or results of operations and our stock price. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have a material impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us and our business strategy and our Class A common stock.
We cannot assure you that our evaluation of potential strategic alternatives to enhance value for stockholders will be successful; and there may be negative impacts on our business and stock price as a result of the process of exploring strategic alternatives.
In May 2023, we announced that our Board of Directors is evaluating potential strategic alternatives to enhance value for stockholders. The Board of Directors has established an independent Special Committee composed of independent directors to evaluate any alternatives that may involve actual or potential conflicts of interest and have engaged financial and legal advisors to assist in the process. The strategic process is ongoing. Our Board of Directors has not set a timetable for the strategic process, and as of June 30, 2023, the only decision made relating to any strategic alternatives is the definitive agreement we entered into with OMNIA Partners, LLC, a leading non-healthcare GPO, in June 2023, under which we sold substantially all of our non-healthcare GPO member contracts for an estimated purchase price of approximately $800.0 million subject to certain adjustments. There can be no assurance that the strategic review process by our Board of Directors will result in any further transactions or any other strategic change or outcome, or as to the timing of any of the foregoing. Whether the process will result in any additional transactions, our ability to complete any transaction, and if our Board of Directors decides to pursue one or more transactions, will depend on numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control, including the interest of potential acquirers or strategic partners in a potential transaction, the value potential acquirers or strategic partners attribute to our businesses and their respective prospects, market conditions, interest rates and industry trends. Our stock price may be adversely affected if the evaluation does not result in additional transactions or if one or more transactions are consummated on terms that investors view as unfavorable to us. Even if one or more additional transactions are completed, there can be no assurance that any such transactions will be successful or have a positive effect on stockholder value. Our Board of Directors may also determine that no additional transaction is in the best interest of our stockholders.
In addition, our financial results and operations could be adversely affected by the strategic process and by the uncertainty regarding its outcome. The attention of management and our Board of Directors could be diverted from our core business operations, and we have diverted capital and other resources to the process that otherwise could have been used in our business operations, and we will continue to do so until the process is completed. We could incur substantial expenses associated with identifying and evaluating potential strategic alternatives, including those related to employee retention payments, equity compensation, severance pay and legal, accounting and financial advisor fees. In addition, the process could lead us to lose or fail to attract, retain and motivate key employees, and to lose or fail to attract customers or business partners, and could expose us to litigation. The public announcement of a strategic alternative may also yield a negative impact on operating results if prospective or existing service providers are reluctant to commit to new or renewal contracts or if existing customers decide to move their business to a competitor. We do not intend to disclose developments or provide updates on the progress or status of the strategic process until our Board of Directors deems further disclosure is appropriate or required. Accordingly, speculation regarding any developments related to the review of strategic alternatives and perceived uncertainties related to the future of the Company could cause our stock price to fluctuate significantly.
We rely on Internet infrastructure, bandwidth providers, data center providers and other third parties and our own systems for providing services to our users, and any failure or interruption in the services provided by these third parties or our own systems, including from a cyber or other catastrophic event, could expose us to litigation and negatively impact our relationships with users, adversely affecting our brand, our business and our financial performance.
Our ability to deliver our products is dependent on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Internet and other telecommunications services by third parties. This includes maintenance of a reliable network backbone with the necessary speed, data capacity and security for providing reliable Internet access and services and reliable telephone, Wi-Fi, facsimile and pager systems. We have experienced and expect that we will experience in the future interruptions and delays in these services and availability from time to time. We rely on internal systems as well as third-party suppliers, including bandwidth and telecommunications equipment providers, to provide our services. We have also migrated our data center operations to third-party data-hosting facilities. We do not maintain redundant systems or facilities for some of these services. In the event of a material cyber-attack or catastrophic event with respect to one or more of these providers, systems or facilities, we may experience an extended period of system unavailability, which could negatively impact our relationship with users. To operate without interruption, both we and our service providers must guard against:
•damage from fire, power loss, and other natural disasters;
•communications failures;
•software and hardware errors, failures, and crashes;
•cyber-attacks, viruses, worms, malware, ransomware and other malicious software programs;
•security breaches and computer viruses and similar disruptive problems; and
•other potential interruptions.
Any disruption in the network access, telecommunications or co-location services provided by our third-party providers or any failure of or by these third-party providers or our own systems to handle current or higher volume of use could materially harm our business. We exercise limited control over these third-party suppliers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with services they provide. Any errors, failures, interruptions or delays experienced in connection with these third-party technologies and information services or our own systems could negatively impact our relationships with users and adversely affect our business and financial performance and could expose us to third-party liabilities, some of which may not be adequately insured.
Data loss or corruption due to failures or errors in our systems and service disruptions at our data centers may adversely affect our reputation and relationships with existing members, which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Because of the large amount of data that we collect and manage, it is possible that hardware failures or errors in our systems could result in data loss or corruption or cause the information that we collect to be incomplete or contain inaccuracies that our members regard as material. Complex software such as ours may contain errors or failures that are not detected until after the software is introduced or updates and new versions are released. Despite testing by us, from time to time we have discovered defects or errors in our software, and such defects or errors may be discovered in the future. Any defects or errors could expose us to risk of liability to members and the government and could cause delays in the introduction of new products and services, result in increased costs and diversion of development resources, require design modifications, decrease market acceptance or member satisfaction with our products and services or cause harm to our reputation.
Furthermore, our members might use our software together with products from other companies. As a result, when problems occur, it might be difficult to identify the source of the problem. Even when our software does not cause these problems, the
existence of these errors might cause us to incur material costs, divert the attention of our technical personnel from our product development efforts, impact our reputation and lead to material member relations problems.
Moreover, our data centers and service provider locations store and transmit critical member data that is essential to our business. While these locations are chosen for their stability, failover capabilities and system controls, we do not directly control the continued or uninterrupted availability of every location. We have migrated our data center operations to third-party data-hosting facilities. Data center facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, acts of terrorism, acts of war, and similar events. They are also subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, cyber-attacks and similar misconduct. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, could result in a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems, which could cause lengthy interruptions in our service. These service interruption events could impair our ability to deliver services or deliverables or cause us to fail to achieve service levels required in agreements with our members, which could negatively affect our ability to retain existing members and attract new members.
If our cyber and other security measures are breached or fail and unauthorized access to a member’s data is obtained, or our members fail to obtain proper permission for the use and disclosure of information, our services may be perceived as not being secure, members may curtail or stop using our services and we may incur material liabilities.
Our services involve the web-based storage and transmission of members’ proprietary information, personal information of employees and protected health information of patients. From time to time, we may detect vulnerabilities in our systems, which, even if not resulting in a security breach, may reduce member confidence and require substantial resources to address. If our security measures are breached or fail as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance, insufficiency, defective design or otherwise, someone may be able to obtain unauthorized access to member or patient data. As a result, our reputation could be damaged, our business may suffer, and we could face damages for contract breach, penalties and fines for violation of applicable laws or regulations and material costs for notification to affected individuals, remediation and efforts to prevent future occurrences.
In addition to our cyber and other security measures, we rely upon third-party providers and our members as users of our system for key activities to promote security of the system and the data within it. On occasion, our providers security systems have been breached and our members have failed to perform these activities. Failure of third-party providers or members to perform these activities may result in claims against us that could expose us to material expense and harm our reputation. In addition, our members may authorize or enable third parties to access their data or the data of their patients on our systems. Because we do not control such access, we cannot ensure the complete propriety of that access or integrity or security of such data in our systems. In addition, although our development infrastructure is based in the U.S., we outsource development work for a portion of our products and services to persons outside the U.S., particularly India. We cannot guarantee that the cyber and other security measures and regulatory environment of our foreign partners are as robust as in the U.S. Any breach of our security by our members or foreign partners could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Additionally, we require our members to provide necessary notices and to obtain necessary permissions and waivers for use and disclosure of the information that we receive. If our members do not obtain necessary permissions and waivers, then our use and disclosure of information that we receive from them or on their behalf may be limited or prohibited by state, federal, or international privacy laws or other laws. Any such failure to obtain proper permissions and waivers could impair our functions, processes and databases that reflect, contain or are based upon such data and may prevent use of such data. Moreover, we may be subject to claims or liability for use or disclosure of information by reason of our lack of a valid notice, permission or waiver. These claims or liabilities could subject us to unexpected costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We could suffer a loss of revenue and increased costs, exposure to material liability, reputational harm, and other serious negative consequences if we are subject to cyber-attacks or other data security breaches that disrupt our operations or result in the dissemination of proprietary or confidential information about us or our members or other third parties.
We manage and store proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our operations. We may be subject to cyber-attacks on and breaches of the information technology systems we use for these purposes. Experienced computer programmers and hackers may be able to penetrate our network security and misappropriate or compromise our confidential information or that of third parties, create system disruptions, or cause shutdowns. Computer programmers and hackers also may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms, malware, ransomware and other malicious software programs that attack our systems or products or otherwise exploit security vulnerabilities of our systems or products. In addition, hardware and operating system software and applications that we produce or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation of our systems.
We expend material capital to protect against the threat of security breaches, including cyber-attacks, viruses, worms, malware, ransomware and other malicious software programs. Substantial additional expenditures may be required before or after a cyber-attack or breach to mitigate in advance or to alleviate any problems caused by cyber-attacks and breaches, including unauthorized access to or theft of personal or patient data and protected health information stored in our information systems and the introduction of computer viruses, worms, malware, ransomware and other malicious software programs to our systems. Our remediation efforts may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service and loss of existing or potential members.
While we provide our domestic and foreign employees and contractors training and regular reminders on important measures they can take to prevent breaches, we often identify attempts to gain unauthorized access to our systems. Given the rapidly evolving nature and proliferation of cyber threats, there can be no guarantee our training and network security measures or other controls will detect, prevent or remediate security or data breaches in a timely manner or otherwise prevent unauthorized access to, damage to, or interruption of our systems and operations. For example, it has been widely reported that many well-organized international interests, in certain cases with the backing of sovereign governments, are targeting the theft of patient information through the use of advanced persistent threats. In recent years, a number of hospitals have reported being the victim of ransomware attacks in which they lost access to their systems, including clinical systems, during the course of the attacks. We are likely to face attempted attacks in the future. Accordingly, we may be vulnerable to losses associated with the improper functioning, security breach or unavailability of our information systems as well as any systems used in acquired operations.
Breaches of our security measures and the unapproved use or disclosure of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us or our members or other third parties could expose us, our members or other affected third parties to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, result in litigation, governmental inquiry and potential liability for us, damage our brand and reputation or otherwise harm our business. Furthermore, we are exposed to additional risks because we rely in certain capacities on third-party data management providers whose possible security problems and security vulnerabilities are beyond our control.
We may experience cyber-security and other breach incidents that remain undetected for an extended period. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures to stop or mitigate any potential damage in a timely manner. Given the increasing cyber security threats in the healthcare industry, there can be no guarantee we will not experience business interruptions; data loss, ransom, misappropriation or corruption; theft or misuse of proprietary or patient information; or litigation and investigation related to any of those, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations and harm our business reputation. Although we do maintain commercially reasonable insurance policies for cyber-attacks, there can be no guarantee that insurance would be sufficient to cover our losses, nor can it be guaranteed that insurance coverage would be available for every specific incident in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable policy coverage.
Any restrictions on our use of, or ability to license, data, or our failure to license data and integrate third-party technologies, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend upon licenses from third parties, most of which are non-exclusive, for some of the technology and data used in our applications, and for some of the technology platforms upon which these applications are built and operate. We also obtain a portion of the data that we use from government entities and public records and from our members for specific member engagements. We cannot assure that our licenses for information will allow us to use that information for all potential or contemplated applications and products. In addition, if our members revoke their consent for us to maintain, use, de-identify and share their data, our data assets could be degraded.
In the future, data providers could withdraw their data from us or restrict our usage due to competitive reasons or because of new legislation or judicial interpretations restricting use of the data currently used in our products and services. In addition, data providers could fail to adhere to our quality control standards in the future, causing us to incur additional expense to appropriately utilize the data. If a substantial number of data providers were to withdraw or restrict their data, or if they fail to adhere to our quality control standards, and if we are unable to identify and contract with suitable alternative data suppliers and integrate these data sources into our service offerings, our ability to provide products and services to our members would be materially and adversely impacted, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We also integrate into our proprietary applications and use third-party software to maintain and enhance, among other things, content generation and delivery, and to support our technology infrastructure. Some of this software is proprietary and some is open source. Our use of third-party technologies exposes us to increased risks, including, but not limited to, risks associated with the integration of new technology into our solutions, the diversion of our resources from development of our own proprietary technology and our inability to generate revenue from licensed technology sufficient to offset associated acquisition and maintenance costs. These technologies may not be available to us in the future on commercially reasonable terms or at all
and could be difficult to replace once integrated into our own proprietary applications. Our inability to obtain, maintain or comply with any of these licenses could delay development until equivalent technology can be identified, licensed and integrated, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Most of our third-party licenses are non-exclusive and our competitors may obtain the right to access any of the technology covered by these licenses to compete directly with us. Our use of third-party technologies exposes us to increased risks, including, but not limited to, risks associated with the integration of new technology into our solutions, the diversion of our resources from development of our own proprietary technology and our inability to generate revenue from licensed technology sufficient to offset associated acquisition and maintenance costs. In addition, if our data suppliers choose to discontinue support of the licensed technology in the future, we might not be able to modify or adapt our own solutions.
Our use of “open source” software could adversely affect our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible litigation.
The products or technologies acquired, licensed or developed by us may incorporate so-called “open source” software, and we may incorporate open source software into other products in the future. There is little or no legal precedent governing the interpretation of many of the terms of certain of these licenses, and therefore the potential impact of these terms on our business is unknown and may result in unanticipated obligations or litigation regarding our products and technologies. For example, we may be subjected to certain conditions, including requirements that we offer our products that use particular open source software at no cost to the user, that we make available the source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software, and/or that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. In addition, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, under some open source licenses we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, which could substantially help our competitors develop products that are similar to or better than ours. If an author or other party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur material legal costs defending ourselves against such allegations and could be subject to material damages.
Our direct sourcing activities depend on contract manufacturing facilities located in various parts of the world, and any physical, financial, regulatory, environmental, labor or operational disruption or product quality issues could result in a reduction in sales volumes, the incurrence of substantial expenditures and the loss of product availability.
As part of our direct sourcing activities, we contract with manufacturing facilities in various parts of the world, including facilities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam as well as domestically within the U.S. Operations at and securing products from these manufacturing facilities could be curtailed or partially or completely shut down as the result of a number of circumstances, most of which are outside of our control, such as but not limited to unscheduled maintenance, power conservation/shortages, an earthquake, hurricane, flood, tsunami or other natural disaster, material labor strikes or work stoppages, government implementation of export limitations or freezes, port or other shipping delays, political unrest or pandemics. We are also subject to some of these risks with manufacturers we contract with in the U.S. Any material curtailment of production at these facilities, or production issue resulting in a substandard product, could result in litigation or governmental inquiry or materially reduced revenues and cash flows in our direct sourcing activities. In addition, our business practices in international markets are subject to the requirements of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, any violation of which could subject us to material fines, criminal sanctions and other penalties. We expect all of our contracted manufacturing facilities to comply with all applicable laws, including labor, safety and environmental laws, and to otherwise meet our standards of conduct. Our ability to find manufacturing facilities that uphold these standards is a challenge, especially with respect to facilities located outside the U.S. We also are subject to the risk that one or more of these manufacturing facilities will engage in business practices in violation of our standards or applicable laws, which could damage our reputation and adversely impact our business and results of operations.
While we continue to promote domestic and geographically diverse manufacturing as part of our supply chain resiliency program, a material portion of the manufacturing for our direct sourcing activities is still conducted in China. As a result, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects are affected significantly by economic, political and legal developments in China as well as trade disputes between China and the U.S. and the potential imposition of bilateral tariffs. In addition, China has imposed export restrictions and new regulatory requirements on PPE and other medical equipment needed by our member hospitals. The imposition of tariffs or export restrictions on products imported by us from China could require us to (i) increase prices to our members or (ii) locate suitable alternative manufacturing capacity or relocate our operations from China to other countries. In the event we are unable to increase our prices or find alternative manufacturing capacity or relocate to an alternative base of operation outside of China on favorable terms, we would likely experience higher manufacturing costs and lower gross margins, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. The Chinese economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the degree of government involvement, the level of development, the growth rate, the control of foreign exchange, access to financing and the allocation of resources.
Additionally, the facilities in Malaysia with which we contract are particularly susceptible to labor shortages, labor disputes and interruptions, rising labor costs as a result of minimum wage laws, scheduling and overtime requirements and forced or child labor.
Validation of our direct sourcing suppliers around the world can be challenging and our vetting process may not eliminate all associated risks, particularly since the information shared is largely dependent on the supplier level of transparency. If one or more of the manufacturing facilities we contract with engage in business practices in violation of our standards or applicable laws, we could experience damage to our reputation and suffer an adverse impact on our business, results of operations and reputation.
We may have inventory risk for product inventory we purchase at elevated market prices and items we purchase in bulk or pursuant to fixed price purchase commitments if we are unable to sell such inventory at or above our cost. As a result, we may experience a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
From time to time, we purchase items as part of bulk purchases to resell to our members. We may have inventory risk for product inventory we purchase at elevated market prices, and items we purchase in bulk or pursuant to fixed price purchase commitments if we are unable to sell such inventory at or above our cost. If we are unable to sell the products for more than our inventory cost, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, as we strive to create a healthier global supply chain with more diversification in the country of origin, including a focus on supporting PPE and medical product manufacturing in the U.S. with our domestic sourcing initiatives, we may source more of our products from U.S.-based or near shore manufacturers, which may come at a higher acquisition cost than sourcing from Asia or other lower cost countries. If our GPO members are unwilling to pay higher prices for products made in the U.S., or if they choose to buy lower cost products manufactured in lower cost countries, now or in the future, this may impact our customer growth and results of operations if we have to lower prices to compete or sell our higher-cost inventory.
If we lose key personnel or if we are unable to attract, hire, integrate and retain key personnel, our business would be harmed.
Our future success depends in part on our ability to attract, hire, integrate and retain key personnel, including our executive officers and other highly skilled technical, managerial, editorial, sales, marketing and customer service professionals. Competition for such personnel is intense and the labor market has tightened considerably in the last several years. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. Furthermore, in May 2023, we announced that we are evaluating potential strategic alternatives which has the potential to discourage current personnel as well as prospective employees from being a part of our Company. We cannot be certain of our ability to identify, hire and retain adequately qualified personnel, if we lose key personnel unexpectedly. In addition, to the extent we lose an executive officer or senior manager, we may incur increased expenses in connection with the hiring, promotion or replacement of these individuals and the transition of leadership and critical knowledge. Failure to identify, hire and retain necessary key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Continued uncertain economic conditions, including inflation and the risk of a global recession could impair our ability to forecast and may harm our business, operating results, including our revenue growth and profitability, financial condition and cash flows.
Continued global economic uncertainty, political conditions and fiscal challenges in the U.S. and abroad, such as inflation and potential economic recession, have, among other things, limited our ability to forecast future demand for our products and services, contributed to increased periodic volatility in customer demand, impacted availability of supplies and could constrain future access to capital for our suppliers, customers and partners. The impacts of these circumstances are global and pervasive, and the timing and nature of any ultimate resolution of these matters remain highly uncertain. Adverse macroeconomic conditions, including inflation, slower growth or recession, new or increased trade sanctions, tariffs or other barriers to global trade, changes to fiscal and monetary policy and higher interest rates, could materially adversely impact the demand for our products and our operating results. Starting in fiscal 2022 and continuing in fiscal 2023, we have experienced inflationary pressure and other constraints in our supply chain. Consequently, these concerns have challenged our business and we expect them to continue to challenge our business for the foreseeable future, which could cause harm to our operating results. Such conditions may result in the failure to meet our forecasted financial expectations and to achieve historical levels of revenue growth.
Our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2023 and beyond may continue to be materially and adversely affected by pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies, such as the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic.
While both the U.S. and the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency in May 2023 and the health consequences for the U.S. population have been significantly mitigated by the availability of vaccines and therapeutics to treat COVID-19 infections, pandemics or public health emergencies have in the past and may continue in the future to have adverse economic impacts both domestically and internationally, including the potential for new and extended government imposed lock-downs, border restrictions and transportation and other bottlenecks.
As a result of pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected and we may face material risks due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to:
•Labor shortages in the healthcare workforce and corresponding increases in labor costs.
•Changes in the demand for our products and services may create demand uncertainty from both material increases and decreases in demand and pricing for our products and services.
•Limited access to our members’ facilities as well as travel restrictions limit their ability to participate in face-to-face events, such as committee meetings and conferences, and limits our ability to foster relationships and effectively deliver existing or sell new products and services to our members.
•Disruption to the global supply chain, particularly in China, may impact products purchased by our members through our GPO or products contract manufactured through our direct sourcing business. Failure of our suppliers, contract manufacturers, distributors, contractors and other business partners to meet their obligations to our members, other customers or to us, or material disruptions in their ability to do so due to their own financial or operational difficulties, may adversely impact our operations.
•We may continue to receive requests for contract modifications, payment waivers and deferrals, payment reductions or amended payment terms from our contract counterparties. We may continue to receive requests to delay service or payment on performance service contracts and we may continue to receive requests from our suppliers for increases to their contracted prices.
•A general decline in the overall economic and capital markets which could increase our cost of capital and adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets in the future.
The ultimate impact of pandemics, epidemics and public health emergencies on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows is dependent on future developments, including the duration of any pandemic and the related length of its impact on the U.S. and global economies and their healthcare systems, which are uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time. The impact of pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies may also exacerbate many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section. Despite our efforts to manage these impacts, their ultimate impact depends on factors beyond our knowledge or control, including the duration and severity of any outbreaks and actions taken to contain its spread and mitigate its public health effects. The foregoing and other continued disruptions in our business as a result of pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies could result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows, prospects and the trading prices of our securities in the future.
We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability, such as the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and tensions between the U.S. and China. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from geopolitical tensions.
U.S. and global markets have continued to experience volatility and disruption as the result of geopolitical tensions, including the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and tensions between the U.S. and China. These geopolitical tensions have, and may continue to, lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, energy, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions. In addition, further escalation could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, potentially making it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be adversely affected by global climate change or by regulatory responses to such change.
Climate changes, such as severe weather conditions, rising sea temperatures and rising sea levels, among others, and their long-term effects present potential negative effects to our business operations, financial condition and results of operations by decreasing availability of products, increasing compliance and operational costs and creating volatility and disruption to the global supply chain.
In addition, federal, state and local governments could issue new or modify existing legislation and regulations related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change and these government actions could impact us and our members, other customers and suppliers.
Risks Related to Healthcare and Employee Benefit Regulation
The healthcare industry is highly regulated. Any material changes in the political, economic or regulatory environment that affect the GPO business or the purchasing practices and operations of healthcare organizations, or that lead to consolidation in the healthcare industry, could reduce the funds available to providers to purchase our products and services or otherwise require us to modify our services.
Our business, financial condition and results of operations depend upon conditions affecting the healthcare industry generally and hospitals and health systems particularly, as well as our ability to increase the number of programs and services that we sell to our members and other customers. The life sciences and healthcare industry is highly regulated by federal and state authorities and is subject to changing political, economic and regulatory influences. Factors such as changes in reimbursement policies for healthcare expenses, consolidation in the healthcare industry, regulation, litigation and general economic conditions affect the purchasing practices, operations and the financial health of healthcare organizations. In particular, changes in regulations affecting the healthcare industry, such as increased regulation of the purchase and sale of medical products, tariffs, new quality measurement and payment models, data privacy and security, government price controls, modification or elimination of applicable regulatory safe harbors, regulation of third-party administrators or restrictions on permissible discounts and other financial arrangements, could require us to make unplanned modifications of our products and services, result in delays or cancellations of orders or reduce funds and demand for our products and services.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), designed to expand access to affordable health insurance, control healthcare spending and improve healthcare quality, set the industry moving in a clear direction on access to health insurance, payment, quality and cost management. In addition, many states have adopted or are considering changes in healthcare laws or policies in part due to state budgetary shortfalls.
Although there appears to be greater certainty and a continuation of the policies and directions set forth in the ACA with the 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the ACA, healthcare will continue to be a highly contentious area. This environment is creating risks for healthcare providers and our business that could cause a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
If we fail to comply with complex federal and state laws and regulations governing financial relationships among healthcare providers and submission of false or fraudulent claims to government healthcare programs, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties or loss of eligibility to participate in government healthcare programs.
Anti-Kickback Regulations
We are subject to federal and state laws and regulations designed to protect patients, government healthcare programs and private health plans from fraudulent and abusive activities. These laws include anti-kickback restrictions and laws prohibiting the submission of false or fraudulent claims. These laws are complex, and their application to our specific products, services and relationships may not be clear and may be applied to our business in ways that we do not anticipate. Federal and state regulatory and law enforcement authorities have over time increased enforcement activities with respect to Medicare and Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse regulations and other reimbursement laws and rules. From time to time, we and others in the healthcare industry have received inquiries or requests to produce documents in connection with such activities. We could be required to expend material time and resources to comply with these requests, and the attention of our management team could be diverted to these efforts. Furthermore, if we are found to be in violation of any federal or state fraud, waste and abuse laws, we could be subject to civil and criminal penalties and we could be excluded from participating in federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The occurrence of any of these events could materially harm our business, financial performance and financial condition.
Provisions in Title XI of the Social Security Act, commonly referred to as the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, prohibit the knowing and willful offer, payment, solicitation or receipt of remuneration, directly or indirectly, in return for the referral of patients or arranging for the referral of patients, or in return for the recommendation, arrangement, purchase, lease or order of items or services that are covered, in whole or in part, by a federal healthcare program such as Medicare or Medicaid. The definition of “remuneration” has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value such as gifts, discounts, rebates, waiver of payments or providing anything at less than its fair market value. Many states have adopted similar prohibitions against kickbacks and other practices that are intended to influence the purchase, lease or ordering of healthcare items and services regardless of whether the item or service is covered under a governmental health program or private health plan. Although certain statutory and regulatory safe harbors exist, these safe harbors are narrow and often difficult to comply with. Congress
has appropriated an increasing amount of funds in recent years to support enforcement activities aimed at reducing healthcare fraud, waste and abuse. We cannot assure you that our arrangements will be protected by such safe harbors or that such increased enforcement activities will not directly or indirectly have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Any determination by a state or federal agency that any of our activities violate any of these laws could subject us to civil or criminal penalties, could require us to change or terminate some portions of our operations or business or could disqualify us from providing services to healthcare providers doing business with government programs and, thus, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
CMS has provided specific guidance on the proper treatment on Medicare cost reports of revenue distributions received from GPOs, including us. To assist our members that report their costs to Medicare to comply with these guidelines, such members are required under the terms of the Premier Group Purchasing Policy to appropriately reflect all elements of value received in connection with our IPO, including under agreements entered into in connection therewith, on their cost reports. We furnish applicable reports to such members setting forth the amount of such value, to assist their compliance with such cost reporting requirements. Any determination by a state or federal agency that the provision of such elements of value violate any of these laws could subject us to civil or criminal penalties, could require us to change or terminate some portions of our operations or business, or could disqualify us from providing services to healthcare providers doing business with government programs, and, thus could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
There is no safe harbor to the Anti-Kickback Statute that is applicable in its entirety across all of the agreements with our members, and no assurance can be given that the HHS Office of Inspector General or other regulators or enforcement authorities will agree with our assessment. Any determination by a state or federal agency that the terms, agreements and related communications with members, or our relationships with our members violates the Anti-Kickback Statute or any other federal or state laws could subject us to civil or criminal penalties, could require us to change or terminate some portions of our operations or business and could disqualify us from providing services to healthcare providers doing business with government programs and, thus, result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
False Claims Regulations
Our business is also subject to numerous federal and state laws that forbid the submission or “causing the submission” of false or fraudulent information or the failure to disclose information in connection with the submission and payment of claims for reimbursement to Medicare, Medicaid, other federal healthcare programs or private health plans. In particular, the False Claims Act, or FCA, prohibits a person from knowingly presenting or causing to be presented a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval by an officer, employee or agent of the U.S. In addition, the FCA prohibits a person from knowingly making, using, or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to such a claim. Violations of the FCA may result in treble damages, material monetary penalties and other collateral consequences, potentially including exclusion from participation in federally funded healthcare programs. The minimum and maximum per claim monetary damages for FCA violations occurring on or after November 2, 2015 and assessed after January 30, 2023 are from $13,508 to $27,018 per claim, respectively, and will be periodically readjusted for inflation. If enforcement authorities find that we have violated the FCA, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Pursuant to the ACA, a claim that includes items or services resulting from a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA.
These laws and regulations may change rapidly and it is frequently unclear how they apply to our business. Errors created by our products or consulting services that relate to entry, formatting, preparation or transmission of claim or cost report information by our members may be determined or alleged to be in violation of these laws and regulations. Any failure of our businesses or our products or services to comply with these laws and regulations, or the assertion that any of our relationships with suppliers or members violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and therefore caused the submission of false or fraudulent claims, could (i) result in substantial civil or criminal liability, (ii) adversely affect demand for our services, (iii) invalidate all or portions of some of our member contracts, (iv) require us to change or terminate some portions of our business, (v) require us to refund portions of our services fees, (vi) cause us to be disqualified from serving members doing business with government payers, and (vii) have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
ERISA Regulatory Compliance
As a threshold matter, the obligation for compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, (“ERISA”), the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), the ACA, the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (together with its amendments related to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, “HIPAA”), the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the Newborns’ and Mothers’ Health Protection Act, the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (“COBRA”), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, and other laws governing self-funded group health plans (collectively “Employee Benefit Laws”) generally rests with our clients as plan sponsors to whom we provide third-party administrative (“TPA”) services. That is, employers/clients that sponsor group health plans generally bear the obligation of complying with Employee Benefit Laws,
rather than entities, like us, that provide TPA services related to the group health plans. In certain cases, however, TPAs to ERISA plans can become “co-fiduciaries” with their clients and, therefore, can be liable for ERISA compliance in a limited capacity. We could become a co-fiduciary either by (1) entering a contractual obligation to be an ERISA fiduciary or (2) by acting as an ERISA fiduciary based on functions performed. Under ERISA, fiduciary status flows from actions, and TPAs who exercise certain functions, including any discretionary authority or discretionary responsibility over plan administration or exercise any authority or control with respect to management or disposition of plan assets are generally “functional fiduciaries” with respect to (and limited to) the functions performed by the TPA that trigger fiduciary status.
We undertake no express liability under ERISA for our clients’ ERISA-governed plans in our template contracts. However, deviations from this standard language contained in final contracts could subject us to liability for breaches of fiduciary duty under ERISA (and related claims, such as ERISA prohibited transactions).
If current or future antitrust laws and regulations are interpreted or enforced in a manner adverse to us or our business, we may be subject to enforcement actions, penalties and other material limitations on our business.
We are subject to federal and state laws and regulations designed to protect competition which, if enforced in a manner adverse to us or our business, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Over the last decade or so, the group purchasing industry has been the subject of multiple reviews and inquiries by the U.S. Senate and its members with respect to antitrust laws. Additionally, the U.S. General Accounting Office, or GAO, has published several reports examining GPO pricing, contracting practices, activities and fees. We and several other operators of GPOs have responded to GAO inquiries in connection with the development of such reports. No assurance can be given regarding any further inquiries or actions arising or resulting from these examinations and reports, or any related impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Congress, the DOJ, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, the U.S. Senate or another state or federal entity could at any time open a new investigation of the group purchasing industry, or develop new rules, regulations or laws governing the industry, that could adversely impact our ability to negotiate pricing arrangements with suppliers, increase reporting and documentation requirements, or otherwise require us to modify our arrangements in a manner that adversely impacts our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may also face private or government lawsuits alleging violations arising from the concerns articulated by these governmental factors or alleging violations based solely on concerns of individual private parties.
If we are found to be in violation of the antitrust laws, we could be subject to significant civil and criminal penalties or damages. The occurrence of any of these events could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Complex international, federal and state privacy laws, as well as security and breach notification laws, may increase the costs of operation and expose us to civil and criminal government sanctions and third-party civil litigation.
We must comply with extensive federal and state requirements regarding the use, retention, security and re-disclosure of patient/beneficiary healthcare information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and its implementing regulations, which we refer to collectively as “HIPAA”, contain substantial restrictions and complex requirements with respect to the use and disclosure of “Protected Health Information” as defined by HIPAA. The HIPAA Privacy Rule prohibits a covered entity or a business associate from using or disclosing Protected Health Information unless the use or disclosure is validly authorized by the individual or is specifically required or permitted under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and only if certain complex requirements are met. The HIPAA Security Rule establishes administrative, organizational, physical and technical safeguards to protect the privacy, integrity and availability of electronic Protected Health Information maintained or transmitted by covered entities and business associates. The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires that covered entities and business associates, under certain circumstances, notify patients/beneficiaries and HHS when there has been an improper use or disclosure of Protected Health Information.
Our self-funded health benefit plan, the Premier, Inc. Health & Welfare Plan, our healthcare provider members, Performance Services customers, and health plan clients are directly regulated by HIPAA as “covered entities.” Most of our hospital members/customers and health plan clients disclose Protected Health Information to us so that we may provide payment and operations services. Accordingly, we are a “business associate” of those covered entities and are required to protect such Protected Health Information under HIPAA.
Any failure or perceived failure of our products or services to meet HIPAA standards and related regulatory requirements could expose us to certain notification, penalty and/or enforcement risks, damage our reputation, adversely affects demand for our products and services and/or force us to expend material capital, research and development and/or other resources to modify our products or services to ensure compliance with HIPAA.
In addition to our obligations under HIPAA, there are other federal and state laws that include specific privacy and security obligations, above and beyond HIPAA, for certain types of health information and/or personally identifiable information and may expose us to additional sanctions and penalties. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have enacted various types of legislation requiring the protection of personally identifiable information and/or notice to individuals of security breaches of their identifiable information. Organizations must review each state’s definitions, mandates and notification requirements and timelines to appropriately prepare and notify affected individuals and government agencies, including the attorney general in many states, in compliance with such state laws. Further, most states have enacted patient and/or beneficiary confidentiality laws that protect against the disclosure of confidential medical information, and many states have adopted or are considering adopting further legislation in this area, including privacy safeguards, security standards and special rules for so-called “sensitive” health information, such as mental health, genetic testing results, HIV status and biometric data. These state laws, if more stringent than HIPAA requirements, are not preempted by the federal requirements, and we are required to comply with them as well. The federal government also regulates the confidentiality of substance use disorder treatment records. These regulations, promulgated under 42 C.F.R. Part 2, apply to federally supported substance use disorder treatment programs and lawful holders of substance use disorder treatment records that originated from such programs. For some aspects of our business, we may be considered a lawful holder of treatment records protected under 42 C.F.R. Part 2 and therefore have responsibilities to protect substance use disorder treatment records in ways that go beyond the HIPAA requirements.
States continue to pass personal information privacy laws protecting its resident consumers’ data and affording individual rights, such as access, deletion and prevention of certain types of uses of their personally identifiable information. These laws vary state-by-state and organizations must review each state’s definitions and requirements to ensure compliance. Currently, various states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia have passed general data privacy laws, while other states consider similar bills. While most data accessed or used by Premier is governed by HIPAA and is therefore exempt from many of the state general privacy laws, various areas of Premier (such as marketing and human resources) may access or use data that may fall under one or more state general privacy laws.
We are unable to predict what changes to HIPAA or other federal or state laws or regulations might be made in the future or how those changes could affect the demand for our products and services, our business or the associated costs of compliance.
Failure to comply with any of the international, federal and state standards regarding individuals’ data rights privacy, identity theft prevention and detection and data security may subject us to penalties, including civil monetary penalties and, in some circumstances, criminal penalties. In addition, such failure may materially injure our reputation and adversely affect our ability to retain and attract new members or customers and, accordingly, adversely affect our financial performance.
New requirements related to the interoperability of health information technology promulgated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and enforced by the HHS Office of Inspector General could increase the costs of operation and expose us to civil government sanctions.
On May 1, 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator (“ONC”) for Health Information Technology promulgated final regulations under the authority of the 21st Century Cures Act (“ONC Rules”) to impose new conditions to obtaining and maintaining certification of certified health information technology and prohibit certain actors - developers of certified health information technology, health information networks, health information exchanges and healthcare providers - from engaging in activities that are likely to interfere with the access, exchange or use of electronic health information (information blocking). The final regulations further defined exceptions for activities that are permissible, even though they may have the effect of interfering with the access, exchange or use of electronic health information. The information subject to the information blocking restrictions is limited to electronic individually identifiable health information to the extent that it would be included in a designated record set. Until October 6, 2022, the information subject to the information blocking restrictions is further limited to the data elements represented in the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability standard.
Under the ONC Rules, we are considered a “health IT developer” because of the government certifications we hold in our TheraDoc and eCQM solutions. As such, we have evaluated and assessed the applicability of the ONC Rules to our TheraDoc and eCQM solutions, and we have determined that the ONC Rules currently do not apply to the data we hold on TheraDoc and eCQM solutions because the data is not part of any designated record set. Further, our customers contractually agree that the data that we maintain and process on behalf of our customers does not qualify as a designated record set. We will continue to assess our products and services to discern whether or not they fall under the purview of the ONC Rules. On June 27, 2023, the HHS Office of Inspector General posted a final rule to incorporate its new civil monetary penalty authority for activities that constitute information blocking. Once effective, the HHS Office of Inspector General may impose information blocking penalties against developers of certified health information technology, health information networks or health information exchanges of up to $1 million per violation. The HHS Office of Inspector General’s civil monetary penalty authority for information blocking will begin 60 days after the final rule is published in the Federal Register. Any application of ONC Rules
or similar regulations to our business could adversely affect our financial results by increasing our operating costs, slowing our time to market for our solutions, and making it uneconomical to offer some products.
If we become subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration because the functionality in one or more of our software applications causes the software to be regulated as a medical device, our financial results may be adversely impacted due to increased operating costs or delayed commercialization of regulated software products.
The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has the authority to regulate products that meet the definition of a medical device under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. To the extent that functionality or intended use in one or more of our current or future software products causes the software to be regulated as a medical device under existing or future FDA laws or regulations, including the 21st Century Cures Act, which addresses, among other issues, the patient safety concerns generated by cybersecurity risks to medical devices and the interoperability between medical devices, we could be required to:
•register our company and list our FDA-regulated products with the FDA;
•obtain pre-market clearance from the FDA based on demonstration of substantial equivalence to a legally marketed device before marketing our regulated products or obtain FDA approval by demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the regulated products prior to marketing;
•submit to inspections by the FDA; and
•comply with various FDA regulations, including the agency’s quality system regulation, compliant handling and medical device reporting regulations, requirements for medical device modifications, increased rigor of the secure development life cycle in the development of medical devices and the interoperability of medical devices and electronic health records, requirements for clinical investigations, corrections and removal reporting regulations, and post-market surveillance regulations.
The FDA can impose extensive requirements governing pre- and post-market activities, such as clinical investigations involving the use of a regulated product, as well as conditions relating to clearance or approval, labeling and manufacturing of a regulated product. In addition, the FDA can impose extensive requirements governing development controls and quality assurance processes. Any application of FDA regulations to our business could adversely affect our financial results by increasing our operating costs, slowing our time to market for regulated software products, subjecting us to additional government oversight and regulatory inspections and making it uneconomical to offer some software products.
Legal and Tax-Related Risks
We are subject to litigation from time to time, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We participate in businesses and activities that are subject to substantial litigation. We are from time to time involved in litigation, which may include claims relating to contractual disputes, product liability, torts or personal injury, employment, antitrust, intellectual property or other commercial or regulatory matters. Additionally, if current or future government regulations are interpreted or enforced in a manner adverse to us or our business, specifically those with respect to antitrust or healthcare laws, we may be subject to enforcement actions, penalties, damages and other material limitations on our business.
Furthermore, as a public company, we may become subject to stockholder inspection demands under Delaware law, and derivative or other similar litigation that can be expensive, divert human and financial capital to less productive uses, and benefit a limited number of stockholders rather than stockholders at large. The August 2020 Restructuring resulted in (i) the announcement of several investigations by private law firms of possible securities law violations; (ii) stockholder inspection demands seeking to investigate possible breaches of fiduciary duties; and (iii) the filing of a stockholder derivative complaint on March 4, 2022, captioned City of Warren General Employees’ Retirement System v. Michael Alkire, et al., Case No. 2022-0207-JTL. The complaint, purportedly brought on behalf of Premier, was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery against our current and former Chief Executive Officers and current and certain former directors. We are named as a nominal defendant in the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that the named officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties and committed corporate waste by approving agreements between Premier and certain of the former LPs that provided for accelerated payments as consideration for the early termination of the tax receivable agreement (“TRA”) with such LPs. (See “Item 3. Legal Proceedings”). The complaint asserts that the aggregate early termination payment amounts of $473.5 million exceeded the alleged value of the tax assets underlying the TRA by approximately $225.0 million. The complaint seeks unspecified damages, costs and expenses, including attorney fees, and declaratory and other equitable relief. Since the lawsuit is purportedly brought on behalf of Premier, and we are only a nominal defendant, the alleged damages were allegedly suffered by us. The City of Warren General Employees’ Retirement System case, or any other matters referenced above that result in formal litigation, may have an adverse impact on our financial condition, reputation, results of operations or stock price.
From time to time, we have been named as a defendant in class action antitrust lawsuits brought by suppliers or purchasers of medical products. Typically, these lawsuits have alleged the existence of a conspiracy among manufacturers of competing products, distributors and/or operators of GPOs, including us, to deny the plaintiff access to a market for certain products, to raise the prices for products and/or to limit the plaintiff’s choice of products to buy. No assurance can be given that we will not be subjected to similar actions in the future or that any such existing or future matters will be resolved in a manner satisfactory to us or which will not harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We may become subject to additional litigation or governmental investigations in the future. These claims may result in material defense costs or may compel us to pay material fines, judgments or settlements, which, if uninsured, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, certain litigation matters could adversely impact our commercial reputation, which is critical for attracting and retaining customers, suppliers and member participation in our GPO programs. Further, stockholder and other litigation may result in adverse investor perception of our company, negatively impact our stock price and increase our cost of capital.
Failure to protect our intellectual property and claims against our use of the intellectual property of third parties could cause us to incur unanticipated expense and prevent us from providing our products and services, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks, as well as customary contractual and confidentiality protections and internal policies applicable to employees, contractors, members and business partners. These protections may not be adequate, however, and we cannot assure you that they will prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property. In addition, parties that gain access to our intellectual property might fail to comply with the terms of our agreements and policies and we may not be able to enforce our rights adequately against these parties. The disclosure to, or independent development by, a competitor of any trade secret, know-how or other technology not protected by a patent could materially and adversely affect any competitive advantage we may have over such competitor. The process of enforcing our intellectual property rights through legal proceedings would likely be burdensome and expensive and our ultimate success cannot be assured. Our failure to adequately protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, we could be subject to claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation or other intellectual property violations as our applications’ functionalities overlap with competitive products, and third parties may claim that we do not own or have rights to use all intellectual property used in the conduct of our business or acquired by us. We could incur substantial costs and diversion of management resources defending any such claims. Furthermore, a party making a claim against us could secure a judgment awarding substantial damages as well as injunctive or other equitable relief that could effectively block our ability to provide products or services. Such claims also might require indemnification of our members at material expense.
A number of our contracts with our members contain indemnity provisions whereby we indemnify them against certain losses that may arise from third-party claims that are brought in connection with the use of our products.
Our exposure to risks associated with the protection and use of intellectual property may be increased as a result of acquisitions, as we have limited visibility into the development process of acquired entities or businesses with respect to their technology or the care taken by acquired entities or businesses to safeguard against infringement risks. In addition, third parties may make infringement and similar or related claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to our acquisition thereof.
If we are required to collect sales and use taxes on the products and services we sell in certain jurisdictions or online, we may be subject to tax liability for past sales, future sales may decrease and our financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.
Sales tax is currently not imposed on the administrative fees we collect in connection with our GPO programs. If sales tax were imposed in the future on such fees, the profitability of our GPO programs may be materially and adversely affected.
Rules and regulations applicable to sales and use tax vary materially by tax jurisdiction. In addition, the applicability of these rules given the nature of our products and services is subject to change.
We may lose sales or incur material costs should various tax jurisdictions be successful in imposing sales and use taxes on a broader range of products and services than those currently so taxed, including products and services sold online. A successful assertion by one or more taxing authorities that we should collect sales or other taxes on the sale of our solutions could result in substantial tax liabilities for past and future sales, decrease our ability to compete and otherwise harm our business.
If one or more taxing authorities determines that taxes should have, but have not, been paid with respect to our products and services, including products and services sold online, we may be liable for past taxes in addition to taxes going forward. Liability for past taxes may also include very substantial interest and penalty charges. If we are required to collect and pay back taxes (and the associated interest and penalties) and if our members fail or refuse to reimburse us for all or a portion of these amounts, we will have incurred unplanned costs that may be substantial. Moreover, imposition of such taxes on our services going forward will effectively increase the cost of such services to our members and may adversely affect our ability to retain existing members or to gain new members in the areas in which such taxes are imposed.
Changes in tax laws could materially impact our effective tax rate, income tax expense, anticipated tax benefits, deferred tax assets, cash flows and profitability.
Continued economic and political conditions in the U.S. could result in changes in U.S. tax laws beyond those enacted in connection with the TCJA on December 22, 2017 and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES”) on March 27, 2020. Further changes to U.S. tax laws could impact how U.S. corporations are taxed. Although we cannot predict whether or in what form such changes will pass, if enacted into law, they could have a material impact on our effective tax rate, income tax expense, ability to fully realize anticipated tax benefits that correspond to our fixed payment obligations associated with the acceleration of our TRA, deferred tax assets, results of operations, cash flows and profitability.
A loss of a major tax dispute could result in a higher tax rate on our earnings, which could result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Income tax returns that we file are subject to review and examination. We recognize the benefit of income tax positions we believe are more likely than not to be sustained upon challenge by a tax authority. If any tax authority successfully challenges our positions or if we lose a material tax dispute, our effective tax rate on our earnings could increase substantially and result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure
Payments required under the Unit Exchange and Tax Receivable Acceleration Agreements will reduce the amount of overall cash flow that would otherwise be available to us. In addition, we may not be able to realize all or a portion of the expected tax benefits that correspond to our fixed payment obligations associated with the acceleration of our TRA.
We entered into Unit Exchange and Tax Receivable Acceleration Agreements, effective as of July 1, 2020 (the “Unit Exchange Agreements”), with a substantial majority of our member-owners. Pursuant to the terms of the Unit Exchange Agreements, we elected to terminate the TRA upon payment to the member-owners of the discounted present value of the tax benefit payments otherwise owed to them over a 15-year period under the TRA. As a result of the acceleration and termination of the TRA, we are obligated to pay our member-owners approximately $472.6 million in aggregate. Of that amount, an aggregate of $201.2 million remains payable in equal quarterly installments through the quarter ending June 30, 2025. Due to the payments required under the Unit Exchange Agreements, our overall cash flow and discretionary funds will be reduced, which may limit our ability to execute our business strategies or deploy capital for preferred use. In addition, if we do not have available capital on hand or access to adequate funds to make these required payments, our financial condition would be materially adversely impacted.
The payments required upon termination of the TRA are based upon the present value of all forecasted future payments that would have otherwise been made under the TRA. These payments are fixed obligations of ours and could ultimately exceed the actual tax benefits that we realize. Additionally, if our actual taxable income were insufficient or there were adverse changes in applicable law or regulations, we may be unable to realize all or a portion of these expected benefits and our cash flows and stockholders’ equity could be negatively affected.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and provisions of Delaware law may discourage or prevent strategic transactions, including a takeover of our company, even if such a transaction would be beneficial to our stockholders.
Provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, could delay or prevent a third party from entering into a strategic transaction with us, even if such a transaction would benefit our stockholders. For example, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws:
•divide our Board of Directors into three classes with staggered three-year terms, which may delay or prevent a change of our management or a change in control;
•authorize our Board of Directors to issue “blank check” preferred stock in order to increase the aggregate number of outstanding shares of capital stock and thereby make a takeover more difficult and expensive;
•do not permit cumulative voting in the election of directors, which would otherwise allow less than a majority of stockholders to elect director candidates;
•do not permit stockholders to take action by written consent;
•provide that special meetings of the stockholders may be called only by or at the direction of the Board of Directors, the chair of our Board or the chief executive officer;
•require advance notice to be given by stockholders of any stockholder proposals or director nominees;
•require a super-majority vote of the stockholders to amend our certificate of incorporation; and
•allow our Board of Directors to make, alter or repeal our bylaws but only allow stockholders to amend our bylaws upon the approval of 662/3% or more of the voting power of all of the outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote.
In addition, we are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL which limits, subject to certain exceptions, the right of a corporation to engage in a business combination with a holder of 15% or more of the corporation’s outstanding voting securities or certain affiliated persons.
These restrictions could limit stockholder value by impeding the sale of our company and discouraging potential takeover attempts that might otherwise be financially beneficial to our stockholders.
Risks Related to Our Capital Structure, Liquidity and Class A Common Stock
We may need to obtain additional financing which may not be available or may be on unfavorable terms and result in dilution to, or a diminution of the rights of, our stockholders and cause a decrease in the price of our Class A common stock.
We may need to raise additional funds in order to, among other things:
•finance unanticipated working capital requirements;
•develop or enhance our technological infrastructure and our existing products and services;
•fund strategic relationships;
•comply with new laws, regulations, rules or judicial orders;
•respond to competitive pressures; and/or
•acquire complementary businesses, assets, technologies, products or services.
Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. If adequate funds are not available or are not available on acceptable terms, our ability to fund our expansion strategy, take advantage of unanticipated opportunities, develop or enhance technology or services or otherwise respond to competitive pressures would be materially limited. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, our then-existing stockholders may be diluted and holders of these newly issued securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our then-existing stockholders. The issuance of these securities may cause a material decrease in the trading price of our Class A common stock or the value of your investment in us.
If we cannot refinance or replace our existing credit facility at or before maturity, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to fund our ongoing cash requirements. Current or future indebtedness could adversely affect our business and our liquidity position.
We have a five-year $1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility (the “Credit Facility”), with a maturity date of December 12, 2027. As of June 30, 2023, we had $215.0 million outstanding under the Credit Facility and any outstanding indebtedness would be payable on or before that date. If we are not able to refinance or replace our Credit Facility at or before maturity or do so on acceptable terms, it would have a material adverse effect on our ability to fund our ongoing working capital requirements, business strategies, acquisitions and related business investments, future cash dividend payments, if any, or repurchases of Class A common stock under any then existing or future stock repurchase programs, if any.
Our indebtedness may increase from time to time in the future for various reasons, including fluctuations in operating results, capital expenditures and potential acquisitions. Any indebtedness we incur and restrictive covenants contained in the agreements related thereto could:
•make it difficult for us to satisfy our obligations, including making interest payments on our other debt obligations;
•limit our ability to obtain additional financing to operate our business;
•require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow to payments on our debt, reducing our ability to use our cash flow to fund capital expenditures and working capital and other general operational requirements;
•limit our flexibility to execute our business strategy and plan for and react to changes in our business and the healthcare industry;
•place us at a competitive disadvantage relative to some of our competitors that have less debt than us;
•limit our ability to pursue acquisitions; and
•increase our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions, including changes in interest rates or a downturn in our business or the economy.
The occurrence of any one of these events could cause us to incur increased borrowing costs and thus have a material adverse effect on our cost of capital, business, financial condition and results of operations or cause a material decrease in our liquidity and impair our ability to pay amounts due on our indebtedness.
Our Credit Facility contains, among other things, restrictive covenants that will limit our and our subsidiaries’ ability to finance future operations or capital needs or to engage in other business activities. The Credit Facility restricts, among other things, our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to incur additional indebtedness or issue guarantees, create liens on our assets, make distributions on or redeem equity interests, make investments, transfer or sell properties or other assets, and engage in mergers, consolidations or acquisitions. Furthermore, the Credit Facility includes cross-default provisions and requires us to meet specified financial ratios and tests. In addition, any debt securities we may issue or indebtedness we incur in the future may have similar or more restrictive financial or operational covenants that may limit our ability to execute our business strategies or operate our Company.
Our quarterly revenues and results of operations have fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate in the future which could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock, our revenues and our liquidity.
Fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations may be due to a number of factors, some of which are not within our control, including:
•our ability to offer new and innovative products and services;
•regulatory changes, including changes in healthcare laws;
•unforeseen legal expenses, including litigation and settlement costs;
•the purchasing and budgeting cycles of our members;
•the lengthy sales cycles for our products and services, which may cause material delays in generating revenues or an inability to generate revenues;
•pricing pressures with respect to our future sales;
•the timing and success of new product and service offerings by us or by our competitors;
•the timing of enterprise analytics license agreements;
•member decisions regarding renewal or termination of their contracts, especially those involving our larger member relationships;
•the amount and timing of costs related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure;
•the amount and timing of costs related to the development, adaptation, acquisition, or integration of acquired technologies or businesses;
•the financial condition of our current and potential new members;
•general economic and market conditions and economic conditions specific to the healthcare industry; and
•the impact of potential pandemics, epidemics or public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic and any variants, on the economy and healthcare industry.
Our quarterly results of operations may vary materially in the future and period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful. You should not rely on the results of one quarter as an indication of future performance. If our quarterly results of operations fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the price of the Class A common stock could decline substantially. In addition, any adverse impacts on the Class A common stock may harm the overall reputation of our organization, cause us to lose members and impact our ability to raise additional capital in the future.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of integrated internal controls, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately, we may determine that our prior financial statements are not reliable, or we may be required to expend material financial and personnel resources to remediate any weaknesses, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be evaluated frequently. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to conduct an annual review and evaluation of their internal controls and attestations of the effectiveness of internal controls by independent auditors. Maintaining effective internal controls has been and will continue to be costly and may divert management’s attention.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting in the past. Our future evaluation of our internal controls over financial reporting may identify additional material weaknesses that may cause us to (i) be unable to report our financial information on a timely basis or (ii) determine that our previously issued financial statements should no longer be relied upon because of a material error in such financial statements, and thereby result in adverse regulatory consequences, including sanctions by the SEC, violations of NASDAQ listing rules or stockholder litigation. In the event that we identify a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may need to amend previously reported financial statements and will be required to implement a remediation plan to address the identified weakness, which will likely result in our expending material financial and personnel resources to remediate the identified weakness. There also could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. Confidence in the reliability of our financial statements also could suffer if we or our independent registered public accounting firm were to report a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. The occurrence of any of these events could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and could also lead to a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
There can be no assurance we will pay dividends on our Class A common stock at current levels or at all, and failure to pay any such dividends could have a material adverse impact on our stock price and your investment in Premier.
Since September 2020, we have paid quarterly cash dividends on our Class A common stock. The continued payment of dividends and the rate of any such dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors after taking into account various factors, including our business, operating results and financial condition, current and anticipated capital requirements and cash needs, plans for expansion and any legal or contractual limitations on our ability to pay dividends. If we cease paying dividends, we could experience a material adverse impact on our stock price and your investment may materially decline, and as a result, capital appreciation in the price of our Class A common stock, if any, may be your only source of gain on an investment in our Class A common stock.
Our future issuance of common stock, preferred stock, limited partnership units or debt securities could have a dilutive effect on our common stockholders and adversely affect the market value of our Class A common stock.
In the future, we could issue a material number of shares of Class A common stock, which could dilute our existing stockholders materially and have a material adverse effect on the market price for the shares of our Class A common stock. Furthermore, the future issuance of shares of preferred stock with voting rights may adversely affect the voting power of our common stockholders, either by diluting the voting power of our common stock if the preferred stock votes together with the common stock as a single class or by giving the holders of any such preferred stock the right to block an action on which they have a separate class vote even if the action were approved by the holders of our common stock. The future issuance of shares of preferred stock with dividend or conversion rights, liquidation preferences or other economic terms favorable to the holders of preferred stock could adversely affect the market price for our Class A common stock by making an investment in the Class A common stock less attractive. In addition to potential equity issuances described above, we also may issue debt securities that would rank senior to shares of our Class A common stock.
Upon our liquidation, holders of our preferred shares, if any, and debt securities and instruments will receive a distribution of our available assets before holders of shares of our Class A common stock. We are not required to offer any such additional debt or equity securities to existing stockholders on a preemptive basis. Therefore, additional issuances of our Class A common stock, directly or through convertible or exchangeable securities, warrants or options, will dilute the holders of shares of our existing Class A common stock and such issuances, or the anticipation of such issuances, may reduce the market price of shares of our Class A common stock. Any preferred shares, if issued, would likely have a preference on distribution payments, periodically or upon liquidation, which could limit our ability to make distributions to holders of shares of our Class A common stock. Because our decision to issue debt or equity securities or otherwise incur debt in the future will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future capital raising efforts.