Health Resource Services (HRS) Moves to Premier Inc. for Superior National Contract Portfolio and Comprehensive, Cross-Continuum Spend Management Services

Health Resource Services (HRS), a national, provider-owned group purchasing organization (GPO) founded by Virginia Mason Health System, today announced that they will partner with Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, for national contracting support, effective immediately.

"Making a change in our national contracting partner was a big decision for us, based on a thorough search of all the major GPOs,” said HRS President Ken Freeman. "Premier quickly emerged as the clear choice for us. HRS is confident this aligned partnership will embolden our ability to better serve members and help them achieve their performance improvement goals. Today marks an important milestone in the HRS value journey, and we are thrilled to be moving into the future with Premier.”

As a new group purchasing affiliate of Premier, HRS will have access to a broader array of product and purchased services contracts, field services support, and superior, data-driven spend management technologies for financial excellence.

Specifically, Premier experts will collaborate with HRS to develop comprehensive supply chain and total cost management solutions; negotiate competitive contracts; and keep HRS members that join Premier apprised of important industry trends, ideas and knowledge. The shared strength of these two combined networks will provide HRS members that participate with Premier greater access to resources, efficiency solutions and increased savings, including access to nearly 600 additional negotiated contracts in 70 different classes of trade, as well as new purchased services offerings and comprehensive savings for alternate site providers that are expected to yield double-digit savings for HRS.

In addition, HRS will also have access to Premier’s unique field support team, comprised of more than 250 supply chain specialists, clinicians, pharmacists and others to support contract launches and identify savings opportunities in specialty areas such as lab, surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, imaging, pharmacy, information technology and construction.

"HRS has put their trust in Premier, and we are excited to begin pinpointing and delivering cost savings to them,” said Michael J. Alkire, President of Premier. "We intend to meet their needs head on, delivering real results that will help HRS continue to provide vital services in their communities. We’re looking forward to bringing our unique combination of data, technology, contracting and supply chain expertise to the table to provide a direct impact on their financial health.”

The financial terms of the agreement with HRS were not disclosed. To learn more about the new Premier and HRS relationship, please visit https://www.premierinc.com/hrs.

Forward-looking statements

Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, such as Premiers ability to recruit and retain members currently supported by HRS, and the anticipated use of Premier’s performance and supply chain services at expected levels by HRS and its currently supported member that ultimately join Premier, as discussed herein, are "forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as "believes,” "belief,” "expects,” "estimates,” "intends,” "anticipates” or "plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier’s financial results is included from time to time in the "Forward-Looking Statements,” "Risk Factors” and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC and available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.

About Premier Inc.

Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 175,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.

About HRS

Health Resource Services LLC. (HRS) is a division of Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, WA. As a provider owned group purchasing organization, HRS has been delivering group purchasing and operational consulting services to healthcare providers throughout the United States for forty years. Historically, HRS’s focus has been in helping acute and non-acute providers reduce operational costs so they can focus on taking care of their communities and patients.

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