Categorically Different
Most bill-only solutions visualize the problem, present a dashboard of the problem, and alert people to the problem. They do not fix it. Helia does not patch up the bill-only process. It has replaced it with a transaction that is clean from the start because both sides are validated before the order is placed.
The bill-only problem
About 50% of a hospital’s supply chain expenditures are paid after the product has been used. Sales reps deliver medical devices to operating rooms for joint replacements, pacemakers, and other implant procedures. The hospital pays afterward.
The result is financially wasteful, time-consuming, and frustrating for everyone involved. Hospital staff and leaders lack transparency and control. Suppliers wait longer to get paid because the process takes so long. And patients and their families can be affected when billing errors from missing or misrecorded devices make their way back to them.
Why existing solutions are not enough
Most bill-only services visualize the problem, present a dashboard, and alert staff when something is wrong. They may automate some steps. But the fundamental problem — the lack of alignment between buyer and seller before the transaction — is never addressed.
There are two ways to handle this misalignment.
The first: deal with it by reconciling at every step of the transaction process — involving multiple encounters between different departments at both the hospital and the supplier.
The second: eliminate the misalignment by validating both sides before the order is placed.
Semi-automated bill-only solutions perpetuate the root cause rather than stopping it from happening in the first place.
What makes Helia categorically different
Helia validates contracts and pricing against both the health system’s system and the supplier’s simultaneously — before the PO is ever created. When both sides agree upfront, the transaction is clean before it is ever submitted. There is no dashboard of problems to manage. There is no reconciliation queue. The errors never happen.
Helia does not visualize the broken bill-only process. It has replaced it with a two-sided transaction that solves problems for health systems and suppliers at the same time.
