Changing of the guard won't change the course of group purchasing.

Retiring group purchasing veteran Robert “Bud” Bowen says he is optimistic the industry will convince critics in government that it is capable of regulating itself and thus avoid passage of limiting legislation. Bowen, who retired March 31 as CEO of Amerinet in St. Louis, says there are laws in place to provide the oversight of contracting methods and vendor relationships that critics have demanded. However, that doesn’t mean that group purchasing organizations (GPO) will have an easy road ahead. For example, the emergence of integrated delivery networks (IDN) means that hospitals are no longer the basic unit of group purchasing, and larger members have demanded customized services.