CMEPP benefits from HIROC association
Friday August 24, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Bob Hooper, program manager for the Canadian Medical Equipment Protection Plan (CMEPP), says in his organization’s formative years their relationship with the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) helped establish credibility.

“When we designed this program originally, we looked for other successful reciprocal-style arrangements and the one that immediately came to mind  . . . was the successful HIROC program and how it operates providing both medical liability and property insurance coverage for hospitals,” Hooper says of CMEPP’s inception in 1996.

“We approached the HIROC group about running this program as an extension of their services,” says Hooper. HIROC responded saying the program wasn’t within their scope of expertise but offered office space to help get it running.

“Here we are 11 years later, and we continue to co-habitate with the HIROC Group,” Hooper says. “We find there is a lot of brand recognition with HIROC and that’s helped us immensely in establishing our brand.”

In 1999, the CMEPP had five hospitals taking part in their programs. Today CMEPP boasts more than 50 organizations on its roster.

Through CMEPP, hospitals pool money together that would otherwise be used for their own maintenance contracts. CMEPP then uses the money to fund maintenance and repairs on a pay-per-service basis.

Hooper says the rule of thumb is if it costs $1 million to purchase a brand new piece of medical equipment, it’s going to cost $1 million to repair and maintain that equipment throughout its lifespan.

Because CMEPP operates on a non-profit basis, any money pooled through the year that is not spend on repairs or maintenance is evenly split and returned to the hospitals.

“When the service provider performs a service, they send the invoices directly to (CMEPP), we make those payments on behalf of hospitals. There’s some savings they achieve through the raw element of risk management . . . and then there’s also some savings that are achieved through the reduction of administrative and overhead costs.”

Hooper says from a business standpoint, any savings is good news for subscribers and demonstrates the program is effective.

“We have saved taxpayers well in excess of $10 million since we started operating this program.”

Another benefit CMEPP offers its members is tracking trends when it comes to repairing and maintaining equipment that can further reduce repair costs.

“If a hospital has a piece of equipment and they’re only managing that through a pay as you go service, then they’re only going to see the history on their own piece of equipment,” Hooper explains.

“CMEPP may have anywhere from half-a-dozen to 30 or 40 of the same equipment or model type. We can see some repetitive types of services that are performed by the vendor and in many cases we’ll make some recommendation back to the hospital on preventative maintenance.”

For more information, visit www.cmepp.com.