We’re always expanding our portfolio of discounted contracts to serve our members’ evolving needs.

CNECT members now have access to compliant, cost-effective medical waste management solutions from four new service providers.

Why This Matters

Medical waste management can pose a variety of complex challenges for healthcare providers, including:

• Regulatory and Compliance Risks: Providers must adhere to several overlapping regulations across federal, state, and local levels, and risk fines and legal action if they don’t comply.
• Rising Costs: Medical waste management can be costly, putting budget pressure on providers as other operational expenses increase.
• Managing Multiple Vendors: Many suppliers offer specialist services, meaning providers must find several partners to cover all waste management needs.

We identified an opportunity to simplify medical waste management while improving compliance and cost control for our members.

Finding the Right Solutions

Our contract team created and released a request for proposal (RFP).

Lori Lumpkin, Contracts Manager, and Elizabeth Bailey, Sr. Contracts Specialist, used their understanding of member challenges to design an RFP attracting suppliers that would help our members:

• Maintain regulatory compliance.
• Lower medical waste management costs.
• Reduce operational risk.
• Access an all-inclusive medical waste solution.

We reviewed the resulting supplier bids, assessing their:

• Service offerings.
• Discounted pricing.
• Ability to meet diverse member needs.

Outcome: New End-to-End Medical Waste Management Solutions

Through our comprehensive vetting process, we selected the four most suitable providers:

• Amergy Disposal
• Allied Holdings
• MedPro Disposal
• Green Resource Management

These contracts give CNECT members access to all-in-one medical waste management solutions that support regulatory compliance at every step and eliminate the need to manage multiple supplier relationships. 

“We intentionally pursued multiple suppliers to give members options without sacrificing simplicity. With multiple awardees, members can choose the provider that best matches their waste management needs while still accessing a streamlined, end-to-end solution.”
Lori Lumpkin, Contracts Manager

How You Can Take Advantage

If you’d like to access these waste management services or any of our 2,800 other discounted contracts, join CNECT for free.

Already a member? Contact your CNECT representative to discuss your medical waste management needs.

Each year, our all-staff retreat provides time for our team to step back, reflect, and align on how we can best serve our members and adapt to meet their evolving needs.

After two days of collaboration and focused conversation, we left this year’s “Drive” retreat energized and ready to implement ideas that enhance member success.

Here are three key takeaways you need to know about.

1) We’re leveraging data to maximize member value.

The more discounted contracts our members connect to, the more money they save, and the data proves it.

During Drive, we outlined plans to better leverage our data so that CNECT members don’t leave savings opportunities on the table.

CNECT has always been able to meet member needs, and our growing data strategy will make it easier to proactively empower members with a roadmap to success.

“By grounding our recommendations in evidence, we can better anticipate our members’ needs,” said Julia Lookabill, East Zone Director. “The result will be improved insights, stronger partnerships, and elevated financial performance for our members.”

2) We’re combining AI and our real-world expertise to better solve member challenges.

Innovation is a core CNECT principle. As we evolve to help our members navigate their ever-changing environments, we’re investigating innovative ways to harness AI.

At Drive, our team boosted their individual AI capabilities and learned more about our latest project, an internal AI agent that can:

• Refine solution recommendations for members.

• Accelerate access to contract information.

• Supplement our team’s expertise with real-life data and detailed insights.

We also plan to pilot a member-facing AI service agent to improve our customer experience.

“AI has changed how people inform their decisions,” SVP of Sales Rasaun Robinson said. “At CNECT, we're embracing the best emerging technology to provide our members with fast answers, clear insights, and actionable next steps."

3) We’re hearing directly from members to best understand their evolving needs.

A special guest speaker at Drive was Julia Liou, CEO at Asian Health Services (AHS), a community health center in Oakland, CA.

Julia’s inspiring and candid presentation included crucial insight into the challenges facing AHS and similar health providers across the country.

The clear takeaway: the status quo is fleeting, and the increasing pace and complexity of change means that health providers need multifaceted strategic partnership, not just one-off solutions.

“Asian Health Services is one of many health providers adjusting their strategies to meet this moment,” said Jason Bellamy, VP of Marketing and Member Experience. “As Julia noted, there are opportunities embedded within times of challenge and change.
Whatever our members need, CNECT will be there to help.”

Moving Forward Together

Our retreat’s “Drive” theme underlined our sense of urgency.

If you’re already a CNECT member, contact your rep to schedule a business review to boost your performance.

If you’re not a member, now is a great time to join over 12,000 other organizations as we ride the momentum from Drive.

The future is coming quickly, and we’re ready for what’s next.

To better align their dental purchasing with organizational goals, Golden Valley Health Centers worked with CNECT to optimize dental spend under GPO contracts — achieving new savings, preserving established suppliers, and supporting national health center advocacy through CNECT’s exclusive NACHC partnership.

The Member

Golden Valley Health Centers (GVHC) is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) serving California’s Central Valley. The organization operates more than 45 clinic locations and serves over 150,000 patients annually across Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin counties. GVHC offers a wide range of services to their diverse patient population, including medical, dental, behavioral health, women’s health, pediatrics, and urgent care.

The Challenge

GVHC leadership sought to evaluate whether their existing dental purchasing arrangements effectively supported the organization’s financial and procurement objectives. A key priority for GVHC was ensuring their dental spend was aligned under discounted contracts via a group purchasing organization (GPO).

The Results

Since GVHC was already utilizing dental distributors under CNECT's contract portfolio, we worked with those suppliers to thoroughly review GVHC’s dental purchasing strategy. Through this process, GVHC achieved new savings on dental products while maintaining their long-standing distributor relationships. Equally important, GVHC's total dental spend became aligned under a GPO, accomplishing their goal for operational efficiency. Also, by using CNECT for their GPO needs, GVHC's purchasing generates revenue to support critical national advocacy efforts thanks to CNECT's exclusive partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC).

Across the healthcare industry, group purchasing organizations (GPOs) like CNECT are essential partners for strengthening financial performance.

With the cost of dental equipment and supplies rising — punctuated by a 5% surge in the first five months of 2025 alone (American Dental Association) — GPO savings are particularly critical for dental practices.

How GPOs Work

GPOs leverage the combined purchasing power of their members to negotiate discounted prices with suppliers. Between July 2024 and June 2025, CNECT generated more than $373 million in member savings.

The Benefits of GPO Membership

Joining a GPO provides several competitive advantages for dental practices.

Strengthening financial performance: Leveraging discounted prices helps dental practices cut costs immediately and over the long term.

Saving valuable time: With CNECT negotiating prices and maintaining vendor relationships, dental practices spend less time on contract and supplier management and more time treating patients.

Building financial stability: Several CNECT contracts include pricing protection that guarantees prices or discounts for an extended period, shielding dental practices from rising prices and inflation.

Optimizing supply chains: CNECT often provides multiple contracted suppliers for each product category, so if one experiences a shortage, it’s easy for dental practices to purchase the products they need through another vendor.

Ready to Benefit from Group Purchasing? Become a CNECT Member!

It’s free to join CNECT, so there’s no risk to becoming a member and learning how we can help you save.

Dental practices save millions by utilizing our discounts with dental distributors and manufacturers. Join them and start cutting your costs — apply to become a member today.

Managing medical supply costs while maintaining efficient operations is a constant challenge for community health centers. When Carevide began reassessing its procurement strategy to find better pricing and operational support, they partnered with us to explore a GPO-backed solution designed to deliver savings and simplicity.

The Member

Carevide is a non-profit community health center (CHC) serving communities across Northeast Texas. With over 45 years of experience, Carevide operates multiple medical, dental, pediatric, and women’s health facilities throughout six counties, offering a full medical home that includes in-house pharmacies, health education, social services, eligibility assistance, and language interpretation services.

The Challenge

Carevide was reassessing its medical supply procurement strategy to reduce costs and improve supply chain efficiency across its health centers. After an initial conversation with CNECT at an industry conference, Carevide’s leadership expressed interest in learning how CNECT membership could support the organization’s operational and financial goals.

Our Results

CNECT and McKesson delivered a more cost-effective and streamlined procurement solution for Carevide by reviewing medical supply usage data and identifying opportunities for savings through GPO contracts. This evaluation led to a successful transition in which McKesson became Carevide’s supplier across key medical supply categories, consolidating $300,000 in annual supply volume under a single distributor.

Through CNECT, Carevide achieved 25% savings on medical supply purchases while also simplifying its procurement operations. GPO contracts streamlined ordering and vendor management, reducing administrative complexity across locations.

What began as direct executive engagement translated into a strategic supplier relationship that delivered immediate savings, improved efficiency, and a scalable procurement model to support Carevide’s ongoing operations and future growth.

Are you receiving the best pricing and service from your suppliers? That's the question SAC Health asked. When it became clear they weren't, they turned to us for a reliable, cost-saving solution.

The Member

SAC Health is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) serving communities across Southern California's Inland Empire. Their whole-person, team-based model of care provides a full range of medical, surgical, dental, behavioral health, and specialty services to underserved populations. SAC Health is the largest specialty-based and teaching health center (THC) FQHC in the United States: all their physicians are affiliated with Loma Linda University Health and are trained in over 35 different specialties. Across their multiple clinic locations, SAC Health completes over 180,000 patient visits annually.

The Challenge

SAC Health was reassessing its dental procurement strategy and evaluating its existing supplier relationship to ensure it had competitive pricing, reliable servicing, and high-quality products. The purchasing team sought stronger cost savings on both dental supplies and capital equipment while improving service responsiveness — key elements for supporting an expanding dental program across multiple locations.

Our Results

CNECT and Patterson Dental delivered a more competitive and service-focused solution for SAC Health by reviewing 12 months of dental spend and presenting an alternative that outperformed the member’s existing supplier. This resulted in a successful supplier transition, completion of Patterson’s PMDF and enrollment form, and a rapid expansion of the relationship — highlighted by Patterson winning a separate $125,000 handpiece RFP shortly after the transition.

This partnership delivered immediate value for SAC Health and secured meaningful cost savings: 37% off list pricing on dental supplies and 20% off capital equipment, along with improved service benefits including discounted servicing and priority status for equipment servicing requests. The organization now benefits from lower procurement costs, stronger service coverage, and a supplier capable of supporting both its clinical operations and long-term growth strategy.

CNECT is dedicated to providing members with quality, proven solutions that meet evolving needs. 

Our recent RFP process to identify trusted vendors that can support community health centers with credentialing and privileging requirements exemplifies our commitment to excellence. 

Here’s how it worked ... 

Identifying the Challenge 

In 2024, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) identified credentialing and privileging as top compliance challenges for community health centers, with three related elements ranked in the top five findings from HRSA and BPHC operational site visits.  

Health centers face increasing scrutiny and complexity in: 

• Maintaining accurate records.
• Reviewing privileges.
• Managing contracted or referral providers. 

The need for expert support was clear.  

Together with our partners at NACHC, we identified the key areas that needed to be addressed and set out to find solutions.

Releasing the RFP 

Our contracting team created and released a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP). 

With an intimate understanding of the challenge at hand, Lori Lumpkin, Contracts Manager, and Elizabeth Bailey, Sr. Contracts Specialist, designed an RFP seeking targeted, expert support to help health centers: 

• Demonstrate compliance with HRSA/BPHC requirements.
• Improve revenue cycle management.
• Enhance patient access workflows.

Selecting the Right Suppliers 

Several suppliers submitted proposals.  

To ensure only the most qualified suppliers were selected, we convened an expert advisory committee composed of leaders from across the health center movement, including: 

• Five c-suite executives from CHCs.
• Two industry experts from NACHC.
• One leading health center expert from Health Quality Partners (HQP). 

The committee guided the vendor selection process with expert insight, analyzing supplier proposals to select solutions that best aligned with the operational realities and strategic goals of health centers. 

Outcome: A Crucial Resource for CHCs 

After the rigorous sourcing process, CNECT negotiated discounted rates with the following suppliers:  

• Compliatric
• Emerge and See
• MedTrainer
• Quality First Healthcare Consulting

Through these agreements, we’re enabling health centers to access high-quality, targeted support — helping them stay compliant, efficient, and patient-focused, while also saving money. 

With support from every corner of the health center movement, we’re delivering the right solution, at the right price, at the right time. 

“Our goal was to negotiate discounts on the best solutions for the operational challenges health centers face every day. By engaging experts nationwide, we sourced vendors whose solutions streamline workflows, reduce complexity, and deliver measurable improvements in both operational efficiency and financial performance.”
Lori Lumpkin, Contracts Manager

Modern technology is critical to delivering quality patient care. When Urban Health Plan needed to upgrade their devices, we were on hand to help.

The Member

Urban Health Plan (UHP), a community health center (CHC) headquartered in the Bronx, was founded in 1974 and is one of the largest federally qualified health care systems in New York State. Their facilities include 12 CHCs, 12 school-based health centers, and two mental health care sites, plus multiple health and social programs across the Bronx, Central Harlem, and Corona, Queens. UHP serves more than 89,000 patients annually with over 430,000 visits across its network.

The Challenge

UHP needed to refresh their core network hardware and endpoint devices on a tight timetable without disrupting patient care. UHP also sought a qualified supplier that could meet their funding requirements and deliver a reliable, efficient upgrade process.

Our Results

We connected UHP with Derive Technologies, a national-certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) that provides discounts to CNECT members, and coordinated a competitive bid process supported by a local implementation team. Together, they developed a deployment plan that staged equipment in advance and scheduled all work to avoid any disruption to patient care.

Through this process, Derive won a competitive RFP involving 75 Cisco switches to modernize UHP’s network core and access layers. The rollout was planned around clinic operations, with 200 laptops warehoused and deployed on Saturdays so patients and staff were not affected. Refurbished iPhones were also provided to support workforce needs.

In addition, Derive assisted with a migration of over 1,000 desktops from Windows 10 to Windows 11 — those units were also warehoused, configured, and deployed over the weekend to ensure zero operational disruption across UHP’s facilities. A local representative delivered hands-on coordination across sites, ensuring steady progress and smooth execution throughout the project.

These efforts delivered meaningful results for UHP. The organization now has a modern, more resilient I.T. infrastructure supported by the newly installed switches and refreshed endpoints. The weekend deployment strategy maintained full operational continuity and uninterrupted access to care. Partnering with a certified MWBE also helped UHP meet specific grant-funding requirements.

Respiratory virus season is here, and we’re ready to help you prepare.

Following a recent live webinar featuring Roopali Sharma, Associate Director – Field Medical Advisor, Moderna provided the following resources for CNECT members: 

• Clinical Perspectives on mNEXSPIKE [Webinar]
• MNEXSPIKE: A Quick Start Guide [PDF] 
• Take the Masterclass in Vaccination Communication [PDF]
• MRNA Vaccine Misinformation: Myth vs Fact [PDF]

“The risk of getting COVID-19 after taking mNEXSPIKE for participants 65+ was 13.5% lower compared to Spikevax.” - Stefan Gravenstein, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Brown University

Protect Your Community with CNECT 

Our members have access to preferred pricing on Moderna’s RSV and COVID-19 vaccines, including mNEXSPIKE, to slash their vaccine costs.

If you’re interested in getting discounts on Moderna vaccines and you’re not a CNECT member, request to join here.

If you’re already a CNECT member and want to make a purchase, contact your CNECT representative now.