Blackstone’s global group purchasing program is anchored by CoreTrust, which is a procurement organization that harnesses the purchasing power of nearly 60 of Blackstone’s private equity portfolio companies.  More than $1.9 billion of annual spending is managed through the group purchasing programs, in more than 65 categories, including such essential products and services as IT hardware and software, office supplies, overnight small parcel, hotels, insurance, energy and telecommunications. 

On a global basis, approximately 95% of our portfolio companies have taken advantage of the group purchasing initiatives.  There is no cost to participate in the program—many choose to remain in the program even after Blackstone is no longer an investor.

Taken together, Blackstone’s portfolio companies represent a sizeable market—enabling CoreTrust to deliver outsized cost savings.  For example, the program in the aggregate is a top 5 customer of several leading office supplies and IT hardware providers.  As a result of its critical mass and buying power, the program has achieved more than $420 million in annualized savings for portfolio companies since 2005.

Providing quality, affordable healthcare for employees is one of the critical concerns for companies today.  In 2008, our Portfolio Operations Group established Equity Healthcare.  Its goal is to leverage the scale of our combined portfolio companies—not merely to hold down benefit and claims costs, but to deliver better quality health care to U.S. employees and their families.

First and foremost, Equity Healthcare is about providing better healthcare.  At no additional cost to the employee, Equity Healthcare provides a full suite of services that help employees and their families navigate the health care system and improve their health.  Each employee is assigned a personal nurse advocate, available to help them better access and make use of available resources, manage chronic conditions and address various lifestyle issues - in short help them be better informed health care consumers.

Equity Healthcare is having a tangible impact on its members’ lives.  For a family whose eight-year-old daughter has diabetes, the nurse advocate helped to engage a disease management specialist and a dietician for ongoing support and coaching.  Learning that the parents were divorced, the nurse advocate persuaded both parents to attend a diabetic education class at a local children’s hospital so they could share in improving their daughter’s condition.  In another case, a nurse advocate helped a member lower her prescription costs by more than $600 a year by reviewing her current medications, educating her about generic options for discussion with her physician and helping to arrange mail order refills.

Equity Healthcare now covers a total of close to 300,000 members, the vast majority of whom would not have had access to such a comprehensive suite of services without the pooled resources of the Equity Healthcare group. By collaborating to improve the health of their employees and the quality of care that they receive, our portfolio companies also strengthen their ability to attract and retain talent and gain control over a major cost factor.