THE WEB IS A HEALTHY MEDIUM

A Southern California company is using direct marketing to bring the emerging practices of online buying, selling and even auctioning to the healthcare industry worldwide.

This month, medical supplies marketer Medibuy.com, of La Mesa, CA, is sending lead-generation mailings to approximately 17,000 targeted suppliers and buyers of medical equipment, ranging from multimillion-dollar machines to simple first-aid supplies.

The idea is to get more firms listed on the site (www.medibuy.com) and to spur customer interest.

Leads brought about through these efforts-and via direct response space ads in such trade magazines as Purchasing and Hospital Purchasing News-will be followed up by the company’s sales force.

Medibuy’s goal is to influence the purchasing decisions for 1% of the estimated $52-billion-plus domestic market for healthcare supplies, says president Charlie Smith. Medibuy receives a small percentage per transaction. Vendors pay fees of $50 to $1,500 per month, depending on their size and product inventories, to be included on the site.

Medibuy’s system works by having potential buyers log onto the site and search through listings of vendors in different categories. Customers can then send requests for proposals electronically to the vendors they select. At that point, suppliers submit bids that include terms, conditions and other relevant information.

Right now, Medibuy is just matching buyers and sellers. While the company has the technology that would enable both parties to transact sales through a secure payment system, Smith prefers to wait until such practices become more common and less complicated than they are now.

Vendors and other site users can get reports on pricing trends, transaction volume and indices of lowest and highest prices paid for given items.

In November Medibuy named a sales manager for both South America and South Africa. Part of the company’s reason for building a presence in less developed countries is that it wants to establish an Internet auctioning service for used hospital equipment.

At press time, Medibuy was in negotiations with a potential partner in this area.

“Our goal is to revolutionize the way the healthcare industry buys supplies,” says Smith.

“By eliminating the middleman and the cost issues related to sole-source buying, we allow the laws of supply and demand to dictate the prices.”