Don all distributors have the opportunity to compete for “authorization” by GPOs?
Theoretically this is true. Often, though, the distributor selection process is not an openly competitive process. Some GPO’s have awarded no-bid, 20-year “exclusives” to companies they started (see “Hawk” item at bottom of page). When the “authorization” process is tainted by the payment of administrative fees that many think should be considered as illegal kickbacks, it is questionable whether the process is legitimate. Even so, any administrative fees that are allowed to continue should be for legitimate value received and must not be required of distributors in order to have competition protected under the law.
