Healthcare procurement is dull by design. Buy what’s needed, stock a little extra, pay the bills later, repeat. Cost control meant negotiating harder with suppliers, not rethinking the system itself.
It isn’t glamorous, but it works and was designed for continuity. After all, if supplies ran short, health system teams can pay a premium to fix the problem.
However, that legacy mindset is increasingly breaking down as innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and embedded finance redefine what’s possible for the healthcare supply chain system. This shift comes as the ongoing macro and geopolitical environment leaves little room for reactive purchasing.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, for example, has threatened to tighten Medicaid and ACA (Affordable Care Act) marketplaces, while tariffs on medical supply imports as well as pharmaceuticals are putting supply chain resiliency in the hot seat.
And when healthcare CFOs and procurement leaders look across industries like retail, manufacturing and beyond, they increasingly see procurement evolving into a strategic discipline focused on resilience and intelligence.
Healthcare may be late to that party. But it’s arriving fast.
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See also: B2B Procurement as a Strategic Lever Is Healthcare CFO’s New Mandate
AI Brings the Crystal Ball as Inventory Finally Gets Smart
AI is a key accelerant in the healthcare procurement ecosystem. Healthcare systems generate enormous volumes of procurement data, but historically, they’ve used very little of it. Spreadsheets and static forecasts ruled the day, even as supply environments grew more volatile. Legacy systems, regulatory complexity and cultural inertia remain endemic bottlenecks to progress.
But as procurement decisions ripple directly into cash flow, operating margins and clinical performance, the trajectory for healthcare’s B2B supply chains is one of modernization.
Inventory has always been healthcare’s necessary evil. Too much of it locks up capital and expires on the shelf. Too little creates clinical risk and operational chaos. Many procurement organizations have sought to solve that tension by overbuying and hoping for the best.
AI is helping end that compromise. By continuously learning from real consumption, modern procurement platforms recommend where inventory buffers actually matter and where they don’t. High-risk, life-critical items get priority. Predictable supplies move closer to just-in-time replenishment.
As procurement grows more digital, it starts to resemble a data business as much as a purchasing function. Clean, integrated data is now a prerequisite for effective AI and embedded finance, forcing organizations to confront long-standing silos between clinical, operational and financial systems.
This data integration challenge is not unique to healthcare, but the stakes are higher. Procurement decisions can affect patient care, regulatory compliance and financial stability all at once. That reality is pushing health systems to invest in platforms that unify data rather than layering tools on top of fragmented infrastructure.
That doesn’t mean integrating AI is an easy choice for healthcare teams. Over the summer, the startup Elion raised over $9 million to help build and scale its AI-driven healthcare technology marketplace, designed to help health systems select and evaluate technology vendors including those providing AI and procurement solutions.
Read more: Healthcare Procurement Has a Growing Hacking Problem
Embedded Finance Helps Rewrite the Rules of Healthcare Buying
If AI changes how procurement teams plan, embedded finance changes how they execute. Traditionally, buying and paying were separate worlds. Procurement ordered goods. Finance handled payment weeks later. The gap created friction, delays and blind spots.
Findings from PYMNTS “How Modernizing Payments Is Revitalizing Healthcare” reveals that 67% of executives and decision-makers in healthcare payer organizations report their firms’ manual payment platforms are reducing efficiency.
Healthcare supply chains are only as strong as their weakest suppliers. And many suppliers, especially smaller or specialized ones, operate under constant financial strain. Slow payments and rigid contracts hurt vendors and create risk for providers.
Embedded finance changes that dynamic. When suppliers can access early payment or supply chain financing through procurement platforms, liquidity improves without new bureaucracy. Procurement becomes less about squeezing margins and more about sustaining the ecosystem.
The embedded finance benefits cut both ways, too. Separate findings in “Buy, Don’t Build: The Next Wave of Embedded Finance,” the November 2025 Business Payments Tracker Series report from PYMNTS Intelligence in collaboration with WEX, reveal that 72% of B2B buyers favor suppliers with embedded payment options.
