Published: June 6, 2026
A major Canadian healthcare distributor — with nearly $350B in revenue and approximately 50,000 employees — engaged PRGX to conduct recurring recovery audits across its core business units. Despite robust internal controls, complex promotional structures and fragmented data were masking millions in unclaimed value. What began as a post-payment review evolved into a multi-year Retail Merchandise Profit Recovery program that continues to deliver results.
$4.8M+
Recovered in a Single Year
3
Business Units Audited
6
Consecutive Audits Completed
The Challenge: Strong Controls, Hidden Leakage
The client operates three distinct business units: a national pharmaceutical wholesale arm, a retail banner group of independent stores under a common brand, and a large pharmacy chain acquired through a long-term agreement. Together, these units manage billions in annual spend.
Despite strong financial oversight, unclaimed value was slipping through the cracks. Short-term promotional deals, diverse supplier contracts, annual rebates, and multi-year agreements made it difficult for internal teams to fully validate all entitlements. Data fragmented across procurement, finance, and retail systems further obscured the root causes of overpayments and missed credits.
The Approach: An Audit Program That Gets Smarter Every Year
PRGX conducted post-payment reviews across all three business units under a structured multi-year program. Scope was tailored to each unit’s data availability and business model, covering:
- Promotional billbacks and annual rebates
- Pricing discrepancies and contract compliance
- Transportation fees and product recalls
- Duplicate and erroneous payments
To surface deeper opportunities — particularly across the retail banners — PRGX leveraged email archives, non-trade AP records, promotional deal files, and point-of-sale data.
Each audit cycle built on the last. For the retail banner group, six consecutive reviews were completed. Early cycles addressed foundational issues like duplicate payments and pricing mismatches. As those were resolved, attention shifted to more complex promotional and rebate structures — where significant value continued to emerge. For the pharmacy chain, audits were consolidated to a single office for consistency and progressively moved from identifying basic overpayments to validating intricate promotional arrangements.
The Results: More Value With Every Cycle
In a single calendar year, the program returned $4.8M+ in cash across all business units. Total recoveries over the full multi-year program are significantly higher.
The retail banner group averaged several million dollars in recoveries per fiscal year across six audits, with the most recent cycle trending upward. The pharmacy chain consistently delivered several hundred thousand annually — even after most systemic issues had been addressed. This underscores a key truth about recurring audits: mature environments with strong controls still harbor recoverable value.
Beyond the Bottom Line
Cash recoveries were only part of the story. The audits exposed process gaps in contract management, promotion setup, and vendor communication — giving the client a clear roadmap for strengthening controls and reducing future leakage.
New opportunity areas, including outbound promotions and anticipation charges, were identified for upcoming review cycles. Expanded use of point-of-sale and email data improved root-cause tracing and strengthened supplier alignment.
What Could PRGX Recover for You?
PRGX is the global leader in recovery audit and S2P data intelligence. Our programs recover lost spend and strengthen the processes that caused the leakage in the first place. Speak with a PRGX expert to see how we can help you recover lost profit and refine your processes for future savings.
