In a partnering effort between Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the Office of Acquisition and Logistics (OAL), VA implemented a national medical/surgical prime vendor program.  The program is mandatory for all VA medical centers and consists of seven prime vendor contracts.  The prime vendor contracts cover the period April 20, 2010, through April 19, 2015.  Medical Centers pay prime vendors a distribution fee plus the product price.  Product prices are primarily established by the Federal Supply Schedule Program (FSS), VA National Standardization Program, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) and/or local contracts.  The distribution fee is a markup to the product prices and is intended to cover prime vendor costs for managing customer inventories, ensuring the timely delivery of needed products to customers in a more efficient and effective manner than other conventional ordering methods, and administering electronic commerce systems in support of the program.