Business management software maker Brightree and HME member
service organization VGM Group have announced a 10-year partnership that will
encompass VGM’s respiratory, rehab and orthotics and prosthetics organizations
to provide a variety of services using VGM’s member network and Brightree’s
internet-based system.

“Through this partnership, we intend to create a large, virtual VGM/Brightree
‘community’ that can leverage a wealth of services that no individual provider
could ever assemble alone,” said Ron Bendell, President VGM & Associates.
 

Brightree and VGM have already had a relationship for several years, according
to Bendell and Brightree President and CEO Dave Cormack. “By making a long-term
commitment to each other, we can accelerate the pace of introduction and
significantly raise the bar on the products and services that we deliver to our
customers,” Cromack added.

The relationship will blend Brightree’s software tools with VGM’s member
network and data to provide services such as an “executive dashboard” that will
let providers quickly benchmark their business operations against averages of
all the data in the system. Members will be able to compare how they performing
in terms of metrics, such as DSOs and claims by category, against the VGM
membership or all of the users on the Brightree network.

The relationship will also leverage VGM information and services such as VGM
Homelink referral tools, group e-purchasing, billing and collections metrics,
consulting best practices and regulatory compliance tools.

Brightree’s HME “ecosystem” connects providers with suppliers, manufacturers,
Medicare, private payers, and outsourcing partners using a standard Internet
connection, rather than special software an servers installed on-site. Already
the providers on the Brightree network process more than 10 million claims per
year, which Cormack said is valued at almost $2 billion.  

Since the system is Internet-based there are no initial software purchase
costs, only a monthly fee which will be discounted by 10 percent for VGM
members as part of the relationship, according to Cormack and Bendell.

Currently, approximately 300 of VGM’s 2,300 members use Brightree, according to
Bendell.

One of the key features of the Brightree system that attracted VGM was the fact
that it is Internet-based Bendell said. This was important during Hurricane
Katrina, when a significant number of VGM members in affected areas were able
to continue billing, since their data systems were hosted remotely.

“That really pointed out the importance of having a internet based system where
data is stored in other parts of the country,” he explained.