Buying Groups Launch Online Bidding Help

ATLANTA–Industry buying groups The Med Group and VGM Group have
launched online tools designed to help members with competitive
bidding.

Called the NCB Assistant, Med’s new tool provides the structure
to assemble required bid information and develop detailed unit
pricing to submit bids, according to the Lubbock, Texas-based
buying group.

Customized to each competitive bidding area, all 10 product
categories are represented by each individual HCPCS code. Providers
can load product acquisition costs as well as expected operating
costs to help in developing their bids.

Using the tool, members can enter their operating expenses and
required profitability data to arrive at a unit bid price. They can
view gross margin and operating margin for each product, take a
closer look at their net margins based on various cost structures
and see what to expect given their potential bid amounts.

The new tool also integrates CMS’ product weightings so that a
potential composite bid amount for each product category is
calculated, enabling users to view the exact information CMS will
use in evaluating the financial side of a bid submission.

Meanwhile, Waterloo, Iowa-based VGM has recently added a
subcontracting section to its Web site, which also includes
competitive bidding data, forms and an instructional PowerPoint on
preparing to bid accessible to all viewers.

In the new section for members, templates for a letter of intent
and subcontracting agreement have been designed so that a potential
contractor and subcontractor can quickly enter into a basic
agreement, and then they can finalize the details through a more
formal subcontracting agreement.

VGM is also creating a real-time bulletin board for it members
to post that they will likely require subcontracting services
and/or are interested in providing subcontractor services to a
winning bidder.

Subcontracting “has been the biggest concern of, at least, the
VGM members,” said Mark Higley, the group’s vice president of
development. “Very few of them have entered into network
agreements, just because of the timelines of developing the legal
structure of the network. Subcontracting has far less hoops to go
through to service either a particular product or a geographic
area.”