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."