DULUTH, Ga., and WATERLOO, IOWA--Last week The VGM Group and Brightree, an HME business services company, announced an exclusive 10-year partnership that will deliver an array of Internet-centric services to providers.

"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 VGM President Ron Bendell.

According to the companies, the deal encompasses VGM's Nationwide Respiratory, US Rehab and O&P organizations OPGA and POINT. The two organizations said they "will form a virtual ecosystem for HME/DME providers" through an Internet-based system that will connect them with manufacturers, Medicare, private payers and outsourcing partners.

Among the new services envisioned, Brightree and VGM will deliver key performance metrics allowing providers to benchmark their operations. Such "at-a-glance" tools will be delivered via executive dashboards and other types of "push" technologies, and will utilize actual data in Brightree and proprietary VGM information from VGM Homelink referral tools, group e-purchasing, billing and collections metrics, consulting best practices and regulatory compliance tools.

"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," said Brightree President and CEO Dave Comack.

According to Van G. Miller, VGM founder, "The bottom line--we are all overwhelmed by the pace of change in today's marketplace. The future solutions we'll create with Brightree will make everyone's life easier."