VGM: Delivery costs increase In the Southeast, for example, the average delivery cost has hit $122.45, an increase of 35%
By HME News Staff
Updated 8:28 AM CST, Wed March 10, 2021
WATERLOO, Iowa – The cost of delivering home medical equipment has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of new survey from VGM.
The survey of nearly 100 medical equipment providers in eight regions of the U.S. looked at vehicle cost per trip; PPE expense; labor expense per hour; and time of travel, equipment set-up and instruction, and equipment pickup.
In the Great Lakes region, for example, the average delivery cost has hit $160.26, an increase of 19%. In the Southeast, the average delivery cost has hit $122.45, an increase of 35%.
While labor costs in most cases increased only marginally, other costs, such as vehicle cost per trip, increased by a greater margin.
The cost of PPE wasn’t a factor the last time VGM did the study in 2018, but it has added as much as $10.71 per trip in 2020 in the Mideast region, for example.
VGM will use the data to bolster efforts to preserve access to HME.
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