Category: Industry News

As we get to the holiday season, we tend to take some time to reflect on what’s important to us in our personal lives and our work lives. I also think it’s a great time to just spend some time thinking about our purpose in both, and for many of us, our work life is important because of personal life. My purpose is to bring great services to people of all ages who need their home modified so that they can live in it safely and independently as long as they wish. We do that here by working...

Select Member Program Update Do you wonder why we seem to talk about the aging in place market so much? Many members have significant revenue coming in from state programs, workman's comp, and the VA, and many find the private pay market to be a tough nut to crack. In our view, those revenue platforms are great and will continue to provide work, but the market that will see substantial growth in our industry will be the private market as seniors look to age in place....

The Certified Environmental Access Consultant (CEAC) and CEAC Mastery Programs have been updated to include course content from the new Home Safety Assessment Consultant (HSAC) program. This update includes education on how to properly perform a professional Home Safety Assessment. Resource guides and an evaluation process are provided, along with tips on how to inform the consumer on the risks in their home. The CEAC Mastery Program can be purchased on its own or added to an existing CEAC certification....

The home accessibility industry is hitting a pivotal turning point in 2021. Compacted with the pandemic and more seniors wanting to age in place and overall demographics of the United States, the biggest segment of growth in home accessibility is the senior private pay segment. The number of increasingly older Americans continues to grow. And of these individuals, over 80% say they want to remain in their own home. However, most housing isn’t accessible. Aging in place has gotten a lot of...

VGM’s annual Heartland Conference celebrated its 20th event Sept. 13–15, 2021, by welcoming nearly 1,000 guests from across the country to its hometown of Waterloo. The conference brings members of the HME community together each year for three days of networking and educational events.  Usually held in June, the conference was moved to September to help ensure the health and safety of everyone involved. Additional precautions taken included moving all social events to outdoor...

A couple weeks ago, we welcomed many Live at Home members to our hometown of Waterloo, Iowa for the 20th annual Heartland Conference. There was certainly lots of excitement in the air and a buzz about the new programs launched at this year’s conference. We had great face-to-face conversations, a phenomenal keynote speaker, great outside social fun, and of course all the chocolate chip cookies one could want. Our Heartland committee did a great job providing a safe environment while still...

Vets First DME began at the intersection of preparation and opportunity, with a dash of circumstance. Co-founder Shelly Hoover was a dynamic educator and fitness fanatic when she was diagnosed with ALS at age 47. ALS is a stunningly brutal, neurodegenerative disease that steals the ability to move, talk, eat, and breathe; most die within a few years. Although Shelly has lost her ability to move and is losing her ability to speak, she doesn’t let that stop her relentless advocacy for veterans...

Hey Live at Home members, Here we are at the end of July, and before you know it, our VGM Heartland Conference will be here. Besides celebrating our 20th anniversary of the conference, this year’s conference will be a major opportunity for Live at Home members. 2021 is our industry's turning-point year, and we will have much to share with you. New opportunities are happening very rapidly, and we are finding that after learning about our network,  many companies want to...

Serving one’s community with compassion and integrity is a value that Tammy Robert, owner and operations manager of Louisiana Special Needs, pursues every day.  “My passion has been, and still is, to provide quality goods and services to the people of our community and throughout the state of Louisiana,” said Tammy. “My team and I work hard to improve our processes, productivity, and efficiency in providing these needed services.” Tammy’s family owns...

Summer is here and it looks to be a crazy next three months for home access contractors and manufacturers. We are seeing a lot of members have business pick up to pre-pandemic levels or better, but with it is coming price increases and an alarming amount of product being damaged in shipping.  The Good News  In April and May, we’re getting reports that the slight lulls in business in the first quarter of this year is a memory and that many members are seeing...