2011 will go down in history as the year the big banks stopped lending to small businesses. On the other hand, 2011 will also be remembered as the year alternative lenders came to the forefront of the small business financing industry. Specifically, Credit Unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Micro Lenders and Accounts Receivable Factoring Firms all said YES to the majority of their small business financing applications while most larger banks repeatedly said NO.

Although a home health care agency owner could be approved for financing by any of the alternative lenders listed above, the best alternative financing option for them is to work with a home health care factor, and here’s why:

Home Health Care Factoring Creates Positive Cash Flow
Some Medicaid waiver programs can take up to a month to reimburse a home health care agency for its pre-approved non-medical in-home services. This lag in payments makes it difficult for new or growing home health care agencies to be able to meet payroll and other financial obligations. However, when home health agency owners sell their Medicaid receivables to a home health care funding firm, funds can be directly deposited into their bank account within hours. Instead of waiting weeks or months, factoring your home health care business gives business owners immediate access to cash…

Click here to continue reading more reasons why home health care agencies should use a factoring.

Curious about PRN Funding’s healthcare factoring services?

Check out our 2012 Trade Show schedule. We’d love to see you if you’re planning on attending any of the shows below:

The nurse staffing invoice funding experts at PRN Funding recently came across a blog entry by Brooke Stafford (a nursing practitioner student and also writes for Family Nurse Practitioner Degrees) that we wanted to share with our nurse staffing industry readers.

Ms. Stafford wrote about Five Ways the Nursing Shortage is Affecting the Elderly, which we condensed below:

1. Too many patients - Because there are fewer nurses to go around, they often take on more patients than they can effectively handle.
2. More mistakes - If your nurse doesn’t know one patient from the next, it can be easy to confuse treatments, drugs, and more.
3. More falls - While in a health care facility, falling is one of the most common ways seniors injure themselves.
4. Quicker discharge - Ever feel as if you’re being rushed out of a hospital or other health care facility? The nursing shortage might be to blame.
5. Quality drop - This is perhaps the most dangerous way the nursing shortage is affecting the elderly.

After hearing countless reports about the worldwide nursing shortage, researchers at RAND Corporation say the trend is reversing. Specifically, the number of women in their early 20s who became registered nurses increased by 62 percent from 2002 to 2009. Combined with the fact that registered nurses today tend to enter training at older ages than a generation ago, these new entering cohorts are projected to become the largest group of nurses ever observed, according to researchers from the RAND Corporation, Vanderbilt University and Dartmouth College.

The study’s lead author and economist, David Auerbach was quoted in the official press announcement: “The spike we’ve seen in young women becoming registered nurses is dramatic. If the trend continues, it will help to ease some of the concerns about future nursing shortages.”

Researchers say there are several reasons that interest in nursing has surged. Several major initiatives were launched to increase interest in nursing careers. Meanwhile, nurse training programs expanded enrollment and created innovative efforts that allows some people to get training on an accelerated schedule.

In addition, the economic downturn and a continued decline in manufacturing jobs has reduced many of the career opportunities that had attracted young people who otherwise might choose nursing.

Click here to read the official announcement: More Young People Are Becoming Nurses; Trend May Help Ease Future Nursing Shortage.

When it comes to alternative financing methods, invoice funding is an excellent option for allied health staffing companies. Selling their outstanding invoices to a funding company provides the necessary capital for allied health staffing agencies to grow and compete in the marketplace. With that said, there are many funding companies who are able to factor allied health staffing invoices, so choosing one may seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are five simple comparison categories to consider when choosing an allied health staffing funding company, namely: Pricing, Industry Expertise, Flexibility, Customer Service, and Stability. Click here to read more How to Choose an Allied Health Staffing Factor.

Most entrepreneurs who decide to open a nurse staffing agency are well-versed in the industry, and they have the passion to succeed.  However, when it comes to accounting, and in particular managing cash flow, temporary nurse staffing agency owners often stumble. Entrepreneurs who have a hard time balancing payments coming in with financial obligations going out (i.e. payroll, payroll taxes) should take advantage of working with a payroll factor.

Now there are hundreds of payroll factoring companies out there competing for your agency’s business, each with their own set of claims and promises to help you achieve your financial goals. With so many different choices out there, how could you possibly narrow down the playing field? Take it from me-It’s much easier to narrow down the selection if you avoid some of the most common mistakes that business owners make when choosing a payroll factor.

Click here to read about the three most common mistakes to avoid when choosing a nurse staffing payroll factor along with a few straightforward tips to help you find a payroll factoring company that best suits your needs.

Most entrepreneurs who decide to open a healthcare staffing agency know their industry well, and they have a drive to succeed. However, when it comes to managing cash flow, some agency owners often come up short. Luckily, entrepreneurs who have a hard time managing payments coming in and payments going out (i.e. payroll, payroll taxes) could really benefit from using with a healthcare staffing payroll factor.

Now there are hundreds of healthcare staffing payroll financing companies out there competing for your staffing agency’s business, each with their own set of claims and promises to help your company become financially sound. With so many different choices out there, what’s the best way to narrow down the playing field? Start with what NOT to do first…

Click here to find out What NOT to Do When Picking a Healthcare Staffing Payroll Factoring Firm.

Known throughout the factoring industry as a healthcare funder, PRN Funding recently added a brand new vertical to it’s healthcare factoring repertoire: Teleradiology.

Helping to improve access to medical services, teleradiology is the ability to send images from one location (i.e. an imaging center, clinic or physician’s office) to another location for evaluation.

Specifically, PRN Funding extended a $500,000 credit line to this growing teleradiology client based in the Greater Philadelphia area.

Most factoring firms can establish a new account in as little as three business days. But what happens after that? When nurse staffing agencies choose to work with a factor that understands their business model, the daily funding procedures are just as easy as the approval process.

The day-to-day nurse staffing payroll funding process works like this:

Staff Nurses & Send out Invoices
The beginning of the nurse staffing payroll funding process is not so different from your normal staffing procedures. You staff your nurses at a medical facility, collect your employees’ time sheets, and issue invoices to the facility. The only change at this stage of the process is the remittance address. Most nurse staffing payroll funding firms ask that their remittance information be printed directly on the invoice.

Send Information to the Funder
After you send your invoices and timesheets to your customer, those invoices are officially eligible for sale. So the next step is to send a copy of those invoices and their corresponding timesheets to your payroll funder. Typically, nurse staffing agencies send these items to a payroll funder via fax or email.

Click here to read more about the Ongoing Nursing Staffing Payroll Funding Process.

We’ve been blogging for years about the nurse shortage and how medical staffing agencies have various opportunities to capitalize on the staffing crisis. There was an interesting article on Health Leaders Media’s website that profiled MidMichigan Health, a nonprofit system based in Midland, MI, that started bringing back retired nurses to cover gaps in shifts.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The health system found it had a cadre of retired nurses who didn’t want to entirely stop working, so it utilized the available talent to fill gaps in schedules, work on special projects, and generally improve the staffing situation across the whole system.

“We had a lot of retirees that took a retirement package we offered as a cost saving measure,” says Tonia VanWieren, BSN, RN, director maternity unit/pediatrics, nursing office/shift administrator, MyTimeSelect/system staffing. “Then they wanted to come back to work because of the economy and different things in their lives.”

Click here to read the entire article: Retired Nurses Ease a Staffing Crunch, Bolster Budget