According to BCAdvantage’s Web site, 3M Health Information Systems was recognized by KLAS for leading the market in three software solution categories: Other Dictation and Transcription Solutions, Medical Records Coding, and Medical Records–Other.

In its annual report, the 2008 Top 20 Best in KLAS: Software & Professional Services, KLAS, an independent healthcare IT vendor research firm, also ranked 3M Health Information Systems as the second highest-performing software vendor across all market segments.

KLAS, a research firm that specializes in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare’s information technology (HIT) vendors, announced that the third largest medical transcription provider, Transcend Services, Inc., as the #1 Medical Transcription Service Organization in the healthcare industry.

“We are extremely pleased that our customers have again ranked us number one,” stated Sue McGrogan, Chief Operating Officer of Transcend. “We believe that being in the best in our industry requires more than maintaining a relentless focus on providing high quality reports on time to our customers, as important as that is. It also requires that people in every area of our organization are available and responsive to our customers’ needs. I am extremely proud of our operational team for consistently going the extra mile to provide excellent service to each and every customer.”

Click here to read the press release on MSN: Transcend Ranked #1 Medical Transcription Company by KLAS for 2008.

The Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) and the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) are conducting a survey to gather meaningful data around the adoption, integration, and use of speech recognition technologies (both front-end and back-end). The goal of the survey is for MTIA and its partners to analyze the data from the survey and report trends and best practices back to the medical transcription sector in the very near future.

For you convenience, we’ve included a link to the Speech Recognition Survey.

Barbara Ziccardi (manager of AlphaStaff) wrote a brief yet informative article in the December 2008 edition of Health Data Matrix about MTSOs benefiting from outsourcing their human resources department.

Zaccardi listed some of the amazing benefits a medical transcription service owner can expect to receive by simply utilizing the services of a human resources outsourcing (HRO) partner:

• Obtain access to benefits programs that wouldn’t otherwise be available to small or mid-sized companies on their own
• Streamline time and attendance for payroll, including time record data flow for payroll processing and capturing line counts to hours worked through entry or data import
• Access to subject matter experts that will proactively develop handbooks, provide on-site and webinar training and assist with liability insurance
• Receive assistance with filing taxes and handling worker’s comp issues

Ziccardi wrote: “Many [medical transcription] companies are being confronted with challenges that have little to do with their core business–which is exactly why outsourcing has become such an attractive option.”

The medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding couldn’t agree more with this statement! By outsourcing their receivables to PRN Funding, MTSOs can stop worrying about their cash flow and focus on more important things–like growing their medical transcription service.

Scott Love of RecruitingMastery.com, wrote an excellent article in Net-Temps Recruiters e-newsletter that gave recruiters tips on how to get quick-paying clients.  More specifically, he advised recruiters to use “fear of loss” as a motivator.  Translated to healthcare vendors like medical staffing agencies and medical transcription services, threatening to pull your nurses or ceasing your transcription services until until a check is received is a good attention-grabber and lets the medical facility know that you mean business.

Love also highly recommends putting your terms directly on your invoices, which is something Phil Cohen (president of PRN Funding, LLC) suggested to temporary nurse staffing business owners in part two of his article series: How Nurse Staffing Agencies Can Get Paid Quicker.

Not to mention, another way for business owners to get paid quicker during a bad economy is to utilize invoice funding.  Selling your invoices to a factoring company is a great way for you turn your receivables into cash immediately.

As an account receivables factoring firm who specializes in funding medical staffing companies, factoring invoices for medical transcription services and providing financing to medical coding companies, we (PRN Funding, LLC) made a big announcement today.

In order to serve our clients to the best of our ability, PRN Funding is now accepting VISA, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards as a form of payment on its clients’ invoices.  Traditionally, PRN Funding has only accepted checks and direct deposits.

Click here to read the entire press release on PRN Funding’s web site: PRN Funding Now Accepting Credit Cards.

Arden Dale wrote an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal reviewing three alternative credit sources for small businesses who are being turned down for traditional bank loans.  Specifically, the article discussed accounts receivable factoring, borrowing from friends and family, and peer-to-peer lending.

Executive Director of the International Factoring Association (IFA), Bert Goldberg, advised business owners to only consider factoring companies who follow industry best practices.  He recommended choosing an invoice funding firm who is a member of the IFA because “all members have agreed to adhere to a strict code of ethics.” 

Note to our readers: For those healthcare vendors looking for an specialized factoring firm, PRN Funding, LLC is a proud member of the IFA.

The medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding wanted to share one of our most recent client success stories with our readers.  Afterall, it’s one thing to read about our specialized factoring services, it’s quite another to hear a real-life client success story.

Patrick is one of our most recent client highlights because thanks to medical transcription factoring, he was able to utilize PRN Funding’s invoice factoring services to help grow his business.  Today, his company is one of Inc’s 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

Please visit PRN Funding’s web site here to read the entire medical transcription factoring success story.

Former CEO of the American Association for Medical Transcription (now known as the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity), Claudia Tessier wrote a very compelling piece for MRInstitute News concerning the ever changing landscape of medical transcription and electronic health records.

In her post, Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost, Tessier prefaced the article by stating that there are disparities among statistical information for the medical transcription industry because it’s an industry that “has neither routinely nor widely shared statistical information about its operations and finances…”  However, all of the numbers show that nationwide, the industry of medical transcription is huge, and it’s continuing to grow.

Tessier goes on to explain how both the medical transcription industry and EMR (Electronic Health Record) industry failed to acknowledge one another early on, which she feels was a grave error.  She writes “Had the transcription industry been willing and prepared early on to move toward integration with EMR and had the healthcare industry recognized the stimulus that medical transcription could bring to EMR adoption, they could have jointly benefited and advanced.”

She follows up with the question: Can medical transcription still stimulate the EMR market?  Tessier says yes and no–but as a whole, “the transcription industry and EMR vendors should ramp up their cooperation to create uniform integration.”

The remainder of Tessier’s article lists inherent concerns about the medical transcription industry from the point-of-view of healthcare providers, administrators and executives, and then she makes some practical suggestions for how the medical transcription industry could potentially alleviate those problems.

Click here to read the entire article: Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost.

A business simply cannot operate without a healthy cash flow, but credit crunches and tight lending regulations from banks can make it difficult for today’s business owner to maintain a steady cash flow.  Elizabeth Wilson of Entrepreneur.com shared five ways for business owners to reduce their vulnerability:

1. Diversify your revenue stream. Staffing temp nurses in only one large nursing home or transcribing for only one big hospital is not ideal because if your only customer starts extending its payments, it will affect your cash flow immensely.  If you spread out your work among a couple of different clients, you will stand a better chance of balancing your cash flow if one of them starts to pay slower.  In other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

2. Cut back excess spending and protect your cash flow to meet payments. Stay on top of spending and collections patterns to be sure that the amount of cash coming in balances the amount that needs to go out.

3. Cut costs whenever possible. Work to negotiate better terms with the healthcare providers you are servicing.  Oftentimes, doctors offices are willing to make credit card payments as well.

4. Raise capital in innovative ways other than traditional banking. Healthcare vendors can and should take advantage of accounts receivable factoring to help them maintain a positive cash flow.  Selling their invoices to a factor provides cash immediately so business owners can make payroll and meet other financial obligations without having to wait to be paid.

5. If you have excess cash, you should be leveraging it. “If banks are tightening up their credit, use it to borrow what you need as collateral, and have it in capital investments you need to grow the busienss.  Having it in cash is useless unless you have disbursements on an ongoing basis,” founder of BUZGate, Deborah Osgood said.