President of the National Nurses in Business Association (NNBA), Pat Bemis, wrote an article in December’s edition of RN entitled, Obstacles to Nurse Entrepreneurship. In her article, Bemis discussed three mindsets that nurses have when making the transition from employment to entrepreneurship:

1. The instant response mindset - Bemis says that nurses are used to getting an immediate response to their work, however, it’s important to break out of that “instant gratification” mindset because it takes time.

2. The “I can do it myself” mindset - Out of fear of criticism, nurses tend to have the mindset that to “gather all the information and put it into a certain arrangement…before involving another team member.” Bemi suggests for nurses to involve business support team members early on in the start-up process.

3. The desire for perfection mindset - Bemis also advised for nurse entrepreneurs to deviate away from the need to do everything perfectly because “this mindset leads nurses to overlook opportunities that arise while seeking that elusive perfection.”

Click here for more information about Pat Bemis and the NNBA.

BCAdvantage posted an article in its e-newsletter last week that discussed the forthcoming medical coding system overhaul, known as ICD-10. Although an updated medical coding system has been needed for a number of years, many in the health care industry fear the switch will “initially cause headaches for consumers and their doctors.”

According to the post, hospitals, insurance companies and many doctors all agree that the new medical coding systems was necessary to keep up with the ever-increasing new medical developments, but the problem with the new system is that it drastically increases the number of codes used to define various ailments and procedures to 155,000, which is ten times as many codes as are currently in use.

In addition, “some medical-industry officials also are concerned that consumers could see…an increase in billing errors. That can lead…to overcharging of patients, or an insurer denying payment for claim because it was submitted with an incorrect code. Some officials also expect an increase in billing fraud and more delays in payments to doctors and consumers.”

In a nutshell, when this new medical coding system goes into full-swing, it’s possible that Medicare, Medicaid and other third-party insurance companies will take longer to reimburse medical facilities. It’s quite possible that if it takes longer for medical facilities to receive payment from third-party payors, then it will take longer for medical facilities to pay their vendors. This is where PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring program enters the equation, as PRN Funding specializes in factoring healthcare vendor invoices made payable by medical facilities.

Click here to read the entire BCAdantage article: New medical coding system more precise, more complex.

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.

Reliant Health Care Professionals, a medical staffing agency who specializes in staffing nurses on short notice, announced that it’s searching for a new CEO earlier this week.  The current president and CEO, Gregory Mikkelsen, will step down and serve as the executive VP and vice chair of the Denver-based healthcare staffing firm.

“There are some other things I would like to do professionally and personally,” Mikkelsen said.  He began speaking to the Reliant Health Care Professionals’ board about his succession plan last year.

Click here to read the entire briefing via Staffing Industry Analysts: Reliant starts search for CEO.

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.

Every month, Discover Financial Services publishes a Small Business Watch report on its Web site.  Here is a list of some of their Small Business Key Findings for the month of November:

• 44% of small business owners have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, up sharply from 38% in October. This is the category’s highest rating since April 2008, when the same number of business owners reported cash flow issues.
• 33% of owners who sell business-to-business said they had cash flow issues in the last 90 days that caused them to hold off paying some bills
• 51% plan to decrease spending on business development over the next six months, up significantly from 42% in October and a record high in this category
• 65% of business owners view the economy as poor
• 54% of business owners believe economic conditions for their business are worsening, and only 15% feel conditions for their business are improving
• With the results from an election poll, business owners want President-Elect Barack Obama and Congress to make taxes a top priority, even though 64% said they are not confident that the federal government and Congress can address the needs of America’s small businesses

Q: Do you feel the results of this poll are in line with your own business?

According to the Credit & Collections World Wide web site, the Fed and Treasury officials announced the creation of a “new Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility which will lend up to $200 billion to holders of securities that back credit card, auto, small-business and student loans” this morning.  This is a strategic move is hoping to jump-start the issuance of new consumer loans and business loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve hope the move will “enable a broad range of institutions to step up their lending, enabling borrowers to have access to lower-cost-consumer-finance and small-business loans.”

Click here to read the entire post: Fed Unveils Plan to Spark Consumer, Business Lending.

The Haley Marketing Group dispersed a press release this afternoon announcing the launch of their new web site.  As a marketing and web design firm dedicated to the staffing and recruiting industries, The Haley Group’s new web site offers staffing and recruiting professionals the following:

• 50-plus educational articles on marketing, sales and recruiting
• Past issues of the “The Idea Club” e-newsletter
• Access to the “Ask Haley” Blog with insights on the latest marketing trends and staffing industry news
• Over 130 project samples, including web sites, direct mail pieces, email campaigns, newsletters, logos and brochures

Apparently, PRN Funding is not the only organization who has upgraded to a newer version of its web site.  Click here to see PRN Funding’s new web site.

A federal jury convicted the nurse staffing owner of Kirpal Nurses dba Kind Hearts for not paying $500,000 in federal employment taxes last week.  The nurse staffing agency owner, Francis LeRoy McLain of Livingston, MT, supplies temporary nurses to nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.  (Some other companies McLain has operated since 1987 include: Lifelines Care Inc., Lifelines Cooperative Care Inc. and Cooperative Nurses Inc.).

McLain sued the U.S. in 1995, claiming his nurses were independent contractors rather than employees, and then the U.S. countersued, and the suits were settled in 1998 with McLain agreeing to withhold pay over employment taxes for nurses who worked for his businesses.  However, nonpayment of employment taxes still continued, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Minnesota district.