PRN Funding heads to Orlando for AAPC Conference

That’s right, PRN Funding is heading to the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, FL for the 2008 American Academy of Professional Coders Annual Conference.

If you are a medical coding business owner or a medical coding consultant who needs help with your cash flow, be sure to stop by booth 308 and chat with Phil Cohen, Ryan Elliott and Vera Pereskokova to learn how PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring can help your medical coding business.

PRN Funding will also be giving away a brand new Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS, so make sure that you fill out a form and enter for your chance to win.

Click here to read the official PRN Funding press release: PRN Funding gives away GPS at AAPC 2008.

Slowdown’s Side Effect: More Nurses

Contrary to the rest of the U.S. job market, an economic downturn actually prompts new recruits and seasoned veterans to enter the field of nursing. More nurses entering the workforce full-time means a temporary decrease in the nurse shortage and most likely a minor decrease in the demand for temporary nurses.

But industry experts don’t expect this trend to last for long. As what goes up must surely come down, the familiar trend will reverse once the economy speeds up again. Full-time nurses will cut back on their hours and there will be an increased demand for temporary nurses to fill the vacant hospital positions.

We encourage you to read the Wall Street Journal article, Slowdown’s Side Effect: More Nurses, to learn more about the counter-cyclical nursing profession.

Tips to Attract a Factoring Company

It’s a well-known fact that if a business is having a hard time securing bank financing, accounts receivable factoring is a good option because a factoring firm is willing to look at a company’s ability to grow, rather than focus on its past. However, factoring firms can still be selective when it comes to approving clients.

Here are a few tips that will help make your business more attractive to a factoring company:


Bookkeeping
Factoring companies want to know how your customers payment trends so they can design the appropriate factoring program to meet your company’s needs. Develop a system or purchase the appropriate software (i.e. QuickBooks) to track and monitor your company’s accounts receivables.

Screen Credit
Accounts receivable factoring firms are concerned with the creditworthiness of a company’s clients (debtors), because it is the debtor who will be paying the factor. Have a plan in place to check your customer’s credit so that you can make sure you are only doing business with creditworthy customers.

Think Ahead
A funding company wants to work with passionate business owners. Give the factoring company an idea of how much you routinely bill and how much you project your business can grow by utilizing accounts receivable factoring.

Available Assets
Because a funding company advances cash on invoices, it’s important for your business’ accounts receivable to be free and clear. Pre-existing loans listing accounts receivable as the collateral makes it harder to factoring firms to feel comfortable advancing money.

Honesty
Communicating to a factoring company why you need accounts receivable factoring is crucial. Don’t be afraid to tell a firm that you were unable to be approved for bank financing or that your credit is less than perfect. Accounts receivable factors can work around most credit issues, and being honest about them in the beginning will save both parties a lot of time and effort in the long run, while also building a strong foundation of trust.

Click here to learn more about PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring program.

PRN Funding’s Tips for Decreasing Factoring Fees

Here are three quick tips to help medical staffing companies, medical transcription services, medical coding companies and medical supply businesses to decrease their factoring fees with PRN Funding:


Retain your invoices for a while after you provide goods/services to your customer.
Send them to an accounts receivable factor only when you absolutely need the money. PRN Funding’s factoring fees are based on how much time passes between when we purchase the invoice and when we receive payment from our clients’ customers. So one way to save money is to limit the amount of time PRN Funding owns your invoices.

Factor customers who have a better credit history.
While PRN Funding will only factor customers who have acceptable credit, those who have a better credit history will be less expensive to factor because they will pay their invoices in a timelier basis.

Allow your customers to absorb some or all of the factoring fee by slightly raising your prices or by charging a fee for invoices paid past the due date.

AHDI Uses MT Week to Connect to Next Generation Workforce

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) is proactively reaching out to NextGen medical transcriptionists to combat a pending medical transcription workforce and recruitment challenge. AHDI believes the healthcare documentation industry “will soon reach a critical point of disconnect with the demands of an evolving healthcare delivery system – a system that will continue to seek other documentation solutions to meet the high-volume documentation needs that are anticipated in health care as Baby Boomers enter the long-term care continuum” and Baby Boomer medical transcription workforce enters retirement. 

 

AHDI feels so strongly about attracting next-generation documentation specialists into the profession that they have developed an entire campaign around it, Next Gen Campaign for 2008. Partering with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), the two medical transcription trade associations are encouraging its medical transcription business owners to help them raise awareness and recruit Next Gen medical transcriptionists. 

 

For your convenience, we’ve included a bullet-point list of AHDI’s ideas to help promote MT awareness: 

 

·         Host an open informational event for the general public to educate them about the profession and the career.

 

·         Participate in a local high school or community college career fair to recruit interested candidates into the profession and guide them to the right career information and selection of an approved-school program.

 

·         Host a military spouse informational meeting at a local military institution or military base.

·         Host a reception, preferably during National Medical Transcriptionist Week (May 18-24, 2008), for all local students, recent graduates, and new MTs to encourage their membership and involvement in AHDI.

 

In addition, healthcare documentation specialists and MTSOs are encouraged to enter the I Love My Career contest, and wear AHDI’s eye-catching recruitment button “I Love My Career…Ask Me Why?” to educate the general public about a career in healthcare documentation and to point interested individuals to the career information found at the AHDI website.

 

Click here to learn more about AHDI’s Next Gen Campaign and MTWeek.

 

AHDI presents I love My Career Contest via YouTube

As part of AHDI’s 2008 Next Gen Campaign, the organization dedicated to serving healthcare documentation professionals is holding an “I Love My Career” contest on YouTube.

According to AHDI’s Web site, AHDI members are encouraged to come view these videos and vote on their favorite, most creative video. The winner will receive a copy of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription, 3rd Edition and have their video highlighted at the AHDI Annual Convention and Expo in Orlando, Florida, in August of 2008.

All other videos will be shown throughout the convention in attendee areas and will be compiled into a “testimonial” video that can be used by AHDI components to promote the profession during Next Gen events in 2008.

Click here to learn more and tell the world Why I Love My Career.

National Nurses Week 2008

May 6-12 is National Nurses Week, and the theme for 2008 is Nurses: Making a Difference Every Day.  The American Nurses Association put together a media kit with tips and ideas to help temporary nurses celebrate the week, such as:Hold a special celebration or reception to recognize a nurse or several nurses in your community. These nurses could be honored for heroic acts, years of service to the community, exemplary courage, or their commitment to the nursing profession over the years.

Promote a positive, realistic image of registered nurses by sponsoring health fairs, conducting preventive screenings in underserved areas, organizing a walk-a-thon, etc.

Place an article in your state or local newspaper(s) about National Nurses Week and the value of nurses.

Invite a politician — local, state or federal — to accompany a nurse or several nurses at their place of employment for a day or part of a day. Health care remains an issue of tremendous importance to voters. Politicians should be visible and accountable for their positions on health care. This is a win-win situation and it offers good media coverage potential.

Ask every nurse in America to wear an “RN Pin” and/or nurse’s uniform during National Nurses Week. The official “RN Pin” is available by calling 1-800-445-0445 (credit card orders only).

Click here for more ideas on how to celebrate

National Nurses Week 2008.Q: How are you celebrating this important week in week with your employees?

 

 

The Nurse Company Announces Launch of MyNurseBook

Is anyone familiar with The Nurse Company?


It’s the first company in the history of the nursing profession dedicated solely  global nurse shortage.  In a recent press release, The Nurse Company described themselves as “the word’s leading nurse shortage management, market research, and advisory company with strategic relationships in 14 countries and territories.”


The Nurse Company offers nurses the use of social media tools to develop collaborative communities and tools to nurses.  Some of their featured resources include:


MyNurseBook, connects nurses around the world interested in networking and sharing their opinions


MyNurseBoard, matching nurses with employers and employer with nurses


MyTrustRex, connecting health professionals and patients

MyNurseStore, online shopping for nurses


MyNurseSchool, online education for nurses (Coming Soon!)


Check it out and let us know what you think about the organization.  We welcome your comments.

Hospitals Face Financial Squeeze

We found an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal on May 1 detailing a study conducted by the restructuring firm, Alvarez & Marsal.

According to the study, 2,000 of the nearly 3,900 acute-care hospitals are not able to make a profit from treating patients. Furthermore, nearly 750 of the hospitals who do turn a profit stil do not have enough to reinvest in improvements and other essential expenditures.

Industry experts say competition from same-day surgery cents and outpatient clinics drive occupancy levels down. In addition Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are decreasing couples with a high number of uninsured patients are part of the problem.

Click here to read the entire story: Hospital Face Financial Squeeze. (Note: Subscription required).