New Transcription Association Debuts

The American Transcription Association (ATA) is a new transcription organization based on two principles:

  1. Keep transcription work in the United States
  2. Foster a community among transcriptionists

Founded by Donna Littrell, the ATA’s main purpose is to promote transcription quality over quantity and keep transcription work from going overseas.

The association is just getting starter, but it already has 500 members and an advisory board. In addition, the ATA web site has an active online forum, where transcriptionists are invited to ask questions, give advice and chit-chat with friends and colleagues in the transcription industry.

Click here for more details on the new transcription association.

For Profit Hospitals Doing Better in Bad Economy

Some interesting statistics were announced at last week at the annual South Florida Summit. Caroline Rossi Steinber, a trends specialist with the American Hospital Association (AHA), shared the following information with attendees:

90% of surveyed hospitals have made cutbacks as a result of the tough economic times, with the biggest cuts in administrative expenses.

43% of surveyed hospitals had a negative net return for the first quarter, which was 17% higher than the same time last year

65% of hospitals reported that they witnessesed an increase in the number of physicians seeking employment

In addition, according to Darren P. Lehrich, Deutsche Bank’s managing director of healthcare providers research, for profit hospitals’ stocks have increased 70% in the past three months. Moreoever, the profit margins for publicly traded hospitals during the quarter were the highest they’ve been in a number of years.

A big concern for hospitals across the U.S. is how the concept of public health insurance will be interpreted and enforced in the future.

The AHA’s studies show that most hospitals are relying on current government payers like Medicare and Medicaid, whose combined brings in 56% of the revenue, while private insurance accounts for 43% of revenue.

Steinberg noted that providers depend heavily on private insurance providers to pay the bills because Medicaid only reimburses 90% of their costs and private insurance generally reimburses 130%. If the public health insurance is specified as a health insurance option for the uninsured, it would help hospitals immensely by reducing the uncompensated care. On the other hand, if public health insurance is used as a “cheap public plan open to everybody an reimbursed providers at low rates,” it would be devastating to the hospital industry.

Click here to read more details: Hospitals cutting back.

President of PRN Funding Appointed to Factoring Association Advisory Board

Philip Cohen, president of PRN Funding, LLC, was one of six selected to the International Factoring Association Advisory Board.

As a new board member, Mr. Cohen will be asked to provide guidance and feedback to the association’s executive director, Bert Goldberg. Together with the other board members, Mr. Cohen will also be responsible for communicating up-to-date factoring industry information to the entire International Factoring Association (IFA) membership base.

“I’m honored to be given the opportunity to help shape the International Factoring Association,” Mr. Cohen said. “I’m eager to get started.”

Founded in 1999, the mission of the IFA (www.factoring.org) is to disseminate information to the factoring community in regards to developments and changes in the factoring industry and to provide a forum for educational meetings and seminars.

“The IFA is the largest association in the world available to the factoring and commercial finance industry,” said Mr. Goldberg. “The newly appointed advisory board members were selected to help shape future endeavors for the association.”

With years of experience in healthcare services, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within the demanding business of serving vendors to healthcare institutions.

SBA Reports Uptick in Business Credit Card Use

According to a new analysis released by the Small Business Association (SBA), the nation’s largest lenders have been decreasing their small business loans, and at the same time, they have  been increasing their credit-card lending.

An article on BusinessWeek.com reported that “the total value of small business loans outstanding increased 4%, to $711 billion in the 12 months ending in June 2008. That’s half the growth in small business credit than the SBA reported the year before.”

Some say the rise in small business credit card use may reflect a “changing demand for small business credit.” Many of the small businesses (internet companies and home-based businesses) in operation today simply don’t need a larger line of credit because they don’t have a lot of physical assets.

Click here to read the entire article: The SBA Sees a Lending Shift.

Entrepreneurs Notice Credit Lines Disappearing, Should Turn to Factoring

BusinessWeek.com recently published an article that put JPMorgan Chase bank in the spotlight, as the bank started reducing or eliminating credit lines  for a large number of small business owners to help even out its balance sheets.

According to the article, in most cases, “If business owners can’t convince Chase of their creditworthiness, they have three options: 1) pay off the balance in full; 2) agree to a conversion of the line of credit into a term loan; or 3) go into default.”

One business owner interviewed for the article described how his four lines of credit were reduced to two on the exact same day that he received a letter from Chase that the bank was blocking him from drawing on two lines of credit due to “an adverse change in his ‘financial condition and/or credit history.'” The entrepreneur had been drawing on all four of the lines to help meet his monthly payroll, and he’s not sure where the money will come from if he’s not able to reistate the two lines.

As banks continue to reduce and eliminate credit lines, there will continue to be an influx of established healthcare business owners who are in this same situation. Lucky for them, there is an immediate answer to their cash flow problems.

Home care agencies who need additional funding to pay their sitters and companions, medical transcription service owners who are waiting a long time for hospitals to pay, and medical coding companies who are looking to expand can and should take advantage of healthcare accounts receivable factoring programs to help them at a time when more traditional funding avenues are failing them.

Click here to read the entire article: Snipping Credit Lines for Small Businesses.

Faculty Shortage Hurt Nursing Programs

Would you take a job that paid you 50% less than your current one? Nurses around the U.S. are facing this question daily when it comes to choosing between working as a registered nurse or working as a nurse intructor. More often than not, RNs are choosing to stay in the field instead of teaching new nurses, which is making the nationwide nurse shortage an even bigger problem. Fewer teachers in the classroom means more nursing programs have to turn away prospective nursing students.

An article in the Marshall News Messenger quoted associate dean for undergraduate nursing programs at the University of Texas at Tyler, “UT Tyler’s four-year bachelor’s degree program has about 610 students…The school gets about 300-375 applicants and admits about 130 to 140 students.”

The article also included director of the college’s associate degree nursing program, Dayna Davidson, and her thoughts: “About 200 people usually apply for Kilgore College’s 60 positions.”

Still not everyone is hurting. Some private universitities, such as East Texas Baptist University, have empty seats in their nursing programs. Leslie Borcherding, interim dean of the nursing department in teh Frank S. Groner Endowed Memorial School of Professional Studies, thinks the school’s higher tuition combined with the poor economy are jeeping the nursing program’s enrollment down.

Click here to read the entire article: Faculty shortages hurt college nursing programs.

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