Temporary Hospice Staffing Factoring Case Study

The temporary hospice staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding recently invited one of our current hospice staffing clients to “spill the beans” in a tell-all interview about her experiences with using PRN Funding as a medical staffing factor.

Although the video and printed interview is posted on PRN Funding’s web site, we also included them on The Factoring Blog for all of our medical staffing agency owners.

Chastity Williams has a big heart, and she had a big dream. As a long term care nurse she had many encounters with hospice nursing. In 2007, there was a tremendous nursing shortage and hospice was a very misunderstood area of health care. Chastity knew she could help make a difference in people’s lives and wanted to start her own hospice temporary staffing agency – Nursing by Demand.

“Like everyone else, I had an idea and thought I’d open a business. When I started I was all heart and had big ideas for the nursing part, but I didn’t know as much about the business part.” She felt uncertainty as many entrepreneurs do, and wondered how she’d be able to raise payroll.

“Chastity had a couple clients lined up before she started, but as in many new business situations, they didn’t pay quite fast enough. So she didn’t have the cash on hand to meet payroll. That’s a lot of pressure for a new business,” says Ryan Elliott, her Account Manager at PRN.

A business loan was out of the question – Chastity was adamant that she didn’t want to start a business with debt. She did some research and came across PRN Funding’s web site as well as some others, and looked into several.

Click here to continue reading why Chastity decided to choose PRN Funding as her hospice staffing factor.

Cleveland Clinic Will Hire 600 Nurses

From March 28-30, the Cleveland Browns Stadium is being transformed into a three-day recruiting blitz for the Cleveland Clinic.

1180 nurses are pre-registered for the event, and many more are anticipated to come as “walk-ins”. The Cleveland Clinic is holding the job fair in order to fill 400 vacant positions and 200 news ones. Specifically, the Clinic is hiring medical surgery nurses, advanced practice nurses, imaging nurses and intensive care nurses.

The Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence is hoping to build brand awareness and make nurses aware of all of the hospitals that the Cleveland Clinic has.

What is the Best Financing Option for Outsourced Medical Coding Companies?

Account Receivable Factoring or Small Business Loan: Which is a Better Financing Option for Outsourced Medical Coding Companies?

Comparing and contrasting medical coding account receivable factoring to a loan from a bank sounds like a daunting task. To be honest, it’s hard to compare the two equally because one financing mechanism creates debt by lending money (i.e. bank loan), whereas the other one creates immediate cash flow by advancing cash on purchased invoices (i.e. factoring).

Thankfully, comparing the two medical coding funding options doesn’t have to be difficult. Click here for a handy comparison chart outlining the key differences between medical coding account receivable factoring and bank financing.

Nurse Staffing Account Receivable Factoring – How to Get Started

Factoring firms receive all sorts of questions from business owners in regards to their services. From the cost of factoring to the length of time one is required to remain in a factoring relationship, we’ve heard it all. However in this article, I’d like to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about nurse staffing account receivable factoring: What is needed to complete an initial factoring transaction?

  1. The first thing a nurse staffing account receivable factor does prior to an initial funding is check into the creditworthiness of the agency’s customers. Credit approval for a first-time debtor (customer) is simple. The agency supplies the factor with the name and address of the new debtor, and then the factor will run credit on that debtor. Once approved, the agency can present invoices for sale.
  2. The business owner sends out the original invoices to their debtors as normal, and then sends a copy of those invoices along with proof of performance (signed time sheets) to the factoring company. This can usually be accomplished via fax or email. It’s important to note that the nurse staffing account receivable factoring company will only purchase invoices for shifts that have already been worked.
  3. The account receivable factor will then verify that the invoices are valid by speaking with a nurse scheduler or Director of Nursing (DON) at the facilities where the shifts were worked just to confirm that the nurses worked the shifts listed on the invoices.

Click here to read about the rest of the Steps to Complete an Initial Nurse Staffing Account Receivable Factoring Transaction.

Nuance Communications to buy Transcend Services

Boston.com ran an article that announced how Nuance Communications Inc. has intentions to buy Transcend Services Inc. for $300 million.

Here is a quote from the official press release:

“The acquisition of Transcend will expand the delivery of our innovative voice and Clinical Language Understanding solutions especially to small- and mid-size hospitals,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager of Nuance’s Healthcare business. “With Transcend, we will drive change and improvement to the way these hospitals capture and leverage clinical information. The acquisition is a natural extension of Nuance’s existing healthcare business, and will strengthen our solution and services portfolio, as well as enhance our profitability.”

Moreover, the article made mention of how Nuance’s speech recognition technology is incorporated into the latest version of the iPhone from Apple Inc., which calls its voice-recognition function Siri. There’s been much speculation that Siri will be a feature of a new edition of the iPad, Apple’s tablet computer. The new version of the iPad is expected to be unveiled today.

New Web Site and More for National Nurses in Business Association

The National Nurses in Business Association (NNBA) sent out an eNewsletter this week full of some exciting announcements:

First the nurse entrepreneur organization launched a new website in late January. The new site is easy to navigate, has a print option for each page, and has a quick find feature. Photos of NNBA members are also a part of the website. Click here to check out the new NNBA web site.

In addition, the NNBA launched a monthly newsletter this year, which will highlight members and their accomplishments, and report nurse entrepreneur news and upcoming events.

Finally, the NNBA and the University of Florida are collaborating for the 27th Annual NNBA Conference: Healthcare Self-Employed Entrepreneurship Summit. The event is scheduled for August 18 and 19, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. Click here for more information on the 2012 NNBA Conference.

The Truth about Allied Health Staffing Invoice Funding

Invoice funding is a great financing tool for allied health staffing agencies because it bridges the gap between when agency owners invoice a medical facility and when that facility pays. Unfortunately, some allied health staffing business owners are still hesitant to take advantage of all that invoice funding has to offer because of all the misinformation circulating out there. Allow me to debunk some of those myths about allied health staffing invoice funding.

Myth #1: Allied Health Staffing Invoice Funding is an Expensive Financing Option

Truth: First and foremost, an invoice funding fee (i.e. a factoring fee) is not the same thing as an annualized interest rate. For example, an allied health staffing invoice financing company may charge 3% per month, but that’s not the same thing as 36% APR. Rather, an invoice funding firm’s fees stop the day an invoice is paid. Furthermore, allied health staffing agencies can’t and won’t wait 12 months to receive payment for their staffing services. Most agencies agree to payment terms somewhere between 30 and 45 days. So in reality, allied health staffing invoice funding is not costly.

Myth #2: Allied Health Staffing Funding Companies Require a Long-Term Commitment

Truth: Unlike a traditional line of credit through a bank loan, most allied health invoice factoring companies do not require a long-term commitment. In fact, some invoice funding companies only ask for a six month commitment, while others do not require a fixed-term at all.

Click here to read the entire article: The Truth About Allied Health Staffing Invoice Funding.

How Home Healthcare Agencies Can Qualify for Invoice Funding

Gone are the days when a home health care’s agency’s only financing option is a line of credit from a bank. In fact, there are dozens of ways a home health care agency can fund its growing operations. However, one specific option business owners should consider is home health care invoice funding.

In a nutshell, home health care invoice financing is the process whereby an agency sells its accounts receivables to a third party (factoring firm) at a discount. Rather than waiting weeks or months to receive payment from Medicaid, Medicare or other governmental agencies, factoring firms advance cash immediately upon purchasing home health care invoices, which gives business owners the ability to maintain a positive cash flow.

All it takes is three simple steps to set up a home healthcare invoice funding account…

  1. Contact a Home Health Care Invoice Funding Company
    There are thousands of factoring firms to choose from. The trick is to find one that understands the intricacies of the home health care industry. Luckily, a simple Google search for “home health care invoice funding,” can quickly narrow down the playing field. Once you select an invoice funding firm to work with, you can usually complete an online application or call and speak with a home health care funding account representative to have him / her email and / or mail out a complete document package.

Click here to find out the remaining steps on how to qualify for home health care invoice funding.

How to Qualify a Factoring Prospect by Asking Three Simple Questions

It’s a factoring broker‘s job to deliver companies with cash flow issues to the appropriate funding source. Although this task sounds easy enough, in reality, it’s not always so simple. Picture this scenario:

You have a client in need of cash flow who has been in business for a year, has three large customers and gets paid in less than 30 days. Eager to help this entrepreneur get the cash he needs to expand, you refer this small business owner to one of your factoring partners immediately.

The factoring company tells you that they are interested in pursuing the lead, and they’ll have an update for you as soon as they reach out to the prospect. The next day, you get a phone call from the factoring firm telling you that they are no longer working the deal.

Has this ever happened to you? If you answered yes, then I have some good news for you. There’s a simple way to drastically reduce the chances of the above situation ever happening again. All you have to do is ask three key questions before referring a lead to a factor…

Click here to read the entire article on Factoring Investor or watch the video summary below: