Half of Nation’s Hospitals Operating in the Red

It wasn’t very long ago when PRN Funding wrote a 3-part series on the healthcare cash flow crisis in America, giving a glimpse into the actual costs of America’s healthcare system. Written at the end of 2004,we shared a startling statistic in the three-part Cash Poor Series, 1/3 of the nation’s hospitals were operating in the red. Just 4 years later, 50% of America’s hospitals are currently operating in the red, and many are in the midst of cutting back on services and staffing.

According to an article that appeared in today’s Los Angeles Times, “Forty-four percent of hospitals have seen declines in surgeries, with hip procedures showing the steepest drop-off at 45%, according to another new survey. As a result, 47% of the hospitals surveyed expect to make staff cuts, and 69% plan to cancel or delay equipment purchases, according to the survey by Novation, a company that manages supplier contracts for hospitals.

Novation has responded by demanding that vendors maintain or roll back prices on the goods they sell to hospitals.”

Click here to read the entire article: Half of nation’s hospitals running losses.

Realities of Outsourcing Medical Transcription

Senior VP and managing partner of Outsourcing Solutions Inc., Tony Incardona,  recently wrote an article for ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals, entitled, Outsourcing: The Realities of Reorganization.

In his article, Mr. Incardona discussed some of the pros and cons of medical transcription outsourcing, saying: “The decision to outsource transcription should not be limited to cost-savings alone. Transcription volume, staff on-hand and your facility’s needs all play vital roles in the process.”

Click here to read the entire article on ADVANCE’s web site: Outsourcing: The Realities of Reorganization.

MTSOs Get a Bad Rap

The medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding were curious if our medical transcription blog readers saw the featured article on ADVANCE for Health Information Professional’s web site: The Dark Side of Medical Transcription.

If you haven’t read it already, it’s definitely an article you should read, as it affects everyone in the medical transcription industry.  For the convenience of our medical transcription readers, PRN Funding has included the article’s highlights below:

The article opens with one medical transcriptionist’s story on how she went to work for what she thought was a reputable medical transcription service organization (MTSO) that started breaking promises in the very beginning, failing to issue direct deposits, never covering its MTs with health insurance, forbidding its MTs from contacting one another, displaying discrepancies in line counts, and finally bouncing a slew of payroll checks.

Another medical transcriptionist shared her story of the dangers of going into business with someone whom you do not know very well, which inevitably led to the closing of her medical transcription service. She was contacted years later by the IRS because the business owed a slew of back taxes, and her business partner was no where to be found.

The last bit of the article came more in the form of advice from an experienced MT. She shared a handful  of medical transcription industry tips with ADVANCE, from detailing what makes a good transcriptionist to taking the time to research medical transcription schools and then exceling in your program. She even discussed some of the benefits of continuing your medical transcription education even after graduation.

Click here to read the entire article: The Dark Side of Medical Transcription.

Temp Healthcare Workers Lack Adequate Background Checks

An interesting article appeared in the LA Times last week in which Los Angeles County officials were quoted saying “they do not know how many of the 2,000 temporary workers serving patients at county hospitals and clinics each month are working without a criminal background check.”

The LA County officials suspended the contract of one of its largest allied health staffing providers, Mediscan, because the agency placed a convicted rapist at Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, a large health clinic in east Los Angeles.

A representative from Mediscan was quoted in the article saying that all of the proper background checks had been carried out, going back seven years without a problem.

Click here to read the entire article in the LA Times: LA County Unaware How Many Temporary Healthcare Workers Lack Background Checks.

More Hospitals Hiring Temps

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal discussed how more and more general surgeons are shifting from private practices to temporary assignments as a result of the economic downturn, rising overhead costs and declines in reimbursements.

So much so that “general surgery is now among the fastest growing areas of a temporary medical staffing undystry that’s expected to double to $2.1 billion in 2009 from five years ago, according to Locumtenens.com.”

The WSJ article, Surgeon Shortage Pushes Hospitals to Hire Temps, goes on to say that “temporary surgeons used to be mostly older physicians who wanted a lighter workload, or those fresh out of training, still deciding where to put down roots. But today, more are midcareer people.”

The WSJ estimated that it can cost a hospital up to $1500/day, plus travel and lodging expenses for a temporary surgeon to come in and perform scheduled procedures and emergency operations. But as hospitals continue to face a shortage in nurses and doctors, utilizing locum tenens staffing is quickly becoming one of the only options available.

Healthcare Spending Climbs at Slowest Rate in Years

Although healthcare spending expanded faster than the overall economy in 2007, it only increased from 16% to 16.2%, according to a study that was published Tuesday in the journal of Health Affairs.

The study also attributed the small growth to the extremely slow growth in prescription drug spending.

The reporters of an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal wrote, “While most health-care services grew at the same rate or faster in 2007 than in 2006, the pace of prescription drug spending slowed to its lowest rate in 45 years, climbing 4.9%, compared with an 8.6% increase the year before.”

The published study also noted that the government has been picking up more of the nation’s healthcare tab as well. The government paid for 46.2% of healthcare spending in 2007, which was up from 45.3% in 2004.

Click here to read the entire WSJ article: Health-Care Outlays Climb at Slowest Rate in Years.

3M Earns Top Ranking for Medical Transcription and Medical Coding Software

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.

Ohio Hospitals Required to Report Infection Rates

Although the Ohio Hospital Association tried to prevent it, it was announced last week that Ohio hospitals will be required to start reporting in 2009 on a “consumer Web site data on surgical wound infections, antibiotic-resistant staph and clostridium difficile (C. diff), a type of intestinal infection that has risen sharply in recent years.” According to the health department, these reports will be made available to the online public in January 2010.

Click here to view the entire post on Cleveland.com.

KLAS Ranks Transcend #1

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.

AnyNurseCan.org Sponsors Pitch to Nurses

Prompted by the dwindling economy, the two nurses who started the Any Nurse Can consulting business, started Pitch to Nurses about a month ago. Pitch to Nurses is a foundation is for disable, financially distressed and retired nurses who need a helping hand to those in need when the government and the financial institutions are willing to. Pitch to Nurses is designed to provide financial help and security to all the Nursing community.

Click here if you want to donate to the Pitch to Nurses program.


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