IRS Files $80 Million Claims Against Chimes’ Debtors

It’s been almost a year since we first blogged about Ensemble Chimes Global vendor management system filing for bankruptcy, and bankruptcy trustee, Howard Ehrenberg announced last week that “they are pretty close to making claims against certain third parties.”

In a Staffing Industry Analyst’s post, Ehrenberg also mentioned that the IRS made $80 million in claims against the debtors in the Chimes bankruptcy case, including $50 million as a priority claim ahead of unsecured creditors (i.e. temporary staffing agencies).

In regards to temporary staffing firms who utilized Chimes’ vendor management system, Ehrenberg said that a few customers are continuing to dispute a court order to pay management fees.  “If those customers don’t pay, the court has allowed the fees to be collected from staffing firms involved.”

Click here to read the entire post: Claims may soon be filed in Chimes case.

Nurse Staffing Agency Convicted of Failing to Pay Taxes

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.

Primary-Care Doctors Leaving Medicine in Droves

The Physicians’ Foundation recently conducted a survey of 150,000 doctors nationwide, and 49 percent of the 12,000 respondents reported that they were considering leaving medicine because of “too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.”

Last week’s American Medical Association annual meeting predicted a shortage of 35,000-40,000 of primary care physicians by 2025.  According to a survey published in the September issue of the Journal of the Medical Association, only 2 percent of med school students plan to practice family medicine.

PRN Funding has written before about using temporary nurses to help fill the gaps when it comes to the nurse shortage.  Perhaps this physician shortage is an opportunity for locum tenens to seize.  What do you think?

This post referenced an article on CNN.com.  Click here if you want to read the entire article: Half of primary-care doctors in survey would leave medicine.

RNs Status Gets Boost with Medicare Changes

According to an article in yesterday’s Staffing Industry Analysts Daily News, a new survey conducted by AMN Healthcare Services Inc. said the new Medicare changes will make hospital revenue more dependent on nurses than in the past.

The write-up states: “Sixty-two percent of chief nursing officers said an ongoing Medicare effort to tie hospital reimbursement to patient satisfaction would enhance the status of nurses. In addition, new rules where Medicare will not pay hospitals for care provided as a result of diseases acquired at hospitals, known as “never events,” will also enhance the status of nurses, according to more than 54% of chief nursing officers.”

Click here to read the post: Medicare changes could boost nurses’ status.

Nurses and Medical Coding Careers

ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals ran an article in its e-newsletter: RNs Turning to Coding Career, discussing how RNs have the ability to “increase their earning potential and augment their job security” through medical coding.

The article discusses how nurses are starting to take advantage of special credentialing like the Certified RN Coder (CRN-C) offered by the American Association of Clinical Coders and Auditors (AACCA) and the Certified Professional Coder-Hospital (CPC-H) offered by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC).  The article states, “RNs intimately know their way around a patient chart, making them among the best qualified individuals to choose accurate diagnosis and procedure codes for billing purposes.”

There were quite a few follow-up comments to this article debating the advantages/disadvantages of RNs entering into the HIM arena.

Q: What do you think about RN medical coders?

Small Businesses Turn to Alternative Funding, AR Factoring

Arden Dale wrote an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal reviewing three alternative credit sources for small businesses who are being turned down for traditional bank loans.  Specifically, the article discussed accounts receivable factoring, borrowing from friends and family, and peer-to-peer lending.

Executive Director of the International Factoring Association (IFA), Bert Goldberg, advised business owners to only consider factoring companies who follow industry best practices.  He recommended choosing an invoice funding firm who is a member of the IFA because “all members have agreed to adhere to a strict code of ethics.” 

Note to our readers: For those healthcare vendors looking for an specialized factoring firm, PRN Funding, LLC is a proud member of the IFA.

Unique Staffing Niche – Bilingual Nurses

PRN Funding has written a number of blogs/articles touting Dr. Linda Aiken’s studies on how supplemental staffing agencies can help solve the overall nurse shortage problem.  However, we recently read about a very specific niche in temporary nurse staffing–staffing nurses who are bilingual, especially in Spanish.

In the state of Delaware, where the spanish-speaking population has doubled in the past seven years, bilingual nurses are in high demand.  According to an article on DelawareOnline.com, there is a very real fear that “that with few Spanish-speaking health care workers, those who speak Spanish only, or little English, will be less likely to seek medical treatment.”

Proponents of training and hiring bilingual nurses think that having these specific nurses on staff at key medical facilities will help the immigrants improve their overall health as well as understand the American health care system better.

If you ask the temporary nurse staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding, staffing bilingual nurses sounds like a unique opportunity that agency owners should think about exploring.

Click here to read the entire article: State needs nurses who speak Spanish.

Healthcare Staffing Firm Buying Up Hospitals

Jackson Hospital Affiliates is the new brainchild of Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare staffing agency based in Alpharetta, GA.  The Jackson Hospital Affiliates division of the company was opened as a new initiative for aquiring and operating hospitals, according to Staffing Industry Analyst’s Daily News.

“We feel we have the resources and management expertise ‘to make a difference’ in the quality and delivery of healthcare in the communities served by our hospitals,” said Richard Jackson, chairman and CEO of Jackson Healthcare.

Temp Nurses are More Qualified

Professor Linda Aiken is back with a new study debunking the myth that temporary nurses are underqualified compared to their full-time hospital counterparts.  She delivered the results of her study last month at the Staffing Industry Analysts Inc.’s Healthcare Staffing Summit, held in San Francisco.

As reported by the Staffing Industry Analyst’s e-newsletter, “according to Aiken, 75% of hospitals participating in a study said they use supplemental nurses. Still doubts over the quality of these nurses persist. Aiken’s study shows that on average supplemental nurses are more qualified and the majority of them work in primary jobs in hospitals. They are also more likely to be specialty certified.

Despite the negative attitude, continued shortage of nurses and physicians bodes well for the healthcare staffing industry. The shortage of registered nurses in the U.S. is estimated to reach 800,000 by 2020. The physician shortage is estimated at 250,000 by 2025. Moreover, Aiken added that 30% of nurses say they are burned out and are dissatisfied with their jobs. They seek employment with staffing firms to control their schedules and to earn better wages and get supplemental income.”

Hospitals in the Financial Crisis

There was an interetsing blog post in the Wall Street Journal’s Health blog last week discussing some of the challenges hospitals are facing as a result of the nation’s financial crisis.

Lisa Martin, a senior VP on Moody’s health care ratings team told the WSJ Health Blog that hospitals have been postponing plans to sell new bonds to fund capitals improvements like renovations and new buildings.  She also said that hospitals are holding more bad debt.

The American Hospital Association CEO Rich Umbdenstock told the blog that hospitals with an existing variable-rate debt have seen a big jump in the interest–in some cases up to 10 percent or more.  He also said that higher-income patients less likely to make charitable donations to the local hospital.

PRN Funding has been following the healthcare cash flow crisis for a number of years.  Our team wanted to also point out that as hospitals face this financial crisis head on, they will continue to extend payment terms for their vendors as well.

Click here to read the blog post: The Financial Crisis Takes a Toll on Hospitals.

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