Did you know that President Ronald Regan established May 20-26 as National Medical Transcriptionist Week? He did–In 1985.
So the medical transcription invoice funding experts at PRN Funding, LLC wanted to wish all of medical transcription blog readers a very Happy Medical Transcription Week!
Of course, the MT industry is not going away, but it is in a constant state of flux as large MTSOs acquire small ones in addition to incorporating EHRs. If you’re an MTSO or a transcriptionist, we want to hear your thoughts on the future of the industry. Feel free to leave comments.
Did anyone happen to read ROI in a Hybrid Environment in For The Record magazine’s April 23rd issue? It a nutshell, the article discussed the pains involved with switching over a facility’s paper medical record system to an electronic medical record system. The article referred to the transition phase as an ROI (Release-of-Information) Process.
Although the article was an interesting read, the outsourced medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding wanted our MTSO audience and any other business owner of an outsourced healthcare company to be aware of the side bar article that accompanied the article, Outsourcing Can Help. It caught our attention, and for the convenience of our business owner readers, we’ve summarized the small article below:
A lot of hospitals think that transitioning to EHRs will reduce staffing needs around ROI–This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the staffing needs tend to increase in order to avoid falling behind while personnel adjust to new policies and procedures. Furthermore, there’s an underlying need to have specially-trained individuals to help train staff and assist with ROI implementation.
Steve Hynes, president of MRO Corp was quoted in the article: “Switching to EHRs “can be very resource intensive for the hospital and specifically for the HIM department to manage the changes while keeping up with day-to-day operations…Over a long period [resource needs] might fluctuate, but there will be a temporary bubble to get everyone up to speed during the conversion.” And that’s exactly where MRO Corp because outsourcing ROI is a way to lessen the labor-intensive burden.
We may be jumping the gun, but it sounds like outsourced ROI companies could be another good candidate for invoice factoring, as hospitals routinely take their time paying vendors.
SmallBizTrends.com recently had some exciting news to share about small business lending–The site highlighted some key findings of Omega Performance’s 2012 Banking Trends Outlook Survey, such as:
19.8% of U.S. banks plan to ease their lending standards for consumer and commercial loans
73.5% of United States banks plan to do more commercial lending
More than 78% of banks reported they will pursue small business lending in 2012
66% of U.S. banks think the economy will “improve slowly” for the remainder of 2012
In a nutshell, invoice factoring is the process of converting the accounts receivable of a business into cash by selling outstanding invoices to a factoring company for a discount. Businesses who factor their receivables get cash up front to cover payroll and payroll taxes and pay their vendors on time.
PRN Funding’s president, Phil Cohen, explains invoice factoring in more detail in the video below:
When it comes to factoring in the healthcare industry, there are two different kinds of companies that can benefit from what’s commonly referred to as healthcare factoring and/or medical factoring. Both types of healthcare companies make ideal invoice factoring candidates because both routinely bill creditworthy slow-paying customers. The Marketing Manager at PRN Funding took the time to explain the differences in the video below:
The first variation of the healthcare factoring model involves entrepreneurs who own a service-oriented business within the healthcare industry. Specifically, medical transcription services, medical equipment providers, medical supply companies, medical staffing agencies, temporary nurse registries, outsourced medical coding companies, medical billing services, etc. can all benefit greatly by factoring their invoices. Healthcare factoring can be extremely beneficial for vendors hoping to maintain a positive cash flow when their customers (medical providers) take weeks or months to pay them for their services or goods. Click here to learn more about PRN Funding’s healthcare factoring solution.
On the other hand, medical receivables factoring includes a third party payer (i.e. Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance company) within the medical invoicing process. In this instance, the medical provider is the one who benefits from factoring.
Medical receivables factoring is a great way for medical providers to bridge the cash flow gap that is oftentimes created by slow payments from insurance carriers and other third-party payers.
As experts in the healthcare factoring marketplace, PRN Funding has developed relationships with credible medical factoring companies that specialize in helping hospitals, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, etc. maintain a positive cash flow.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, changes in the “temporary help services” category typically prefaces similar changes in non-farm payrolls around 5 months later, and since hitting its lowest point in August 2009, temp jobs have been on a steady incline.
In fact, according to the American Staffing Association, US staffing firms employed 2.8 million temporary and contract employees per day in 2011, which is up 8% since 2010. Moreover, the Bloomberg US Employment Services Index (made up of 17 staffing and recruiting firms) has increased by 15%. Additionally, the temporary staffing industry’s sales was $98.3 billion in 2011, which was 12.4% more than 2010 sales.
Richard Wahlquist , president and CEO of the American Staffing Association, recently said: “Companies no longer look upon temporaries as a gap measure. Now, the largest companies have a specific model of how much of their work force is going to be temporary.”
It’s important to keep in mind that as these agencies continue to grow, the need for staffing payroll factoring will also increase.
Did you happen to see the Associated Press article on Monday entitled: Aging workforce strains Social Security, Medicare?
If not, the healthcare factoring specialists at PRN Funding summarized the startling findings below:
Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two largest benefit programs, are in worse shape than previously thought due to the increasing aging population and the slow-rebounding economy. Moreover, Medicare is in the worst shape because of rising health insurance costs.
The predictions from last year was that the Medicare hospital insurance fund for seniors would run out of money in 2024, and Social Security’s retirement fund would run out in 2038, with the disability fund running out of money by 2018.
The latest projections from March indicate that the disability fund would run out of money two years earlier in 2016.
The APMBA (Association of Professional Medical Billers and Administrators) officially opened this week, and they’re accepting memberships to the organization.
What’s more, the new association is offering ½ off the Platinum and Gold memberships until 05/31/2012.
Platinum Membership: $199.00 covers 1 year membership benefits including the CMBA and CMBA-D exam.
Gold Membership: $159.00 covers 1 year membership benefits includes the CMBA exam
Silver Membership: $99.00 membership only does not cover exam (not eligible for ½ off discount)
CMBA-Certified Medical Billing Administrator
CMBA (D) – Certified Medical Billing Administrator (DME)
PRN Funding truly values the relationships that we have with our factoring brokers because they are so passionate about finding the best funding source for their clients. Yet, we’ve seen plenty of cash flow consultants who struggle with communicating with current and potential factoring customers. The invoice funding specialists put together a few pointers to help our factoring brokers focus and get the word out about your cash flow business and PRN’s healthcare factoring services,
Figure out how much time you intend to dedicate toward honing your communications skills
Decide how much money you are willing to invest into communications
Start with a list of who your current customers (Current customers are your best customers!)
Begin a second list of who you want to have as new customers (Hint: Start with ones that are similar to your current customer-base.)
Ask you current customers how they prefer to communicate (i.e. phone, email, text, social media networks, etc.)
Use the same communications channels that you current customer prefer to speak to potential clients.
Ask for feedback on your messaging efforts and fine-tune where applicable
She discussed the results of a recent Texas Health Information Technology Employer Needs Assessment Report conducted by done by the Department of Health Information Management at Texas State University-San Marcos.
The report’s main findings: There will be a much greater need for health information technology (HIT) workers in Texas than previously anticipated.
Here’s what Lisa had to say about the report:
It is projected that Texas will need an additional 10,000 HIT workers for the state’s $103.6 billion healthcare industry by 2013. This gap is much larger than the original estimation that Texas would require an additional 3,500 HIT workers between 2010 and 2015. The results from this survey have shown the original 3,500 figure to be grossly under-estimated.
Led by Susan H. Fenton, PhD, the survey was conducted as part of a contract with the Texas Workforce Commission, with funding for the project coming from the governor’s office through a Wagner-Peyser grant. The study data was accumulated by conducting HIT employer focus groups across the state and through a statewide HIT employer survey.
The HIT Employer Needs Assessment has demonstrated that Texas providers (clinics and hospitals) are conservatively estimated to need 9,500 HIT employees between now and 2013. Non-providers (HER vendors and consultants) reported needing an additional 500 HIT employees by 2013, so it is conservatively estimated that Texas will need an additional 10,000 HIT workers by 2013.
According to the report detailing the study, results indicate that the current Texas HIT workforce is insufficient to meet the needs. This gap will only grow and the quality of care for Texas citizens will suffer if action is not taken. Bridging this gap will require a collaborative effort between employers, educational providers, public organizations and others to develop and implement a plan of action.
