Staffing Agencies Name Cash Flow No. 1 Challenge

About two years ago, The Receivables Exchange marketplace opened its doors. It’s a unique factoring service that allows factors to bid on various business owners’ invoices.

The Receivables Exchange recently conducted a survey of 636 executives at companies from the $1-200 million revenue range across 15 different industries. The results of the survey yielded some interesting insights into the cash flow worries at temporary staffing firms:

  1. 2/3 of the executives surveyed listed working capital as their #1 concern, and staffing agency owners were the most worried about cash flow.
  2. Staffing agency owners also listed seasonality and disruptive events (i.e. fluctuations in the market that affect demand for services) as top concerns.
  3. Although extended payment terms were not as big of a capital challenge for staffing agency owners as in other industries, staffing executives still listed it as a general business concern.
  4. 1/3 of all the respondents believed that they were being blocked by traditional financing sources.
  5. Nearly half of the staffing companies were not satisfied with their borrowing capabilities from traditional financing sources.

Given all of these findings, it comes to no surprise that staffing agency owners would benefit greatly by selling their invoices to a factoring firm. Click here to access the complete research report: http://www.receivablesxchange.com/recruiting-staffing.

CBaySystems Sheds Light on Outsourced MT Industry

Last week, the medical transcription invoice funding specialists at PRN Funding blogged about CBaySystem’s IPO. Since then, we learned more details on the company’s plan to go public.

As part of CBaySystems’ IPO, the MT company filed an S-1 Form with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  In it, CBaySytems shared a number of fascinating facts about the company as well as unique insights into the clinical documentation industry as a whole.

CBaySystems is the “leading provider of integrated clinical documentation solutions for the U.S. healthcare system.” The following CBaySystems statistics were calculated over a three-month time-span which ended on June 30, 2010:

  1. CBaySystems processed (on an annualized run rate basis) more than 2.9 billion lines  on its platform.
  2. CBaySystems has more than 14,000 MTs and MEs.
  3. More than 60% of the 2.9 billion lines CBaySystems processed used ASR technology.
  4. Nearly 40% of the 2.9 billion lines CBaySystems produced were done offshore.
  5. CBaySystems serves more than 2400 hospitals, clinics and physician practices throughout the U.S., including 40% of hospitals with more than 500 licensed beds.

Furthermore, the S-1 Form shared a number of interesting facts about the medical transcription and clinical documentation industry, courtesy of research conducted by ValueNotes Database Pvt. Ltd (ValueNotes). Below of some of the market research firm’s key findings:

  1. ValueNotes estimated that the  market for outsourced medical transcription services was $5.4 billion in 2009.
  2. Outsourced medical transcription is expected to grow 8.2% per year over the next five years to $8.0 billion in 2014.
  3. In addition, ValueNotes estimates that the outsourced medical transcription market was 33% of the overall MT market in 2009, and it projects a growth in the market to 38% in 2014.

Click here to read the entire CBaySystems’ S-1 Form.

CBaySystems files for US IPO

According to the Associated Press, the medical transcription services company, CBaySystems Holdings Ltd. filed for an initial public offering worth as much as $115 million yesterday.

Based in Franklin, Tenn., CBaySystems handles medical transcription, billing, and coding services for about 2,400 hospitals, clinics, and practices in the U.S. It did not disclose how many shares it plans to sell or when it plans to complete its IPO. It also did not disclose a proposed ticker symbol for its shares.

Click here to read the article in its entirety:
CBaySystems files for US IPO worth up to $115M.

TRS Includes Medical Billing & Coding in its Career Training Programs

TRS Institute, the nation’s leading provider of AHDI-approved online medical transcription and speech recognition training programs, announced that it was adding a Medical Billing and Coding curriculum to its course offerings.

The new curriculum will include:

    1. Medical Billing & Reimbursement career preparation
    2. Certified Professional Coding for physician’s offices and hospital facilities
    3. Accelerated program for Medial Billing and Coding

      Click here to read the entire article in the Kansas City Star.

      Nuance and IBM Collaborate on CLU

      Nuance Communications (the maker of speech-recognition software) made an announcement today that it has entered into a new collaboration with IBM.

      According to an article on the HealthcareIT News web site, “the two companies aim to help advance the state-of-the-art in clinical language understanding (CLU) technologies.” Moreover, a team of leading natural language processing (NLP) researchers at IBM will collaborate with Nuance’s research and development team to integrate the their technologies.

      The vice president of software in IBM Research, Charles Lickel, was quoted in the article: “With Nuance, we’ll work to ensure healthcare organizations can gain access to, and classify health data to improve patient outcomes and to help lower the cost of healthcare today.”

      US Report Suggests Using Nurses to Fill Doctor Shortage

      The U.S. Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report stating that nurses have the capability to handle “much of the strain that healthcare reform will place on doctors and should be given both the education and the authority to take on more medical duties.”

      The report suggests that the U.S. Government and non-profit organizations should fund grants and scholarships to allow nurses to further their educations so they can take on bigger responsibilities.

      Q: If  nurses are pulled away from their nursing responsibilities and asked to take on more doctor-like ones, it may help with the physician shortage. However, who will step up to help fill the gaps with the nursing shortage?

      Click here to read the entire article: Doctor shortage looming? Use nurses, US report says.

      Medquist and Trascend Host Congressional Visits

      Hired by MTIA and AHDI, the Dewey Square Group (along with MTIA staff) has started eliciting member-hosted congressional district visits to help build legislative relationships and better educate key members on the work that the medical transcription industry does and the challenges it faces.

      According to MTIA’s eNewsletter, “Congressman John Adler (D-NJ) was hosted by Peter Masanotti, president and CEO, Michael Clark, senior VP of sales, marketing and operations, and Eileen Dwyer, corporate vice president at MedQuist Headquarters in August.

      MedQuist discussed meaningful use as well as the medical transcription industry’s overall role in healthcare reform and workforce/job development during a roundtable discussion with the congressman.

      While only two MTIA member companies participated, the visits initiated the opportunity to build a relationship with these offices and continue to work together on Capitol Hill briefings, testimony, and potential industry-related hearings.”

      2010 Healthcare Staffing Summit Starts This Week

      The American Staffing Association (ASA) is holding it’s annual Healthcare Staffing Summit September 21 and 22 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, IL.

      According to ASA’s web site, “the annual Healthcare Staffing Summit brings CEOs, owners, and senior level executives together to focus on topics of both strategic and tactical interest to the full range of healthcare staffing segments — travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, and allied medical…Attendees listen to and interact with healthcare staffing industry leaders and analysts, gather best practices and proprietary information, and enjoy extensive peer networking.”

      For more information, visit ASA’s site.

      NPDA Hires Resolute Consulting to Lead Grassroots Efforts

      According to the official press release, The National Private Duty Association (NPDA) recently hired Resolute Consulting to “lead the organization’s efforts to engage relevant legislators and administrators who will impact policies associated with the issue of misclassification of workers.”

      NPDA’s executive director, Kim Stoneking, explained in the press release that the organization’s members who play by the rules are placed at a competitive disadvantage when other companies choose to misclassify their workers as independent contractors.

      Jim Soreng, senior account executive at Resolute Consulting, outlined three primary goals for the campaign:

      1. Identify and take advantage of legislative opportunities to impact public policy surrounding private duty homecare, particularly as it relates to worker classification.
      2. Take advantage of existing legislative opportunities – or create opportunities – to engage current NPDA members to attract new ones to the organization.
      3. Define NPDA as the primary force in the private duty homecare marketplace advancing the industry’s legislative priorities.

      Click here to read the official NPDA press release: NPDA taps Resolute Consulting to lead public policy, grassroots campaign.

      ASA Offers Fundementals on Joint Commission Certification

      The American Staffing Association is presenting a webinar for its healthcare staffing members entitled: Joint Commission Certification of Health Care Staffing Firms: The Fundamentals.

      Executive director for the health care staffing services certification program at the Joint Commission, Michele Sacco, will cover the following topics during the webinar:

      • Requirements to becoming certified
      • Tips on how to best prepare your healthcare staffing agency to begin the certification process
      • Walk through the steps to follow to apply for certification

      Click here for more details on the Joint Commission Certification Fundamentals.

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