PRN Funding Entends Credit to Teleradiology Vendor

Known throughout the factoring industry as a healthcare funder, PRN Funding recently added a brand new vertical to it’s healthcare factoring repertoire: Teleradiology.

Helping to improve access to medical services, teleradiology is the ability to send images from one location (i.e. an imaging center, clinic or physician’s office) to another location for evaluation.

Specifically, PRN Funding extended a $500,000 credit line to this growing teleradiology client based in the Greater Philadelphia area.

NYSE Primed for Receivables Market

The New York Stock Exchange announced some of its plans to get involved with accounts receivable factoring industry earlier this week.

Specifically, the NYSE hired Paul DeDomenico, previously chief executive of GE Capital’s working capital solutions group to head up the exchange group’s corporate receivables program. In addition, the NYSE took a minority stake in The Receivables Exchange.

The two moves, which come amid a fierce political debate over bank lending to small-and-midsize businesses, could provide an advantage to the NYSE in its battle with competitors over share listings, by allowing the Big Board operator to offer a broader suite of services to companies that choose to list with it. And the moves provide an entry point to a market in receivables estimated by the companies at $17 trillion in size domestically.

Click here for the entire article: NYSE Euronext Bulks Up In Market for Receivables.

Small Business Owners: Pawn Shop is Alternative to Bank

CnnMoney.com posted a very interesting article last month, which described how business owners are starting to turn to pawn shops for fast cash when they are unable to qualify for a bank loan.

The pawing process is similar to a bank loan, in that an entrepreneur brings in an item of value (i.e. gold or jewelry) to a pawn shop and gets a loan based on the value of the item. Also like a bank loan, the business owner is charged interest. Once the loan is repaid, the business owner can take the item back. But if the owner cannot pay the pawn shop back, the store keeps the item, and tries to recover the loaned amount by selling the item.

According to a salesman at a pawn shop in Florida, the number one reason business owners are turning to pawn shops is to meet payroll. The loans come with a hefty price–one shop charges 6% per month–But for business owners that don’t have enough liquid capital to pay their employees, it’s worth the price.

Another alternative financing solution which is eve more affordable than pawning is accounts receivable factoring, in which a business owner can sell his/her invoices to a factor and receive cash the same day he/she invoices.

Read the entire article: Pawning Rolexes to Make Payroll.

Study Shows Temp ER Nurses Could Be a Safety Threat to Patients

The nurse staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding came across a piece of research that we believe is important to share with our Nurse Staffing Industry readers.  Due to the perceived credibility of the source of the study it is imperative that any company that provides supplemental medical staffing be aware of the study and prepared to address the underlying issues.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced new research showing that temporary ER nurses may inadvertently be a threat to the patients they serve. Specifically, the study found that temporary nurses were twice as likely as permanent employed nurses to have medication errors in the hectic and fast-paced emergency room environment.

Although the studyimplicated temporary nurses, the authors stressed that temp ER nurses are not the only ones to blame for these shortcomings. The authors cited various reasons for ER errors, including the fact that many hospitals don’t give temporary nurses the same level of consideration and training as they do for their permanent staff.

Click here to read the official press release: Temporary ER Staff Poses Increased Safety Risk to Patients.

How Important is it for Nurse Staffing Agencies to Pay Payroll Taxes on Time?

From time to time, the nurse staffing invoice funding specialists at PRN Funding gets asked a question that we think our nurse staffing readers would appreciate hearing about. So today, our nurse staffing factoring staff are answering:

How Important is it for nurse staffing agencies to pay payroll taxes on time?

In short, VERY! Nurse staffing business owners may be able to dodge the bullet for a bit, but not paying your payroll taxes on time will catch up on business owners eventually. When the IRS discovers that a nurse staffing agency owner is behind, the punishment can cost the agency dearly.

The good news is that there are ways to catch up on back taxes. The best way for staffing agencies to stay in good-standing with the IRS is to respond to their calls and letters, and once a re-payment plan in is place, agency owners need to honor their commitments. Demonstrating a willingness to cooperate with the IRS helps nurse staffing agency owners avoid an IRS tax lien on his/her business.

It’s important to note that when a nurse staffing agency has a factoring relationship, the factor will be most likely want to see proof that payroll taxes are being paid. Nurse staffing invoice factoring companies will ask for this proof because the IRS is the only entity who can trump a factor’s lien.

Small Companies Need Business, Not Credit

Did anyone see the article entitled Small Firms Hunger for Sales, Not Credit in Friday’s Wall Street Journal?

The invoice funding specialists at PRN Funding thought the article was interesting because it brought to light the fact that small businesses aren’t really having a hard time securing funding these days, rather, they’re not looking for it at all. According to polls and surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the National Federation of Independent Business, The National Small Business Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the main challenge small businesses are facing is lack of customers.

Question: What are your biggest business challenges?

Three Reasons Why Allied Health Staffing Agencies Should Factor Their Invoices

Although invoice factoring is a great alternative funding option for any type of business, it’s an especially good allied health agency financing choice for agencies that staff temporary professionals in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. In fact, selling invoices to a factor allows allied health staffing agencies to get paid quicker without going into additional debt. Furthermore, agency owners who factor their invoices will have enough liquid capital on hand to make weekly payroll and keep up with payroll tax obligations. Still not convinced? Check out the Three Reasons Why Allied Health Staffing Agencies Should Factor Their Invoices:

Reason #1: Stop Waiting to be Paid.
Instead of waiting 30, 60 or even 90 days to receive payment staffing in allied health professionals at a medical facility, temporary staffing agency owners can sell their invoices to a factor and receive cash within 24 hours of issuing an invoice. All a factoring firm needs to advance cash is a copy of the invoice and proof that the employees worked the shifts listed on the invoice. This is easily accomplished by supplying copies of signed time sheets.

Reason #2: Leverage the Credit of Your Customers.
Allied health staffing  funding is a great option for companies who are either just getting started, have less-than-perfect credit or are going through a growth spurt. Rather than make a credit decision based off of the staffing agency’s credit or the business owner’s personal credit, allied health agency funding firms determine their credit limits after reviewing the payment trends of the agency’s customers. This is usually done by using a third-party credit bureau, and it’s done in a non-intrusive way, giving companies the ability to secure allied health agency financing based off of their customers’ credit rather than their own.

Click here to find out the last reason Why Allied Health Staffing Agencies Should Factor Their Invoices.

What Sets PRN Funding Apart from Other Healthcare Factoring Firms?

How does PRN Funding’s healthcare factoring services differ from other factoring firms’ services?

In a nutshell, PRN Funding is known as the healthcare factoring experts. Temporary nurse staffing agencies, medical transcription services, medical coding services, and medical supply companies are just a few examples of healthcare businesses that we specialize in account receivable funding.

  1. PRN Funding works exclusively within the healthcare industry. If you sell products or deliver services to healthcare facilities, there is nobody better than us.
  2. Ultimate in factoring flexibility – You choose when, who, how much and how long to factor your invoices.
  3. Cash advances on your qualified receivables within hours of verification.
  4. No fixed-term contract to sign; you can stop or start factoring at any time.
  5. Collections are performed in a professional and productive manner, allowing your staff to focus on higher value-added activities.
  6. Real-time access to our online accounting and reporting system 24/7/365.
  7. No automated attendant-When the phone rings during business hours, a person answers.
  8. Access to a personal account manager. Accounts are assigned to one specific person who knows your business and your customers inside and out.

Don’t take our word for it! Read healthcare factoring success stories from some of our happy customers!

Common Customer Reactions to Factoring

If I use a factor to fund my invoices, what will my customers think?

This is a concern of many companies who are considering factoring as a finance strategy. However, establishing a credit line is a positive statement–not a negative statement–to make to your customers. Not all healthcare companies qualify for lines of credit.

Selling accounts receivable to generate cash is a finance method used by very large corporations worldwide, with the factoring service provided by the largest banks in the nation. In the past, only large corporations with millions of dollars in receivables per month qualified for factoring. Often factoring companies refused to work with smaller companies or companies with a large number of small invoices. Because factoring is widely known, your customers will view this as a positive ability on your part to secure financing, not as a problem with cash flow.

It’s likely that many of the healthcare institutions that you service already deal with factoring companies and may not even be aware of it. Sometimes payments for invoices directed to a P.O. Box are actually going to a factor. Shell Oil, Georgia-Pacific, IBM and other substantial companies factor millions of dollars of their accounts receivable every year.

Financing obtained through the sale of accounts receivable factoring is most often used by a firm to expand and take on larger projects; not merely for cash flow or payroll. Now that this service is available to companies like yours, you can enjoy both the perception and the reality of being a growing company, moving forward.

Still worried about how your customers will react to a factoring company? View PRN Funding’s What to Tell Your Customers page to learn how to talk to your customers about factoring.

How Medical Billing Companies Can Avoid the Double Credit Crunch

In this economy, many service-oriented small businesses are struggling to obtain cash on two fronts – (1) Acquiring or extending a line of credit and (2) Getting their customers to pay in a timely manner.

Outsourced medical billing providers are just one type of business that is being affected by the “double credit crunch.” On the one hand, banks have tightened up on their lending criteria, and most are slashing credit lines instead of extending them, which means the likelihood of a medical billing provider securing bank funding is slim-to-none. On the other hand, even though an outsourced company’s main job is to bill insurance companies correctly so physicians (their customers) get paid quicker, those same physicians are oftentimes notorious for stretching out their payables.

Fortunately, there is an alternative financing option that can help speed up the payables process.

Medical billing accounts receivable factoring is the conversion of receivables into cash by selling outstanding invoices to a factor. A viable option for medical billing companies in the early stages of business development and /or during rapid growth, accounts receivable factoring is a financial solution that gives medical billers immediate cash to manage operations more efficiently. Here are some additional key concepts about this practical financing alternative.

Medical Billing Accounts Receivable Factoring is:

  • A way to fill the gap between when your company provides outsourced billing services and when the physicians pay. Simply put, medical billing invoice factoring can turn weeks into hours or days.
  • Based on your customers’ credit history, not yours. If your company is providing billing services to a creditworthy physician’s office or medical facility, then your business is a good candidate for accounts receivable factoring.
  • A simple, fast method to sustain your “business as usual” relationship with your customers. Your company can continue to provide medical billing services to your customers with a set-term payment; but with accounts receivable factoring, you no longer have to wait to be paid. By working with a factoring firm, your company can easily obtain cash advances of 80% of the invoiced amount. Cash can be obtained within hours and as often as needed.
  • One of the oldest methods of providing working capital. Dating back 4,000 years, receivables factoring has long been used as a feasible and easy way for businesses to obtain cash flow in order to cover expenses while experiencing growth.
  • A chance to obtain cash without providing personal collateral or increasing interest expense. Invoice factoring is not a loan and does not “muddy up” your medical billing company’s balance sheet. You do not accrue interest or penalties. The medical billing factoring fee is clear and objective; it is based on the size of the invoice, the length of time it takes to collect the payment, and the creditworthiness of your customers.
  • An opportunity to build your outsourced medical billing company’s credit: With adequate cash flow, you can use money from accounts receivable factoring to clean up your debts as well as pay overhead, salaries and invoices. This will improve your credit history and make it easier to obtain credit from vendors and other financial institutions in the future.

By working with an accounts receivable factoring company, your company’s cash flow problems can be solved. In most cases, a medical billing company can receive the majority of what’s owed to them within hours of selling their invoices to a factor. Factoring for your medical billing company will help you avoid falling prey to today’s “double credit crunch” that so many other small businesses are enduring as a result of the current economic climate.

**NOTE: This article is a re-printed version of what was also published on FactoringInvestor.com.

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