PRN Funding Accepts Credit Cards

As an account receivables factoring firm who specializes in funding medical staffing companies, factoring invoices for medical transcription services and providing financing to medical coding companies, we (PRN Funding, LLC) made a big announcement today.

In order to serve our clients to the best of our ability, PRN Funding is now accepting VISA, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards as a form of payment on its clients’ invoices.  Traditionally, PRN Funding has only accepted checks and direct deposits.

Click here to read the entire press release on PRN Funding’s web site: PRN Funding Now Accepting Credit Cards.

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.

Medical Transcription Factoring Success Story

The medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding wanted to share one of our most recent client success stories with our readers.  Afterall, it’s one thing to read about our specialized factoring services, it’s quite another to hear a real-life client success story.

Patrick is one of our most recent client highlights because thanks to medical transcription factoring, he was able to utilize PRN Funding’s invoice factoring services to help grow his business.  Today, his company is one of Inc’s 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

Please visit PRN Funding’s web site here to read the entire medical transcription factoring success story.

Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost

Former CEO of the American Association for Medical Transcription (now known as the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity), Claudia Tessier wrote a very compelling piece for MRInstitute News concerning the ever changing landscape of medical transcription and electronic health records.

In her post, Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost, Tessier prefaced the article by stating that there are disparities among statistical information for the medical transcription industry because it’s an industry that “has neither routinely nor widely shared statistical information about its operations and finances…”  However, all of the numbers show that nationwide, the industry of medical transcription is huge, and it’s continuing to grow.

Tessier goes on to explain how both the medical transcription industry and EMR (Electronic Health Record) industry failed to acknowledge one another early on, which she feels was a grave error.  She writes “Had the transcription industry been willing and prepared early on to move toward integration with EMR and had the healthcare industry recognized the stimulus that medical transcription could bring to EMR adoption, they could have jointly benefited and advanced.”

She follows up with the question: Can medical transcription still stimulate the EMR market?  Tessier says yes and no–but as a whole, “the transcription industry and EMR vendors should ramp up their cooperation to create uniform integration.”

The remainder of Tessier’s article lists inherent concerns about the medical transcription industry from the point-of-view of healthcare providers, administrators and executives, and then she makes some practical suggestions for how the medical transcription industry could potentially alleviate those problems.

Click here to read the entire article: Medical Transcription and EMRs: Opportunity Lost.

Five Ways for Business Owners to Control Their Cash

A business simply cannot operate without a healthy cash flow, but credit crunches and tight lending regulations from banks can make it difficult for today’s business owner to maintain a steady cash flow.  Elizabeth Wilson of Entrepreneur.com shared five ways for business owners to reduce their vulnerability:

1. Diversify your revenue stream. Staffing temp nurses in only one large nursing home or transcribing for only one big hospital is not ideal because if your only customer starts extending its payments, it will affect your cash flow immensely.  If you spread out your work among a couple of different clients, you will stand a better chance of balancing your cash flow if one of them starts to pay slower.  In other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

2. Cut back excess spending and protect your cash flow to meet payments. Stay on top of spending and collections patterns to be sure that the amount of cash coming in balances the amount that needs to go out.

3. Cut costs whenever possible. Work to negotiate better terms with the healthcare providers you are servicing.  Oftentimes, doctors offices are willing to make credit card payments as well.

4. Raise capital in innovative ways other than traditional banking. Healthcare vendors can and should take advantage of accounts receivable factoring to help them maintain a positive cash flow.  Selling their invoices to a factor provides cash immediately so business owners can make payroll and meet other financial obligations without having to wait to be paid.

5. If you have excess cash, you should be leveraging it. “If banks are tightening up their credit, use it to borrow what you need as collateral, and have it in capital investments you need to grow the busienss.  Having it in cash is useless unless you have disbursements on an ongoing basis,” founder of BUZGate, Deborah Osgood said.

Landing a Business Loan After Bankruptcy

Who does a business owner turn to for financing when he/she has been  turned down for business loans due to a personal bankruptcy?

Business Week columnist, Karen Klein, tackled this question earlier this month (Landing a Business Loan After Bankruptcy).  Noting that it’s hard for entrepreneurs to get startup capital in general, Klein said it’s even harder to get bank financing now because banks have tightened their lending standards.

Although Klein suggested asking friends, family and/or other strategic investors to put a monetary interest in the new business, she also recommended accounts receivable factoring.  PRN Funding couldn’t agree more with this advice!

For nine years, PRN Funding has been able to provide  healthcare staffing funding, medical transcription invoice factoring, and medical coding accounts receivable financing to numerous clients who have had less-than-perfect credit.  These healthcare vendor clients know that PRN Funding extends credit based on their customers’ ability to pay, rather than the business owner’s personal credit.

Check out some of PRN Funding’s client success stories to see just how PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring program was able to help.

PRN Funding Gets Cover Story in Health Data Matrix

When the president of PRN Funding submitted an article to the business and technology journal of AHDI and MTIA, Health Data Matrix, he had no idea that it would be used as the featured cover story of the August issue.  But that is exactly what happened, and we couldn’t be happier!

In his article, Locating Money Sources for Your Business (p. 20-23), Phil Cohen talks about the many different ways a medical transcription service owner can secure financing for his/her business.

Click here if you would like more information on medical transcription funding.

Comments About AHDI’s ACE08

PRN Funding exhibited at the 2008 Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s Annual Convention and Expo (AHDI’s ACE08) last week in Orlando, and we have a lot of good things to say about our experience this year!

Prior to the show, we were both pleased with the Orlando, FL location and concerned about it.  Being a hot family destination, the PRN Funding team worried that most of the attendees would find themselves at the amusement parks rather than the exhibit hall.  Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised.

We were extremely pleased with the amount of people in the exhibit hall.  Both the quantity of attendees at the show and the quality of attendees were great.  The members of the PRN Funding team who were exhibiting in booth #608 had the opportunity to speak to a number of MTSOs who were interested in our medical transcription factoring program.

PRN Funding has been exhibiting with AHDI, formerly AAMT, for a number of years, and at times, we were not happy with the attendee turnout and/or show management.  However, this year was probably the best run medical transcription industry convention yet!

MTIA-AHIMA Release White Paper on Medical Transcription TAT

As part of the Joint Task Force on Standards Development, the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) released a white paper discussing the current state of the industry relative to Turnaround Time (TAT) for selected work types.  The white paper also “provides commentary on how changes to TAT may impact operational efficiency, enrich data capture and documentation, further empower clinical decision making, and enhance patient care.”

For your convenience, we have included the Summary of Findings of the white paper below:

  1. Medical transcription (including the editing of draft reports created with SRT) is currently the dominant and preferred method of creating narrative documentation in the U.S. healthcare system and is likely to remain a critical practice for at least 10 years.
  2. Fluctuating (unpredictable) dictation workloads and a critical shortage of skilled transcriptionists are factors affecting TAT in many instances.
  3. The evolution of the health record in emerging systems such as EHRs and PHRs (personal health records) will increase demand for quicker TAT of patient information to achieve desired financial and clinical benefits
  4. SRT and perhaps other technologies will grow as documentation solutions in the marketplace can enhance TAT in some circumstances.
  5. Medical transcription production will continue to expand globally, which can in some cases improve TAT.
  6. Faster TAT on transcribed reports in cases where skilled workers are critical to the process will likely increase overall costs.
  7. Market recognition of the benefits of TAT standards in which expectations are properly set and managed will improve patient care/safety and provide a more efficient healthcare operation.  In all cases, regular dialogue between all constituents affected by documentation TATs will result in a better outcome.

Click here to read the entire White Paper: Transcription Turnaround Time for Common Document Types.

AHDI Supports Dress for Success

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity will be supporting Dress for Success, whose mission is “to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.”

Dress for Success representatives will be on-site at the 2008 Annual Convention and Expo near the registration desk on Saturday, August 9 from 8am-5pm to accept donations.  The non-profit organization is in particular need of suits, separates and blouses in plus sizes.  Donated items should be in excellent condition, should be cleaned, pressed and on hangers ready for immediate use.  Below is a list of suggested clothing items to bring for the cause:

  1. Business suits (skirts and pants)
  2. Jackets and blazers
  3. Skirts and slacks
  4. Blouses
  5. New nylons and new undergarments
  6. New and nearly new shoes
  7. Scarves, purses, belts jewelry
  8. Unused cosmetics
  9. Giftcards from a national chain, Visa or Mastercard gift cards or personal checks

    The organization does NOT accept the following:

    1. Men’s wear
    2. Children’s clothing
    3. Used cosmetics
    4. Pre-worn undergarments
    5. Dresses
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