MTIA-AHDI Special Projects Initiative

According to MTIA’s web site, the Medical Transcription Industry Association partnered with AHDI to engage the Dewey Square Group lobbying firm that is tasked with proactively positioning the transcription industry associations with congressmen, senators and cabinet members in Washington, DC.

Here’s a list of what the initiative has already done for MTIA and AHDI members:

  1. Better defined landscape on meaningful use that will raise awareness about issues and will continue to make the case for our industry as rules and regulations around certification and future iterations of meaningful use are crafted
  2. Significantly moved the needle on awareness and visibility through education and grass roots connection, which will help us continue to establish stronger credibility and understanding of the roll the industry plays in an ever-changing healthcare system
  3. Created key relationships that focus on frequent, consistent connection in a personal way and will allow us to be on the offence and in front of policy as it is crafted rather than trying to change laws that have already been enacted, yielding a return over time
  4. Benefited from more targeted, strategic organization of our efforts, which has maximized the expertise of DSG and our resources
  5. Built critical advocacy infrastructure for future regulatory positioning, including identifying critical issues, shaping key messages, developing outreach strategies, and building key contacts

If you’re a medial transcriptionist or medical transcription service owner, and you want to invest in the MTIA Annual Fund for Advocacy/Public Affairs Special Projects Initiative, you can download the form here.

Japan’s Answer to Nursing Shortage

A Japanese company, Riken Research Institute, has designed the RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) to help nurses lift and move patients. The 4 and a half-foot robot can lift over 130-pounds, and is outfitted with sensors to recognize faces and answer up to 30 unique commands.

Engineers are hoping to place the robots in Japanese healthcare centers by 2012.

Click here to read the entire article: Japan’s Answer to the Nursing Shortage.

MTIA Changes Name to CDIA

According to MTIA’s  Blog, the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) changed it’s name to the Clinical Documentation Industry Association (CDIA).

The official press release announced that MTIA’s members “voted to change its name to Clinical Documentation Industry Association (CDIA) in an effort to reflect not only the expanded scope of services its members provide to the healthcare industry, but also a more appropriate focus on the health record and its critical role in clinical decision-making and continuity of care.”

PRN’s August Invoice Factoring Bulletin

Check out some of PRN Funding’s most recent factoring transactions:

A Nurse Staffing Agency Brings on a New Client
This nurse staffing agency owner was ecstatic when she heard that she had won a contract with a local healthcare network. Being an approved nurse staffing vendor in the system meant that she had the ability to fill shifts in five new facilities. The only problem with this growth opportunity is that in order to become a part of the network, the Alabama staffing agency owner had to agree to 60-day payment terms. She didn’t want to walk away from the opportunity, but she also knew that she would not be able to float payroll for that long.

The business owner remembered a postcard she had received earlier that month from PRN Funding, LLC, an accounts receivable factor who specializes in funding nurse staffing agencies likes hers. She dialed the toll-free number and within minutes was connected with a factoring specialist. After a brief interview over the phone, the agency owner realized that PRN Funding was presently accepting payments from the healthcare network, so she was pre-approved for funding. She factored her first invoice two weeks later and hasn’t had to worry about meeting payroll since.

A Private Duty Home Care Agency Gets Paid Quicker
Providing in-home private duty services and being reimbursed by a state’s Medicaid Waiver program has its pros and cons. On the plus side, state dollars are guaranteed to be paid, but one big drawback is it can take a month or longer to receive those funds. As her client list increased, the owner of a home care agency in Massachusetts was having difficulty adjusting to the state’s new invoice approval process. In short, it meant that the home care agency owner would have to wait 30 days to receive a check instead of the historical two-week turnaround time.

A month before this change in the invoice approval process was to take place; the agency owner contacted PRN Funding because she saw one of their posts on a social networking site. She was relieved to know that PRN Funding was already very familiar with various states’ Medicaid Waiver programs. At the conclusion of her initial conversation, the private duty agency owner filled out a factoring application. The following week, she factored her first monthly invoice and received cash the same day.

A California Healthcare Staffing Business Finally Opens its Doors
Without tangible collateral or a profitable operating history, this California healthcare staffing agency owner was unable to qualify for a line of credit at a bank. He found PRN Funding’s Web site late one night when he was researching small business financing solutions. The entrepreneur submitted an online application, and received a call from a healthcare staffing factoring specialist from PRN the next morning.

Within a week, PRN Funding had approved the agency owner’s first two clients, so he was finally able to start placing employees. The following week, the healthcare staffing business owner factored his first invoice, which provided him with instant working capital to pay his payroll taxes and meet his first payroll.

Click here for more information on PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring services.

ACE10 Overview

Last week, PRN Funding exhibited at AHDI’s 2010 Conference and Expo at the Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas. Overall, this medical transcription trade show was a good one.

Thanks to the Around the World Contest, PRN Funding’s team of medical transcription invoice funding specialists were able to meet a lot of the show’s attendees. Medical Transcription Service Owners (MTSOs) were especially intrigued by PRN Funding’s factoring services.

PRN Funding looks forward to exhibiting at ACE11 in Phoenix, AZ next year!

NY Times Reviews Nuance’s NaturallySpeaking 11

Last week, Nuance released NaturallySpeaking 11, and David Pogue of the New York Times had a few things to say about the upgrade. Pogue referred to Nuance as a “near-monopoly in the speech-recognition game” that continues to make “steady improvements and price cuts.”

PRN Funding’s medial transcription invoice factoring specialists summarized the review below:

15% more accurate.

4-minute training (used to be 15 minutes).

Cheat sheet of commands that fills panel on right-hand side of computer screen.

Additional speak-to-type commands – Ability to open programs, pick menu commands, click Web links, move the cursor, format text, etc.

Apply the same formatting to every occurrence of a word/phrase in a document.

The software can recognize children’s voices now.

Accuracy improves regardless of how you manually edit corrections (type over or speak the correction).

Click here to read the entire review of Nuance’s NaturallySpeaking 11.

Medical Transcription Funders at ACE10

Austin, TX-PRN Funding is exhibiting at the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI) Annual Convention and Expo at the Hilton Austin August 4-7, 2010.

Owner of PRN Funding, Phil Cohen, and Account Manager, Ryan Elliott, will be available in booth 511 to speak to attendees about PRN Funding’s medical transcription accounts receivable factoring program.

MTSOs and medical transcriptionists are encouraged to stop by PRN Funding’s booth to get a sticker as part of the Wheel of Prizes game. After visiting with participating exhibitors and collecting stickers, attendees can turn in their completed cards for a chance to spin the Wheel of Prizes. In addition, convention attendees will judge exhibitors and their booths during the exhibit hall based on two categories: Most Friendly Booth Staff and Most Creative Booth.

With years of experience in the medical transcription industry, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within medical transcription. PRN Funding offers financial resources to these companies by purchasing their accounts receivable–a process known as ‘factoring,’ which provides the cash needed to sustain and grow a healthcare business.

Cleveland Seeks Proposals from Medical Staffing Agencies

The medical staffing invoice factoring specialists at PRN Funding received a mis-directed letter last week that we thought might be interesting news to our local Ohio healthcare staffing agencies. For the sake of our Ohio staffing agency owners, we’ve posted the letter below:

Greetings:

The City of Cleveland, Department of Public Safety, Division of Correction is reviewing the viability of pursuing service contracts with outside vendors to provide certain inmate services. Your organization has been identified as a potential partner is such an endeavor. Enclosed you will find information in the form of a “Request for Proposal” highlighting required services and products.

Please review the Request, and, consider how your business could, or, could not become a provider. A pre-proposal meeting will be open on July 16, 2010, for all interested vendors; at that meeting, and and all questions regarding services in question will be welcome. The application deadline will be July 30, 2010. A final decision will be made some time afterwards – it may be that no vendor is chosen, and, that the City will continue with its in-house system.

We ask that you carefully consider the enclosed Request as a potential new business opportunity, and wish, your organization the best during this process.

Sincerely,

Joseph Stottner, Acting Commissioner

Calling MTIA Members – Host Congressional Visits

According to MTIA’s blog, the medical transcription organization is “encouraging its members’ companies to continue efforts initiated during the Advocacy Summit in strengthening and building relationships with members of Congress in local and regional locations over the summer. These meetings, or constituent coffees, provide a rare opportunity to interact directly with elected officials about the industry as well as discuss the important role MTs and MTSOs play in the healthcare community. Meetings can be held in company offices or in client locations to share the work we do in contributing to patient care delivery.

The Dewey Square Group has created Guidelines for Hosting a Regional Congressional Meeting to assist you with scheduling a local visit with your members of Congress.

If you have any further questions or would like assistance in getting started, please contact Andrew Wolf at awolf@ahdionline.org or Miranda Youkhaneh at myoukhaneh@ahdionline.org.”

Healthcare Reform – 1099 Nightmare for Small Businesses

Last week, BusinessWeek published an article entitled: Health-Care Bill Surprise: 1099 Nightmare, and we thought the small business owners who read The Factoring Blog should be aware of its contents.

In essence, the article says: Small business owners should be aware of page 737 of the recently-approved healthcare reform bill, as it contains a three-paragraph provision, inserted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to help offset the cost of the bill. In a nutshell, this insertion requires companies to report to the IRS payments of more than $600 a year to any vendor. The intent is noble: to capture $2 billion or more a year in taxes on income that currently goes unreported by contractors and small businesses.

Business advocates fear that the new rule will create a massive paperwork headache for small businesses because come 2012, the new rule will expand 1099-MISC reporting to include payments to companies, and for goods as well as services.

Read more here: Health-Care Bill Surprise: 1099 Nightmare.

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