Should Medical Staffing Agencies Lower Their Prices?

The Haley Marketing Group had a very business-wide applicable write-up in last week’s Net-Temps Recruiters e-newsletter, in which they broke down the consequences of lowering prices in a bad economy as well as thoughtful alternatives to price decreases. The newsletter was in response to an inquiry from a staffing firm asking if they should follow their competitors and lower their prices. The medical staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding thought this information would be useful to our staffing readers. Below is a brief overview of Haley Marketing Group’s response. They claim that lowering prices is a bad idea because it:

  1. Devalues your services.
  2. Makes people think you were overpriced.
  3. Assumes price elasticity exists.
  4. Assumes price is the most important buying criteria.
  5. It will be almost impossible for you to raise your prices once the economy picks up again.

 Here are some of their suggestions to implement as alternatives to price decreases:

 

Bundle – offer a discount on a group of services.

Volume discounts – offering a discount for volume purchases does not damage your profitability.

Unbundle – give your clients the option to pick and choose the services they require and are willing to purchase.

Payment plans – offering better payment terms can be a great way to win business without cutting prices.

Prepayment discount – if your customer has the cash to pay upfront, offer a 10% discount on your services.

Increase your value – instead of cutting fees, find ways to deliver higher value services.

Throw in a little extra – give your clients a few “surprise” freebies to enhance your value and differentiate your services.

2009 Healthcare Staffing Summit Comes to D.C.

From September 14-16, the 2009 Healthcare Industry Analysts Staffing Summit will descend upon the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.  Topics of discussion include travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, and allied medical.  Highlighted by former U.S. Senate Majority and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, healthcare staffing participants will have the opportunity to listen in on several keynote speeches focusing on the healthcare industry’s history and what is to come in the future.

The conference kicks off on Monday with registration, orientation, and a networking event in the evening.  Exhibits will open on Tuesday in conjunction with moderated networking discussion sessions.

The healthcare staffing industry considers this conference as one of the two must-attend events of the year.

Economic Recession is Helping the Nurse Shortage

In the past, PRN Funding’s nurse staffing factoring specialists have blogged about the effects of the economy on the nurse shortage. Today’s Wall Street Journal had more proof that the economic decline is helping to ease the nursing shortage, though some people think that once the economy turns around, the the nursing shortage could quickly reignite.

Long story short, many nurses who had previously left the field during better economic times have been returning in droves to compensate for a spouse’s lost income and/or health benefits.

According to the WSJ article, about half of the nurses who boomeranged back into the profession were over 50. As those nurses continue to age and retire from the field entirely, the shortage will most likely widen.

Click here to read the entire article: Nursing Shortage Eases With Recession’s Help.

New Transcription Association Debuts

The American Transcription Association (ATA) is a new transcription organization based on two principles:

  1. Keep transcription work in the United States
  2. Foster a community among transcriptionists

Founded by Donna Littrell, the ATA’s main purpose is to promote transcription quality over quantity and keep transcription work from going overseas.

The association is just getting starter, but it already has 500 members and an advisory board. In addition, the ATA web site has an active online forum, where transcriptionists are invited to ask questions, give advice and chit-chat with friends and colleagues in the transcription industry.

Click here for more details on the new transcription association.

For Profit Hospitals Doing Better in Bad Economy

Some interesting statistics were announced at last week at the annual South Florida Summit. Caroline Rossi Steinber, a trends specialist with the American Hospital Association (AHA), shared the following information with attendees:

90% of surveyed hospitals have made cutbacks as a result of the tough economic times, with the biggest cuts in administrative expenses.

43% of surveyed hospitals had a negative net return for the first quarter, which was 17% higher than the same time last year

65% of hospitals reported that they witnessesed an increase in the number of physicians seeking employment

In addition, according to Darren P. Lehrich, Deutsche Bank’s managing director of healthcare providers research, for profit hospitals’ stocks have increased 70% in the past three months. Moreoever, the profit margins for publicly traded hospitals during the quarter were the highest they’ve been in a number of years.

A big concern for hospitals across the U.S. is how the concept of public health insurance will be interpreted and enforced in the future.

The AHA’s studies show that most hospitals are relying on current government payers like Medicare and Medicaid, whose combined brings in 56% of the revenue, while private insurance accounts for 43% of revenue.

Steinberg noted that providers depend heavily on private insurance providers to pay the bills because Medicaid only reimburses 90% of their costs and private insurance generally reimburses 130%. If the public health insurance is specified as a health insurance option for the uninsured, it would help hospitals immensely by reducing the uncompensated care. On the other hand, if public health insurance is used as a “cheap public plan open to everybody an reimbursed providers at low rates,” it would be devastating to the hospital industry.

Click here to read more details: Hospitals cutting back.

Entrepreneurs Notice Credit Lines Disappearing, Should Turn to Factoring

BusinessWeek.com recently published an article that put JPMorgan Chase bank in the spotlight, as the bank started reducing or eliminating credit lines  for a large number of small business owners to help even out its balance sheets.

According to the article, in most cases, “If business owners can’t convince Chase of their creditworthiness, they have three options: 1) pay off the balance in full; 2) agree to a conversion of the line of credit into a term loan; or 3) go into default.”

One business owner interviewed for the article described how his four lines of credit were reduced to two on the exact same day that he received a letter from Chase that the bank was blocking him from drawing on two lines of credit due to “an adverse change in his ‘financial condition and/or credit history.'” The entrepreneur had been drawing on all four of the lines to help meet his monthly payroll, and he’s not sure where the money will come from if he’s not able to reistate the two lines.

As banks continue to reduce and eliminate credit lines, there will continue to be an influx of established healthcare business owners who are in this same situation. Lucky for them, there is an immediate answer to their cash flow problems.

Home care agencies who need additional funding to pay their sitters and companions, medical transcription service owners who are waiting a long time for hospitals to pay, and medical coding companies who are looking to expand can and should take advantage of healthcare accounts receivable factoring programs to help them at a time when more traditional funding avenues are failing them.

Click here to read the entire article: Snipping Credit Lines for Small Businesses.

Faculty Shortage Hurt Nursing Programs

Would you take a job that paid you 50% less than your current one? Nurses around the U.S. are facing this question daily when it comes to choosing between working as a registered nurse or working as a nurse intructor. More often than not, RNs are choosing to stay in the field instead of teaching new nurses, which is making the nationwide nurse shortage an even bigger problem. Fewer teachers in the classroom means more nursing programs have to turn away prospective nursing students.

An article in the Marshall News Messenger quoted associate dean for undergraduate nursing programs at the University of Texas at Tyler, “UT Tyler’s four-year bachelor’s degree program has about 610 students…The school gets about 300-375 applicants and admits about 130 to 140 students.”

The article also included director of the college’s associate degree nursing program, Dayna Davidson, and her thoughts: “About 200 people usually apply for Kilgore College’s 60 positions.”

Still not everyone is hurting. Some private universitities, such as East Texas Baptist University, have empty seats in their nursing programs. Leslie Borcherding, interim dean of the nursing department in teh Frank S. Groner Endowed Memorial School of Professional Studies, thinks the school’s higher tuition combined with the poor economy are jeeping the nursing program’s enrollment down.

Click here to read the entire article: Faculty shortages hurt college nursing programs.

Small Business Owners Report Cash Flow Concerns

According to the Monthly Small Business Watch, a report that measures economic confidence by randomly selecting 750 small business owners and asking them to respond to six questions, 50% of small business owners have experienced temporary cash flow issues in the past 90 days. In addition, 53% of the surveyed business owners reported that they will decrease spending on business development in the next six months.

Now, more than ever, is a prime time for cash flow consultants and factoring brokers to reach out to those small business owners and pair them with the appropriate funding source. As many of The Factoring Blog’s readers know, PRN Funding is a great option for medical staffing factoring, medical transcription factoring, medical coding factoring and home care factoring.

Click here to read more current small business cash flow statistics.

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