Medical Dictation and Transcription Goes Mobile with New Application

Webahn, Inc. recently announced the release of Accent HD, which is a new app for iPad that helps doctors dictate, review reports, print, and manage files in multiple formats such as PDF, RTF, and Text.

“Our goal is to provide flexible technology that moves with health care providers,” Vinu Nair, Webahn CEO said in the official press release, “Our solutions help doctors improve productivity and spend more time with patients.”

In essence, Accent HD is an app that offers a simple but intuitive interface for dictation that uploads via WiFi to OvernightScribe. Files are then transcribed, and posted in the clinic account. Physicians can carry the iPad with them to review archived reports, then dictate immediately upon seeing a patient.

Click here to read the official press release: New iPad App Accent HD Takes Medical Dictation and Transcription Mobile

Happy Medical Transcription Week 2012

Did you know that President Ronald Regan established May 20-26 as National Medical Transcriptionist Week? He did–In 1985.

So the medical transcription invoice funding experts at PRN Funding, LLC wanted to wish all of medical transcription blog readers a very Happy Medical Transcription Week!

Of course, the MT industry is not going away, but it is in a constant state of flux as large MTSOs acquire small ones in addition to incorporating EHRs. If you’re an MTSO or a transcriptionist, we want to hear your thoughts on the future of the industry. Feel free to leave comments.

Hospitals Benefit from Outsourcing Release-of-Information

Did anyone happen to read ROI in a Hybrid Environment in For The Record magazine’s April 23rd issue? It a nutshell, the article discussed the pains involved with switching over a facility’s paper medical record system to an electronic medical record system. The article referred to the transition phase as an ROI (Release-of-Information) Process.

Although the article was an interesting read, the outsourced medical transcription factoring specialists at PRN Funding wanted our MTSO audience and any other business owner of an outsourced healthcare company to be aware of the side bar article that accompanied the article, Outsourcing Can Help. It caught our attention, and for the convenience of our business owner readers, we’ve summarized the small article below:

A lot of hospitals think that transitioning to EHRs will reduce staffing needs around ROI–This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the staffing needs tend to increase in order to avoid falling behind while personnel adjust to new policies and procedures. Furthermore, there’s an underlying need to have specially-trained individuals to help train staff and assist with ROI implementation.

Steve Hynes, president of MRO Corp was quoted in the article: “Switching to EHRs “can be very resource intensive for the hospital and specifically for the HIM department to manage the changes while keeping up with day-to-day operations…Over a long period [resource needs] might fluctuate, but there will be a temporary bubble to get everyone up to speed during the conversion.” And that’s exactly where MRO Corp because outsourcing ROI is a way to lessen the labor-intensive burden.

We may be jumping the gun, but it sounds like outsourced ROI companies could be another good candidate for invoice factoring, as hospitals routinely take their time paying vendors.

Small Business Lending on the Rise in 2012

SmallBizTrends.com recently had some exciting news to share about small business lending–The site highlighted some key findings of Omega Performance’s 2012 Banking Trends Outlook Survey, such as:

  1. 19.8% of U.S. banks plan to ease their lending standards for consumer and commercial loans
  2. 73.5% of United States banks plan to do more commercial lending
  3. More than 78% of banks reported they will pursue small business lending in 2012
  4. 66% of U.S. banks think the economy will “improve slowly” for the remainder of 2012

Click here to read more on SmallBizTrends.com: Is Lending on The Up?

What is Invoice Factoring?

In a nutshell, invoice factoring is the process of converting the accounts receivable of a business into cash by selling outstanding invoices to a factoring company for a discount. Businesses who factor their receivables get cash up front to cover payroll and payroll taxes and pay their vendors on time.

PRN Funding’s president, Phil Cohen, explains invoice factoring in more detail in the video below:

Medical Receivable Factoring vs. Healthcare Factoring

When it comes to factoring in the healthcare industry, there are two different kinds of companies that can benefit from what’s commonly referred to as healthcare factoring and/or medical factoring. Both types of healthcare companies make ideal invoice factoring candidates because both routinely bill creditworthy slow-paying customers. The Marketing Manager at PRN Funding took the time to explain the differences in the video below:

The first variation of the healthcare factoring model involves entrepreneurs who own a service-oriented business within the healthcare industry. Specifically, medical transcription services, medical equipment providers, medical supply companies, medical staffing agencies, temporary nurse registries, outsourced medical coding companies, medical billing services, etc. can all benefit greatly by factoring their invoices. Healthcare factoring can be extremely beneficial for vendors hoping to maintain a positive cash flow when their customers (medical providers) take weeks or months to pay them for their services or goods. Click here to learn more about PRN Funding’s healthcare factoring solution.

On the other hand, medical receivables factoring includes a third party payer (i.e. Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance company) within the medical invoicing process. In this instance, the medical provider is the one who benefits from factoring.

Medical receivables factoring is a great way for medical providers to bridge the cash flow gap that is oftentimes created by slow payments from insurance carriers and other third-party payers.

As experts in the healthcare factoring marketplace, PRN Funding has developed relationships with credible medical factoring companies that specialize in helping hospitals, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, etc. maintain a positive cash flow.

Click here for more information on healthcare factoring vs. medical factoring.

Temporary Staffing Industry is Booming

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, changes in the “temporary help services” category typically prefaces similar changes in non-farm payrolls around 5 months later, and since hitting its lowest point in August 2009, temp jobs have been on a steady incline.

In fact, according to the American Staffing Association, US staffing firms employed 2.8 million temporary and contract employees per day in 2011, which is up 8% since 2010. Moreover, the Bloomberg US Employment Services Index (made up of 17 staffing and recruiting firms) has increased by 15%. Additionally, the temporary staffing industry’s sales was $98.3 billion in 2011, which was 12.4% more than 2010 sales.

Richard Wahlquist , president and CEO of the American Staffing Association, recently said: “Companies no longer look upon temporaries as a gap measure. Now, the largest companies have a specific model of how much of their work force is going to be temporary.”

It’s important to keep in mind that as these agencies continue to grow, the need for staffing payroll factoring will also increase.

Click here to read the entire article: Temp Agencies Signal Economy’s Health, Direction.

Aging Workforce is Straining Social Security

Did you happen to see the Associated Press article on Monday entitled: Aging workforce strains Social Security, Medicare?

If not, the healthcare factoring specialists at PRN Funding summarized the startling findings below:

Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two largest benefit programs, are in worse shape than previously thought due to the increasing aging population and the slow-rebounding economy. Moreover, Medicare is in the worst shape because of rising health insurance costs.

The predictions from last year was that the Medicare hospital insurance fund for seniors would run out of money in 2024, and Social Security’s retirement fund would run out in 2038, with the disability fund running out of money by 2018.

The latest projections from March indicate that the disability fund would run out of money two years earlier in 2016.

Temporary Hospice Staffing Factoring Case Study

The temporary hospice staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding recently invited one of our current hospice staffing clients to “spill the beans” in a tell-all interview about her experiences with using PRN Funding as a medical staffing factor.

Although the video and printed interview is posted on PRN Funding’s web site, we also included them on The Factoring Blog for all of our medical staffing agency owners.

Chastity Williams has a big heart, and she had a big dream. As a long term care nurse she had many encounters with hospice nursing. In 2007, there was a tremendous nursing shortage and hospice was a very misunderstood area of health care. Chastity knew she could help make a difference in people’s lives and wanted to start her own hospice temporary staffing agency – Nursing by Demand.

“Like everyone else, I had an idea and thought I’d open a business. When I started I was all heart and had big ideas for the nursing part, but I didn’t know as much about the business part.” She felt uncertainty as many entrepreneurs do, and wondered how she’d be able to raise payroll.

“Chastity had a couple clients lined up before she started, but as in many new business situations, they didn’t pay quite fast enough. So she didn’t have the cash on hand to meet payroll. That’s a lot of pressure for a new business,” says Ryan Elliott, her Account Manager at PRN.

A business loan was out of the question – Chastity was adamant that she didn’t want to start a business with debt. She did some research and came across PRN Funding’s web site as well as some others, and looked into several.

Click here to continue reading why Chastity decided to choose PRN Funding as her hospice staffing factor.

What is the Best Financing Option for Outsourced Medical Coding Companies?

Account Receivable Factoring or Small Business Loan: Which is a Better Financing Option for Outsourced Medical Coding Companies?

Comparing and contrasting medical coding account receivable factoring to a loan from a bank sounds like a daunting task. To be honest, it’s hard to compare the two equally because one financing mechanism creates debt by lending money (i.e. bank loan), whereas the other one creates immediate cash flow by advancing cash on purchased invoices (i.e. factoring).

Thankfully, comparing the two medical coding funding options doesn’t have to be difficult. Click here for a handy comparison chart outlining the key differences between medical coding account receivable factoring and bank financing.

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