Medical Factoring: Healthcare Professionals Choose Medical Factoring As Their Preferred Financing Option
Healthcare professionals are finding that business loans and commercial lines-of-credit are becoming more difficult to qualify for, so today we're seeing more healthcare professionals looking to medical factoring to alleviate cash flow problems. All types of medical and healthcare practices can benefit greatly by choosing to factor their receivables and thus receive immediate cash payments.
In the past, healthcare has typically been a resilient industry, but today we see this industry facing financial challenges that leave practices struggling to meet their own financial commitments. Cash flow was virtually a non-issue for medical facilities, professionals, and their suppliers, but today with Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance companies working with strict reimbursement guidelines, professionals are forced to wait much longer than they previously waited to receive payment on their invoices. In addition, complicated documentation and billing requirements are resulting in fewer dollars and longer waiting periods.
Financial Difficulties Experienced by Healthcare Professionals
The above issues are creating serious problems for a large number of medical providers who not only must wait longer to get paid less money, but who are also forced to deal with growing operating expenses, including salaries and other benefits. Operating under these unsure conditions means that the viability of these businesses is being threatened and it's become almost impossible for them to pursue new growth opportunities. Today, a medical practitioner operating a relatively small practice could have receivables of up to $1 million tied up!
Any business that's confronted with cash flow problems will typically look to banks or other lenders for a loan. Offering the business a loan or line-of-credit can certainly be very helpful in the short term, but unfortunately neither of these products are an ideal financing solution because neither will permanently solve the real problem.
A business loan may be ideal for fixed capital purchases, but it's no solution at all for handling recurring business expenses. A line-of-credit can certainly be very helpful, but because it will have a credit limit and a fixed term it won't provide a renewable source of business capital. Once the credit limit has been reached or the term of the line-of-credit expires, the lender may either increase the credit limit or perhaps not renew it at all. It's a sad fact that, today, many healthcare professionals are finding themselves in this unfortunate situation.
Finding the Ideal Medical Financing Solution
The perfect financing solution would be one that's flexible and one that would provide a steady and reliable source of working capital. It would grow with the healthcare business, without the need to re-apply or having to approach a bank for an increase in the credit limit. In short, this perfect financing solution would provide working capital to finance both the current and future growth of the business. So, is there such a solution? Fortunately, yes there is! It's called medical factoring.
Explaining Medical Factoring
Medical factoring is a receivables factoring program designed exclusively for medical invoices. Because factoring medical receivables can be quite challenging, many factoring companies today are specializing only in the healthcare industry. It does require a certain amount of expertise to manage the medical claims process; plus, it becomes even more challenging when many healthcare receivables are either reduced or denied altogether by insurance providers.
What Types of Business Can Use Medical Factoring?
Many business owners are surprised to learn that factoring in general has been around for a long time. Medical service providers, in particular, seem to be completely unaware of the existence of factoring. The truth is that invoice factoring has become one of the most flexible and powerful business financing tools available today.
Many healthcare providers can benefit greatly from choosing medical factoring. Below we've listed just some of the healthcare service providers who can achieve huge benefits from a medical factoring program.
- Hospitals
- Medical Centers
- Physicians: Both Specialists and General Practitioners
- Outpatient Clinics and Facilities
- Medical Staffing Services
- Medical Labs
- Dialysis Facilities
- Home Healthcare Providers
- Physical Therapy Clinics and Groups
- Rehabilitation Centers
- Medical Equipment Providers
- Medical Labs, and
- Many More
What Are the Benefits of Factoring Medical Receivables
The benefits to healthcare professionals are very similar to the benefits enjoyed by many businesses in many other industries. They include -
- Faster (almost immediate) payment;
- Increased percentage of billings collected;
- Consistent cash flow;
- Access to debt-free working capital;
- Stress-free outsourced accounting and collection; and
- Being able to improve your business credit.
Medical Practices Can Depend on Factoring for Reliable Cash Flow
Medical factoring is an excellent financing alternative for medical practices because practices receive consistent and flexible financing which is directly tied to their insurance claims. This means that the financing will increase as more claims are filed. It's highly desirable for all medical practices to achieve a scalable and reliable cash flow, thus ensuring sufficient liquid business capital to cover operating expenses.
And with medical supply companies the situation is very similar. Depending on the volume of sales these companies can achieve fast and predictable business financing by signing up for a medical factoring program. And, as sales continue to grow so does the amount of financing, providing the much-needed working capital required to both grow and maintain business operations.
Medical Receivables Factoring for Smaller Medical Offices
Medical factoring is especially beneficial for smaller medical offices. Office overheads and staffing expenses can be dramatically reduced because the factoring company will take control of the more tedious and time-consuming administrative work involved in collections and processing claims. This frees up remaining staff members to concentrate on delivering excellent medical care. If you're a small medical practice and you have good growth prospects but a slow cash flow, receivables factoring could well be the ideal tool to assist in financing the growth of your business. You'll find that many factoring companies have minimums, and there are factoring companies prepared to finance a medical office billing just $50,000 per month.
Explaining How Medical Factoring Works
In simple terms, if a healthcare business is dependent on third-party payors, those payments will be accelerated with medical factoring. Within just days of the initial billing, the majority of the amount billed will be deposited directly to the business's bank account. The instant rewards are a dramatic shortening of the collection cycle and the elimination of cash flow problems for the business concerned.
Importantly, receivables factoring is not a loan, so there are no credit or financial requirements; there will be no impact to your balance sheet and there are no arbitrary limits. Medical factoring is the ideal financing tool for business growth because you can factor as much billing as your business is capable of generating.
How Long before My Business Is Accepted for Factoring?
With medical factoring there are no lengthy delays, certainly not like when applying for bank finance! A medical factoring program will usually take around two weeks to set up. This timeframe allows the factor to determine the stability of the medical practice and to ensure the reliability of its third-party payors. Then, once a medical factoring program is in operation, the financing will be predictable and constant. Once claims have been submitted to the medical factoring company, claims are typically funded within 48 hours.
The process of medical factoring is very simple, as follows -
- Your medical practice periodically submits billings to Medicaid, Medicare, and insurance companies. At the same time, copies of these billings should be forwarded to your factor.
- Within 48 hours of receiving a copy of these billings, the factor will deposit an advance of up to 85% of net collectables into your bank account. The balance will be held by the factor until such time as the account has been paid in full.
- Once the factoring company has received payment in full, the balance of the billings - less the agreed-upon factoring fee - will be remitted to you.
Medical Factoring Fees
Medical factoring fees vary depending upon the size and types of claims generated by the medical practice. It's not known why medical factoring today is not as widely known as it is in other industries; however, interest in this type of financing is now becoming more popular and widespread as business owners are beginning to understand the many financial and other benefits of medical factoring.
Medical factoring in the healthcare industry is fast becoming a widely accepted tool to resolve shortfalls in working capital financing and as a long-term solution for patient accounting support and medical financing. It's certainly a tool that healthcare businesses should give careful consideration to because cash flow problems can stall growth and prosperity in businesses of all sizes and types.