Archive for February, 2010

Accounting Firm Social Media Strategy to Combat Bad Press

February 8th, 2010

These days, times are tough. People have trouble making their mortgage and car payments at the end of each and every month. Many working class, lower income, and middle class stay at home parents have had to get a second, or even a third job in some extreme circumstances to be able to just survive. This was not always the case. It used to be generally believed that the American dream could be achieved by anyone who was willing to work hard enough for it. Now, many lower income Americans hold a slightly more cynical viewpoint. They believe the only way to get ahead is to cheat, like so many white collar criminals who have made national headlines have done. Thus, these individuals are somewhat marginalized in their beliefs, and it will take a considerable amount of time, money, and effort to reach them to try and change their minds. These individuals usually reserve a special amount of contempt for the financial sector. They believe that everyone who works in some finance related capacity is to blame for their bad lot in life and for their misfortunes. Thus, it stands to reason then, that the financial sector has a lot of work to do to try and convince the general public that the financial sector really does have their best interests at heart.

This is precisely why so many financial services providers have enlisted the services of a public relations firm to help them regain the public’s trust so that both parties can move forward with each party’s best interests at heart. Accounting offices in particular have had to work extra hard to overcome the bad press that they have been experiencing. Perhaps it is because people are generally skeptical of people who handle money on a daily basis, but individuals are wary of accountants. They think that every single registered certified public accountant is out to take advantage of every single person who has the considerable misfortunate to walk into their office on any given day of the week.

This is most assuredly bad for business. Therefore, many of these public relations firms that represent accounting offices have begun employing a fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy to help them achieve their goals. The idea behind employing a fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy is that people need to be actively involved in shaping how they view a particular accounting firm, or other financial services provider. They simply can’t believe everything they hear, as many less than repeatable financial agencies have taken advantage of them in the past. Therefore, public relations firms need to pay close attention as to how their message reaches the public’s ears. And if they use a fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy effectively and correctly, then will undoubtedly see an uptick in the amount of traffic to their clients’ websites. This will serve to rebuild the public’s trust with regard to financial services providers, and accounting firms in particular.

This is exactly why so many public relations firms have begun implementing a fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy. The want their fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy to reach people the way traditional methods of getting information across, such as print, is unable to. Only a fully functional and comprehensive accounting firm social media strategy allows public relations firms to sculpt their message specifically for their audience.

Efficient Revenue Cycle Management For Medical Practice

February 7th, 2010

With the world still not out of the gloom of the global financial recession, the medical practices and their businesses have taken a big hit with almost 75% of the businesses showing that they have suffered a growth in their bad debts in a range of 5-25% in the last couple of years.

Another hike in bad debt is anticipated in the coming days due consumer directed healthcare plans which have not gone down well with the health care administrators at the hospitals. On a separate note, almost half the hospital executives are spending their time worrying about how to improve collection from patients and another one fifth are trying to come up with ways in which they could lower the percentage of bad debts that their company faces. Therefore it is imperative for the medical practices to adopt as many tools as possible to ensure a smooth and stream line flow of cash for their businesses. For this labor intensive task, it would be important to use tools such as the online payment tools which are not only swift and can also help the patients pay in a self server manner. In case, the medical practice is experiencing a lot of patients, it is advisable to use more than a single card reader which would help process a larger number of payments faster.

Medical practices need to implement strict policies regarding patients that cannot pay on the same day that they utilize the service. A good idea would be to provide them the service and then send them a co-pay balance due before the doctors leave the office. Also to emphasize on the entire matter it would be a good idea to send in a pre-addressed payment envelope.

The hospitals could also do great by deciphering the patterns of the patient’s payment histories just like it is done by the credit card companies. The credit card companies understand that a consumer with around a low bill and high credit score is worth more to them then a customer with a high bill and a low credit score. Hence instead of wasting time with a patient with a poor medical payment record it is better to pursue those particular patients that have a better track record and ones that would be able to pay in a timely manner for the betterment of the medical practice.