Friday, May 7, 2010

Medical Billing

If you are involved in the financial running of a medical practice and are frustrated because of high volumes of paperwork with little results, then this article is for you. In this piece, we will discuss the advantages of outsourcing the paperwork involved in medical claims, by using one of many billing companies that are operating throughout the country. We will also look at what other services these companies can perform on your behalf. After you have read this article, you will be able to look at companies that deal with medical billing in a new light.

Many smaller medical practices are run on a reasonably tight budget, with staff carrying out various tasks and constantly under pressure. When you introduce into this scenario the problems that medical billing can raise, then you can end up with everyone getting very frustrated and unhappy in the job they are doing. The reason for this is that medical claims can be very long on paperwork and much shorter on good results.

Medical claims are more often than not complex and whoever is dealing with the details of the claim and the follow up that is required will have their work cut out to get a result. After a lot of time and effort put in by staff at the medical practice, sometimes a file can get lost or an error can be made that means everything has to be re-submitted again.

The main advantages to getting a billing company to do this work for you is that the medical practice director can then get staff to concentrate on what they are good at, which is dealing with medical matters. Medical practices have found that since they have outsourced their billing, that they have had to take on less staff and that the staff they have are happier in their work, not having to worry about medical billing matters.

These companies have a high rate of success with claims, which is probably understandable, as this what they are good at. These companies can offer other services to the medical practice also. They have the staff to be able to input data or carry out coding on behalf of the practice for example and they can also keep the practice up to date with any compliance changes that they need to be aware of.

There is no doubt that any member of a medical practice could do worse than considering outsourcing their medical billing.

CAD Drafting Services

Structural drafting is the most important process that used in all type of building constructions. Professional draftsmen convert structural calculation and design sketches into presentation plan and detailed drawings. Structural drafting is based on best practice, codes and standards provided by American Institute of steel construction. Innovation in structural industry has developed many software and AutoCAD is one of the most popular software that widely used by engineers. Every organization that provides structural drafting and design services must have to follow international standards and codes provided by AISC.

In the construction process actual design details are provided by engineers and draftsmen draft the given drawing to get accurate detail of each phase. CAD drafting allows draftsman to convert paper drawing, hand crafts in to digital design. This allows easy customization and revision of design to get accurate details.

Various offshore structural companies provides drafting and design services for various type of structures like residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and special mega structures like sky scrapers, tunnels and bridges. It is always challenging process to convert high rise building sketches in to digital drawings but software like CAD made it very flexible and easy. At the present time draftsmen are using 2D technology in making of detailed drawings.

Commercial draftsmen provide detailed information like shapes, dimensions, material to be used, processes and procedures to be followed. These details supply visual guidance and provide technical data.

Structural Design and Drafting services include the following terms:

• Design of Reinforced Cement Concrete Structures like buildings, tanks
• Design of Structural Steel plate girder, truss girder, gantries, industrial sheds
• Replacement Structure Designs
• Design of wooden structures
• Design of composite structures
• Design of pre-stressed and post-tensioned structures

It is also defined as bridge that makes better communication between engineers and draftsmen. It is a graphical language used by engineers and other technical persons associated with construction. It also includes plant layout services which help to evaluate outline of building, work areas and equipments to be required.

For outsourcing purpose it is also become most popular term as it ensure time saving as well as cost saving. It doesn't matter that where your sketches and designs are drafted.

Website Design

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. It is important then to practice good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible. You would not let your staff look shabby when dealing with customers, similarly your website needs to have a professional image. Good design is vital.

If you are an online business owner and have a few skills already in setting up websites you may be reluctant to pay for outsource services to do a job you could do yourself, however, there is a lot more to hiring a designer than just finishing up a job that you do not want to do. A totally professional looking website layout, gives your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism: you are organized, focused and really mean business. Also by paying a little money for professional outsource services, you can let the designer worry about the little annoyances and problems that surface. They will be able to pin point problems and fix them quickly without you having to waste time on things that distract from your work. That way, you will be more focused and have more time to spend on your actual business strategy.

Finding Outsource Web Design Services:

Design Companies can offer website packages, hosting, etc and help you through the design process. However it is important to be aware that established design companies usually have physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay overheads: office rent, designers wages, advertising costs and so on.
Freelance designers who work from home do not have a high operation cost for their outsource services like that of an established company. Their design images are of a similar quality to those of designers from big companies. On many freelance websites you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, ensuring you get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.

Growing Worldwide

A Virtual Assistant, known as VA, also called a virtual office assistant, is an industrialist who provides professional, managerial, technical, or creative assistance to clients from a home office. Virtual Assistants are highly skilled, self governing professionals, working outside of traditional corporate roles and utilizing the internet and other up-coming technology to customize their own work environments. As the role of the internet and its effect on the business community, develops what once had to be done in a traditional corporate office can now be done in one's home, in satellite offices or while traveling.

Role of Virtual Assistant

One can adapt his or her distant receptionist service to meet accurate needs. Calls can be screened, announced and flawlessly connected to a person or his employees anyplace. They generally work for other small businesses, brokers and consultancy groups. It is likely that there are about 5,000-8,000 or as many as 35,000 Virtual Assistants worldwide; the profession is growing in federal economies with staffing practices all over the world. The most extensively used modes of communication & data delivery comprise of Internet, call conferences, e-mails, online work spaces and also fax machines.

The role of the customary managerial assistant is changing in this world. What once had to be done by a company secretary can now be easily done by a "virtual" professional, working out of their home or home office. The virtual assistant is a self-governing entrepreneur. These understand the requirements of the small business professionals better than others. They recognize that many small businesses are either unable or reluctant to pay the full-time costs linked with customary managerial support. And they recognize that time is valuable and offer the assistance needed to make enhance the client's own productivity by handling many of the more routine organizational tasks of the business. Virtual Assistants also can provide a wider variety of services than the traditional administrative assistants, often incorporating desktop publishing, web page design, internet research, writing or other area of expertise skills into their offered services.

Nowadays hiring a Virtual Assistant has become everybody's cup of tea as it has become easy and you can get a VA at an affordable price. It's just like buying a machine that does everything and all a VA needs is to instruct him or her through emails. It has become a trend and is no longer only for rich people but for any normal earning individual. Having a virtual assistant is fast becoming a need for the busy industrialists and small business owners. With the arrival of new technologies and ways of doing business, our VA's has stepped up to help you along your way. They have so adaptable to these fast changing technologies, with every year a lot of new technologies coming down the row, makes the client hard to cope-up with such severe changes.

Your Blogging

Finding content for your blogs is not hard, sure you have to pay for it when you decide to outsource blogging services, but the choices of who you hire are endless and you can say what you want to say with the help of an experienced blog writer

Planning Your Blogging and Finding Writers

On-line job sites are the best places to advertise for quality bloggers. Many writers that offer outsource services actively hunt for work in an online environment and are experienced in meeting daily or weekly deadlines. With a blog, writers get a unique opportunity to focus on subjects that are of special interest to them. Your advert should include the following:

Clear outlines of your topic or topics- this will ensure you attract more writers with some background in the subject.
Whether you are looking for writers with a long standing interest in your topic or actual education or business experience.
Whether you are looking for a writer with skills in creative or informative entries
How often you want the blog updated- daily, weekly etc. Having clear deadlines for each blog is a good idea. In general, try to give at least three to five days between assigning the article and having the finished product ready to go live. Some bloggers like to have several articles in the pipeline in advance, just in case of illness or other unexpected situation.
Word count
Who will be deciding on topics- will you assign them? Will the outsource services writer decide and clear them with you first?
As blogging is an ongoing project, you will want to ensure your business relationship, expectations and contracts are on the right path from the start.

Payment

Payment for blogging outsource services is often done on a per word basis, with pay days offered either when the blogger meets a minimum amount that is due or on some type of weekly or monthly basis.

Per word rates for blogging will depend on a lot of things, including your ability to pay and the type of subject matter of the blogs. You can expect to pay anywhere from $0.10 to $0.25 USD per word for an expert blogger.

Names Behind

SSON: Frances, you've been with Gartner for nine years now. What attracted you to research?

Frances Karamouzis: I started my career in consulting, and I think that gave me a greater understanding of the buyer/seller side of the equation. I also realized, though, that there are a lot of myths as to how the industry adds value to buyers. If you consider that IT services spend by far overshadows the spend on hardware and software combined- it can be double that-what stands out is how little focus there is on the competencies relating to buying or managing those services. On the contrary, corporations spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing on SAP/server spend. There is still too little information on how services are impacting the businesses. That void in the market really sparked my interest in the analyst's role.

SSON: Your main focus is on sourcing and IT services. In terms of sourcing, what do you think the greatest impact of current market shifts will be, in five years time?

Frances Karamouzis: I think buyer behaviour will move away from customized solutions and finally become amenable to what are called industrialized, or utility-based, services, i.e., configurable, or shared, solutions. This requires compromise, of course, as well as clients spending a lot more time analyzing their business processes to determine how to make a preconfigured solution work. I also think we'll see a lot more focus on the difference between competitive parity and competitive advantage. Competitive parity refers to common foundational processes, such as F&A or HR, which don't, in themselves, necessarily differentiate a company. It's a given that those processes should work well. So parity, in itself, it is not considered a source of competitive advantage.

Competitive advantage, on the other hand, derives from elements that make your product or service distinct or different. So we can expect the functions relating to competitive parity to become industrialized, over time- clients will aim for the lowest cost for the best scenario, while premium spend will most likely go into what sets you apart, i.e., provides competitive advantage.

In the past enterprises have struggled with this, confusing spending in the two areas. The current financial crisis is forcing companies to become leaner, so many are revisiting their assumptions, and making some tough changes. The combination of economic crisis and simultaneous availability of different tried and true technologies is opening the door to combinations of software as a service, utility models... basically, solutions that work on a subscription- or pay-for-use basis-all founded on shared infrastructure. Companies will want to make sure they are spending money in the right areas-those which support competitive advantage as opposed to parity.

SSON: AS an analyst, what is your greatest day-to-day challenge?

Frances Karamouzis: When you are covering global markets, as I do, the greatest challenge is finding and authenticating information. This relates to emerging markets in particular. Sourcing and authenticating information on China and the developing world, as they enter into this space, can be a real challenge-as you'd expect from this job.

SSON: What is your greatest achievement over the past few years? What are you most proud of?

Frances Karamouzis: I am really proud of the fact that we managed to pull together the first ever BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) country conference on global sourcing, in China, last year. The chairmen of each country organization joined us to discuss their role in the sourcing space, going forward. It was testament to the reputation Gartner has in the marketplace that we were able to bring to one table the leading country players for this industry. This had never been done before, and validates our position as thought-leader in this space.

SSON: what was your impression of this group of country-leaders? What struck you most about their roles?

Frances Karamouzis: I was struck by how, separately, they recognized the global shifts going on in the markets, and were encouraging their respective governments to use technology as a catalyst to create more knowledge workers. Also, how they understood the necessity of embracing sourcing jobs in their countries in order to garner their fair share of this new and important industry.

More about Frances Karamouzis

Years of Experience Gartner - 9 years

IT Industry - 15 years

Roles and Responsibilities

Frances Karamouzis is a research vice president in Gartner Research and Advisory Services. Ms. Karamouzis focuses on the IT services and outsourcing market and is also the lead analyst for global sourcing research in North America.

Previous Experience

Ms. Karamouzis has approximately 13 years of experience in strategy, business process and information technology management across a wide range of service delivery areas and industries. Prior to joining Gartner, she spent 11 years with a large multinational consulting firm, where she was involved in several service delivery areas including strategy, process design, systems integration, change management and knowledge management. In addition, Ms. Karamouzis was a practice director for the strategy consulting practice of a smaller niche consulting firm.

Professional Background

Andersen Consulting, Senior Manager, 11 years SC Consulting, Practice Director, 2 years

Industry Awards/Accolades

Beyond her own published research for Gartner, she has appeared in or contributed to reports by "60 Minutes," CNN, CNBC, PBS, Business Week, Forbes and the Council on Foreign Relations, and she provided research for Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty- First Century."

Outsourcing Benefits

The benefits business owners can and that many have derived from outsourcing their bookkeeping tasks are obvious and are worth considering. The advantages include their ability to focus their precious time on other core business activities. This may include marketing their products, procurement, client liaison and relationships, human resource management and many others. Feeling comfortable about the knowledge that a professional bookkeeper is handling the business requirements of his company is vital.

Again, keeping the business owners apprised of important accounting and bookkeeping information regarding the company's accounts is relevant. These two are among the well-supported reasons for hiring professional accounting personnel. Needless to say, there is really no guarantee with any professional accounting person. Yet another risk is the cost factor involved. Is it affordable running it like that? The costs of outsourcing your bookkeeping tasks can be particularly high; particularly for quality accounting work. One can only hope that the individual who is handling the business bookkeeping aspects is performing the work in a very ethical and qualitative manner. These points do not mean that there is no competent professional bookkeepers who are qualified enough to perform business bookkeeping tasks. In fact, one will see that there are many bookkeepers who are really skilled in carrying out this work. It is that the business owner has to be aware of these risks.

Like any other decision or aspect, there are benefits also. There is a key and desirable aspect that all business owners need to be knowledgeable about when performing their own business bookkeeping tasks. One of the most aspects is that one must learn and understanding one's business in a better way from a financial perspective. In fact, it is true and common knowledge that business owners get to acquire a superior understanding of their business activities when they are able to relate to their bookkeeping regimen. By being close to the heart of their business, particularly when it comes to dealing with money, they would be able to make intelligent decisions from this information.

One of the best ways to achieve this is by understanding the whole crux of the bookkeeping process that extends into complex accounting aspects and the way it relates to financial business transactions. Understanding this highly important cycle and knowing where the financial numbers come from are highly critical and important. In addition to all these, having good knowledge about this information first hand is far more preferred than just relying on what these professional bookkeepers, accountants or consultants explain to you; no doubt, they might be competent and very professional in their words and deeds. It is always wise to seek professional direction or guidance when setting up and learning your bookkeeping process. There are several quality people out there who can be excellent sources of excellent bookkeeping instructions; and they should be given due consideration. Professional bookkeeping training courses and qualitative bookkeeping consultation and support are found to be ideal for learning the essential aspects related to the setting up of a proper business bookkeeping system.

Conference Recording

If you are planning to record the proceedings of a conference or a seminar, you might find this article helpful. Why do we need recording of conference or seminar proceedings? Some conferences are significantly important, specifically corporate meetings and their proceedings need to be transcribed and preserved as important data for future purposes.

Some board meetings are recorded and printed for distributing among the board members who may be present in the meeting or not, for their records and future reference. Some professional conferences like legal or medical seminars are conducted in different parts of the world where experts from different countries participate and share their views and opinions on specific topics. These conferences are recorded for transcription and distribution among the participants who take these minutes to their respective countries for making further study and research on the subjected topic.

Such conferences are generally held in big board rooms or even in some auditorium. It is very important that the proceedings of such conferences are recorded very carefully and efficiently. These recordings must be most accurately done so that transcriptionists are able to transcribe the data in most efficient and error-free manner.

There are some established guidelines and when followed they give the best and proven results. They are listed as under:

1. Recording process should start only after ensuring each participant is ready for it and there is noise-free environment before actually starting the recording.

2. If the seminar is being held in a board room or conference hall, make sure recording device is placed in right position and at the right place. Speaker's sitting position must be carefully planned to make the sound pass into the microphone and not over it. It will be ideal that the speakers come on the dais, turn by turn, to share their views.

3. If it is an interview involving only the interviewer and the interviewee, it should be conducted in an environment free from background noise. Cell phones should be switched off during the interview. It will help in improving the recording quality.

4. Speaker should be at a closest possible distance from the microphone. This will ensure clarity of the voice and will help the transcriptionist to transcribe the proceedings of the seminar with maximum accuracy.

5. Speakers should follow a set sequence which should be stated in the agenda. This will help the transcriptionist to identify the speaker at the time of transcription.

6. Background noise plays a significant role in determining the recording quality. Sometime a transcriptionist finds it very difficult to follow the spoken words due to background noise. After repeated listening to a particular piece of text, a transcriptionist is sometimes compelled to guess about the contents, which may not be correct. Peaceful atmosphere, attentive listening to the speaker, switched-off cell phones are some measures which can minimize background noise in a conference recording process.

7. The volume, tone and pitch of speaker's voice can also significantly affect the recording quality which, subsequently, will adversely affect the quality of the transcript.

8. Right type and quality of recording device must be used for recording of important conferences and seminars. Check the quality and functionality of your tapes or tape recorders before starting the recording process.

Reduce Data Entry

Are you searching for data entry outsourcing profitability? Do you require to decrease your BPO cost? Does your business require effective data entry services? Data typing outsourcing is most popular and most growing sector of the business process outsourcing unit.

Today, BPO services come on the top in which data entries are helpful in maintaining business process cost and in all management task of the organization or company. To hire data entry specialist is one of the best option to improve business efficiency.

You can decrease business process outsourcing operating cost and also get maximum benefits such as:

High quality and cost effective solution Quick turn around time on your BPO projects Experienced Team and Latest Technology Pay more attention to core areas of business Improve your business efficiency

In this time, business process outsourcing is considered as a rapping industry. Outsourcing your services will reduce your expenditures with improved services. Thus, outsourcing is now a tactically imperative corporate verdict.

By outsourcing services, you can concentrate on your core business relative requirements and you can improve your business revenue. Also you can have the advantage of hiring specialized skill sets from different parts of the world. In this competitive edge, your business gets fast rolling within fast around time.

Thus, one of the great BPO services is accurate data entries which is now used in all types of BPO sectors. This is initial requirements of any small, large and medium level of businesses.

If you are looking for outsource data entries requirements at trusted and well known BPO organization, then you can save valuable time of your office employee and you can use your efforts in significantly way to provide easy business process outsourcing solution.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing as the name suggests refers to the process of subcontracting some work assignments to a third-party. In the current scenario, it is being sold as a hot cake - the process itself along with the information related to outsourcing has equal demands in the market.

The History Repeats Itself

Human beings have been outsourcing from the beginning of clustering and strategizing of societies. Initially we were capable of handling all sorts of activities related to life. Later we felt the needs of fundamental structuring of business processes which gave birth to division of labor which ultimately led to job specialization. Gradually, there aroused the profession of plumbers, carpenters, electricians, masons, barber, smith, cooks, postmen, surgeon, policemen, lawyers and so on.

Why Outsourcing - Specialization and Prioritization

With the development of the society, we started to realize the following:

• We have work to do more than we can single handedly handle
• We might not have the skills and competence to do all that we need to do
• It is better to allow others to do some work that requires some sort of framework that we don't have
• It is easier to make profit maximization with the reduced over-head costs
• Businesses cam always generate dynamism through conversion of fixed costs into variables
• When we ward off or transfer the non-core process to the external, it becomes easy to prioritize on the core process
• Diversification, the mother of profit maximization has its inception only in the outsourcing of non-core operations from our side

In a nutshell, a business process outsourcing always allows us to settle for specialization and set the pace for positive and developmental prioritization of our operations and activities associated with our life.