Four Options to Quickly Boost Your Practice’s Cash on Hand Balance
As patient volumes have fallen, many practices are worried about keeping their doors open through this national COVID-19 crisis. With that in mind, the goal of this update is to outline four options at your disposal to quickly increase your available cash balances. These have all been made available or made easier to pursue by recent government changes in reaction to the economic turmoil being caused by COVID-19 and the related “shelter in place” orders around the country. These are listed in the order from fastest to slowest in terms of increasing your available cash on hand.
- Apply for Medicare’s Accelerated Payment and Advance Program
- Apply for the Paycheck Protection Program as soon as it is open for applications
- Aggressively pursue telemedicine
- Apply for a Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan
Details and key links for these options
1. Apply for Medicare’s Accelerated Payment and Advance Program.
This program will advance you up to three months of your normal monthly Medicare payments.
Key elements of the program:
- You will have the money within seven business days from when you apply.
- You will not owe anything on this money for the first 120 days, AND your claims being sent to Medicare during this time will still pay as normal.
- You will begin having the advance recouped after 120 days.
- Please see this blog on ClaimCare’s website for more detailed information about the program: Medicare Accelerated Payment and Advance for Providers.
2. Apply for the Paycheck Protection Program
Key elements of the program:
- It should be live for applications by Friday, April 3rd.
- The money should be in your account in two weeks or less.
- It will be administered by banks and not the SBA.
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- You can receive a loan of up to 2.5 times your monthly payroll.
- No payments are owed for the first 6 months, and no payments will be owed at all if you meet the guidelines for full loan forgiveness.
- For the loan to be forgiven you need to use it within the eight weeks after the funds are received to pay for employee salaries, rent, utilities and other similar expenses. You also need to maintain your payroll and not significantly reduce it through layoffs or wage reductions.
- Here is a link to more information about the program: SBA Paycheck Protection Program.
3. Aggressively pursue telemedicine.
We have released multiple updates on this. The bottom line is that the reimbursements have increased, while the amount of required paperwork and other requirements have decreased; and the scope of what can be done with telemedicine has expanded. Please follow these links to see our latest updates on the ClaimCare Blog:
- How to Use Telemedicine to Keep Collections Flowing During the COVID-19 Crisis
- Latest Telehealth Changes Give More Relief to Providers.
4. Apply for a Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
These loans are available because a state of emergency has been declared. These loans will take longer to result in cash on hand than the first three options outlined, but they also allow for a loan amount of up to $2 million. These are different than normal SBA loans and the lending rules are more lenient.
Key elements of the program:
- These loans are administered by the SBA.
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- You can borrow up to $2 million.
- You can receive an almost immediate advance of $10,000.
- All businesses in all states are now eligible for these loans.
- The loan proceeds can be used for expenses that cannot be paid because of the COVID-19 economic disaster.
- The interest rate will be 3.75%.
- You will have up to 30 years to repay the loan.
- None of this loan is forgivable.
- Here is a link to the SBA Economic Disaster Loan Application.
As you can see, you have four great options to quickly improve your current cash position and help sustain you through this economic crisis. Rest assured that ClaimCare, with our fully HIPPA-compliant 100% USA-based work from home team, is focusing on every lever at our disposal to quickly bring money in from our clients' existing and new claims.
We encourage you to reach out to your practice’s banker to get more information about the loans outlined above. Please let ClaimCare know if you are in need of a professional medical billing company to become your partner and help you during this COVID-19 crisis - and beyond. Our mission statement is "To collect the maximum revenue for your practice as fast as possible while helping to alleviate costs and hassle for your organization"
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ClaimCare has once again been named a “Top 10 Medical Billing and Coding Company.” The honor this time comes from MD Tech Review. The magazine’s Augmenting Medical Billing and Coding Operations article presents solid reasons why ClaimCare has been chosen for this 2019-2020 recognition.
For additional information, contact sales@claimcare.net, or phone toll-free (855) 376-7631, or visit the ClaimCare Medical Billing website. We can assist your practice and/or facility in numerous ways.