According to Mike McDonnell of DANTOM Systems, collection agencies, and the companies that use them, should consider taking advantage of mobile tags, especially as consumers rely more on their smart phones.

Mobile tag barcodes would be placed in collection letters – and consumers would then scan the barcode with the camera on the smart phone, which brings up a Web site link or app download to a payment portal and debt schedule. Consumers can then pay online or contact the agency to make payment arrangements.

To learn more about choosing a reputable collection agency, read our white paper “Stop Leaving Money On The Table: Tips For Choosing and Working With A Collection Agency.”

According to a survey by Veriphyr (which interviewed 90 IT managers), a whopping 70% of medical practices reported a breach of patient information within the last year. And most of the breaches were committed by employees. In fact, 35% of those employees have snooped into other employees’ medical records, and 27% has snooped into records of family and friends.

In the past, if an employee needed access to someone’s paper medical records, that request would have to be made through the person in charge of records. Now, with EMR, the employee would simply find the data with a few clicks.

The survey highly recommended not just employee authentication (such as restricting access) but employee monitoring and compliance.

Other notable survey findings include:

*          Detection of data breaches was not as timely – 30% of breaches were detected in a one-to-three day time frame, whereas 17% of breaches were uncovered within two to four weeks.

*          79% of practices do not have adequate controls to prevent and report breaches – and they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about this.

*          But 47% plans on making improvements on this within the next year.

For more information on EMR, please download our white paper “Electronic Medical Records: Choosing the Best System for Your Practice.”

VoIP, when used in conjunction with a software app, provides features such as call logging applications (to keep track of phone calls) and the “click to call” function for customers to call customer service directly from a company’s website. The software can also allow the ability to record calls easily.  These features can help the company measure productivity, especially in the  sales, call centers, and customer service departments.

There is also new productivity-related software that is coming out in conjunction with VoIP systems, i.e. a call center routing application that ensures better response time and routing to the correct phone.

If you’re interested in learning more about VoIP, you can download our white paper “VoIP Basics: An Introduction to the Benefits of IP Telephony.”

Enter VoIP ­— VoIP provides the ability for employees to make and receive calls on their office phone number from anywhere, as long as an Internet connection is available.  The employee uses a “soft phone”, which is a software app that uses VoIP technology to make calls over the Internet. A soft phone comes in two forms:

*          Via a networked PC, with a headset and microphone connecting to the PC’s sound card. Calls are made through the software installed on the computer.

*          Via a USB phone, which is a device with that looks like a phone handset and connects to the PC through a USB interface.

VoIP systems also offer a web-based portal, where the employee can perform tasks, such as listening to voicemail and view missed call records. Also, VoIP provides a routing feature, known as find me/follow me, that let the employee have his or her calls routed to a home or cell phone.  This feature ensures employees can reach and be reached by their contacts in a quicker manner.

If you’re interested in learning more about VoIP, you can download our white paper “VoIP Basics: An Introduction to the Benefits of IP Telephony.”

This is according to a study that evaluated 12,000 patients at Kaiser Permanente Colorado that were prescribed medication electronically for chronic illnesses, such as cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.  All the offices and pharmacies in the Kaiser system use the same software that integrates the electronic prescription feature with electronic medical records.

In an older research of offices that does not utilize the e-prescription feature, 22 percent of patients did not fill out their prescriptions. Now, with doctors prescribing electronically, failure rate dropped to:

• 7% for blood pressure patients,
• 11% for diabetes patients, and
• 13% for cholesterol patients.

For more information on EMR, please download our white paper “Electronic Medical Records: Choosing the Best System for Your Practice.”

This is according to a survey reported by Marketing Maven Blog, a blog dedicated to online marketing in the industrial sector.  Marketing spending, as well as sales (evidenced by 87% of companies surveyed), are predicted to increase in 2011 over 2010, with social media playing a big role.

Popular social media applications are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as blogs and online events.  LinkedIn got the most votes (used by 69% of companies surveyed).

And the marketing budget’s not just going to social networking sites: 64% of companies plan to increase spending on video, and 47% plan to spend more on online events.

The blog also provided the main takeaway for all companies to keep in mind, not just those in the industrial sector: Don’t make social media the sole focus of your marketing time and budget – rather, it should complement existing marketing efforts.

For more information on online marketing, please download our whitepaper: “Choosing the Right Tools to Get the Most from Your Online Marketing Budget.”

This is according to a survey by Iron Mountain, which also asked 200 healthcare professionals how they planned to scan paper records and handle them once they’ve been scanned.  58% of hospitals plan to destroy paper records after scanning, while 38% plan to keep them either onsite or in an offsite facility.

Other main findings include:

* 54% of hospitals are scanning records onsite, while 29% use a centralized scanning location.

* Scanning is mainly performed by full-time employees (72%) rather than outsourced (9%).

* Not only does scanning cost in time, but also cost in money – 23% are within their scanning budgets but reported a large backlog of records yet to be scanned.

The survey reported three suggestions in saving time and money during the scanning process:

1.)    Outsourcing,

2.)    Centralizing paper records (removing duplicate records, etc), and

3.)    Prioritizing which records needs to be scanned first.

For more information on EMR, please download our white paper “Electronic Medical Records: Choosing the Best System for Your Practice.”

When your business uses a third-party collection agency, the agency is acting on your behalf. If the agency uses any unseemly tactics, that could have a lasting negative impact on your company’s reputation.

And as the difficult economy of the past few years has led to more invoices ending up in collections, agencies are under more scrutiny than ever.

The number of complaints filed against collection agencies in 2010 was 17% higher than the figure from 2009, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

And starting July 21, the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will begin setting new rules and investigating complaints filed against bill collectors.

Agencies accused of abuse and harassment are still a very small minority in the collections field – however, the closer scrutiny means that choosing the wrong agency could have even greater consequences than before.

That’s why it’s important to fully vet any agencies you company works with. That includes checking references to find out if any of the agency’s customers have had any problems regarding compliance.

To learn more about choosing a reputable collection agency, read our white paper “Stop Leaving Money On The Table: Tips For Choosing and Working With A Collection Agency.”

One way to keep external collectors from damaging your business’s name: Communicate.

The more information an agency has, the less likely they are to do something your customers will perceive as abusive – and the more likely they’ll successfully collect on that account.

Here is some of the information a collection agency will need in order to treat debtors in a way that’s consistent with your values, according to Collections and Credit Risk:

• An explanation of how you want your company to be viewed by others
• How your internal accounts receivable employees typically interact with customers (for example, how they start off a call), and
• What aspects of your company’s brand should be emphasized during collections calls.

To learn more about how to best work with a third-party collection agency, read our white paper “Stop Leaving Money On The Table: Tips For Choosing and Working With A Collection Agency.”

That’s the word from the recent “State of Search Marketing Report 2011” published by Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.

The 920 marketing professionals surveyed were asked which methods their organizations were focusing on in 2011. The results:

1. Search engine optimization – 86%
2. Paid search marketing (pay-per-click campaigns and paid search ads) – 79%, and
3. Social media marking – 74%.

In other words, all types of online marketing are high priorities for companies.

The trouble for many small businesses, though, is that they can’t afford to dedicate resources to several different marketing campaigns in the way that some of their larger competitors can.

That’s why many organizations look for help from third-party marketing firms. Those service providers use their marketing expertise to design and implement various types of campaigns for clients.

For information on finding the marketing firm that’s best for your organization, download our white paper, “Choosing the Right Tools to Get the Most from Your Online Marketing Budget.”