EO Product employees manufacturing hand soaps and sanitizers

“This crisis has devastated so many small businesses – it’s heartbreaking. However, it is so uplifting and inspiring to hear stories from our clients and many other small businesses about uniting, leveraging resources, and doing all that they can to fight this pandemic.” – Barbara Morrison, CEO

OAKLAND, Calif. (PRWEB)
April 29, 2020

While the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause unprecedented disruption around the world, small businesses are developing creative solutions to aid in relief efforts. Whether it is adding extra employees, donating crucial medical supplies, or discovering how to modify their business model to serve their clients.

Here are three of TMC Financing’s small business clients who have adapted their day-to-day operations in order to enhance COVID-19 relief efforts within their local communities.

Bryn Walker

Bryn Walker is a women’s clothing retailer that manufactures luxurious fabrics and sophisticated designs. Through the SBA 504 Program, owner Bryan Walker purchased his retail property in Berkeley, CA in 2011. With the Bay Area as his home base, Bryan continued to gain an enthusiastic following because his designs are versatile and practical.

However, as a result of the recent shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, Bryan’s company shifted gears. Bryn Walker teamed up with a new non-profit called “It Takes a Village” to sew 50,000 fabric face masks and construct 5,000 face shields — all to be donated to local hospitals.

It Takes a Village Founder Shelly Wong stated, “Bryn Walker has been crucial in supporting the non-profit by donating fabric, elastic, and all the materials needed to help the effort. We are one of the groups that can provide volume with the help of Bryn Walker’s professional sewists.”

It Takes A Village has set up a GoFundMe to help reach their goals and is actively seeking volunteers. This group has already donated and received requests from the following hospitals, Alameda Health Systems (requested 8,000 face masks), Zuckerberg SF General (requested 10,000 face masks), Alta Bates Berkeley (requested 1,000 face masks), Santa Clara Valley County Medical, Palo Alto VA, Laguna Honda, Chinese Hospital SF, Sutter Health San Francisco, Mission Neighborhood Health Center, San Francisco.

TMC Financing is grateful to have worked with Bryan Walker and we are proud that he was able to pivot his companies’ operations to aid in the fight against this pandemic.

EO Products

EO Products is a certified organic manufacturer of personal care products and cosmetics based in San Rafael, CA. For 24 years, EO has blended items such as essential oils and soaps with safe and natural ingredients.

As the number of coronavirus cases soared across the United States, sanitizer and soap became difficult and often impossible to acquire. In response to the high demand, EO products sprang into action to help protect their community.

EO repurposed their entire production line to focus on hand sanitizer and cleaning products. Additional employees were hired in the warehouse, while the support staff learned to work from home. Normally, 7 production lines run in the company’s warehouse. Now, 5 of those 7 are solely focused on sanitizer and soap. During a four-week period ending on Feb. 22 executives reported a 73% jump in sanitizer sales — EO is now manufacturing 1 million hand sanitizer products a month.

TMC is proud to have worked with a company resourceful enough to adapt to not only ensure the safety of its customers, but also thoughtful enough to provide emotional support to its patrons.

In a social media post, EO compassionately wrote, “Through all this chaos, this might be one of the only things we know for sure. That we must take care of each other. We must stay home for one another.

“Another week has passed. It feels like at every moment things are shifting. You’ve seen it, felt it. Your worlds have been turned upside down, like ours. We’re taking a moment to pause, to reflect on our single mission right now as a business — to show up for the people who need us the most and to continue showing up for you where you’ve come to expect us.

“This week we’ve made a concerted effort to show up for our first responders, providing 8,000 bottles of sanitizer to the Emergency Response Center at the Moscone Center. We’ve been sending product as we can to the UCSF Emergency Room and have also equipped our local police station in the Inner Richmond neighborhood. We’re currently partnering with national organizations helping us get product into the hands of people who need them most – those that don’t have the option to stay home.

“Through all of this, our commitment stays the same: We are continuing to experience unprecedented product demand and order volumes. As new inventory becomes available, it sells out in minutes. In the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out solutions to better service the thousands of customers on our waitlist including offering pre-sale options.

“So, we’ll leave you with this. A reminder to pause and breathe. A reminder that there are better things to come. A reminder that you’re not alone and we’re in this together.”

Sol-Pak

Sol-Pak is a family-owned manufacturer of clear, plastic containers for the food service industry. TMC Financing has helped this family secure multiple SBA 504 loans to purchase real estate to house their operations.

Joubin Soleimani, Sol-Pak’s Chief Financial Officer, inadvertently realized that he has a unique opportunity to support local businesses throughout this difficult time.

Joubin and his wife learned about a food bank that was struggling to serve their clients because of the social distancing requirements. The food bank had enough food to donate but not enough containers to distribute meals.

“When I heard the story on the news, I thought to myself, this is terrible,” Joubin explained. “I immediately had an idea, we could donate the containers to this food bank. Heck — this is what we do. It’s simple.”

Joubin called the food bank directly and offered his company’s services free of charge.

“The food bank picked up my call right away,” said Joubin. “I explained to them that this was a gift. They were so appreciative. The process was easy. The very next morning, their trucks were parked at my warehouse and my staff loaded them with 5,000 containers.”

By donating 5,000 containers, the food bank had enough to distribute meals to the community for an entire month.

“I am thankful that we could help our community,” said Joubin. “I typically fly under the radar, work hard in the background, but I couldn’t stay quiet this time. Manufacturing plastic containers is what my family has done for generations. Our goal is to continue to donate to the businesses that need help — we are happy to do it.”

TMC Financing is proud of our clients who have evolved and gone above and beyond to assist in this time of crisis.

“I’ve had the privilege of helping passionate entrepreneurs grow their businesses and serve their communities for nearly 40 years,” Barbara Morrison, President of TMC Financing, explains. “This crisis has devastated so many small businesses — it’s heartbreaking. However, it is so uplifting and inspiring to hear stories from our clients and many other small businesses about uniting, leveraging resources, and doing all that they can to fight this pandemic.”

“The coronavirus pandemic has made a serious impact on the car insurance industry. Insurance companies and policyholders alike have begun to fell the consequences and they are adjusting to the new realities of the car insurance industry,” said Gurgu C, Project Manager of Internet Marketing Company.

LOS ANGELES (PRWEB)
April 29, 2020

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that explains how the coronavirus outbreak has changed the car insurance industry and what are the expected consequences.

For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/car-insurance-guide-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.

The coronavirus has affected the lives of everyone. The consequences of this unfortunate event are dire and no one knows exactly when it’s going to end. The hardships the regular Americans have to overcome are expected to be more severe than the ones from the last financial crisis. Regarding car insurance, there are a few good news for regular Americans. Several major car insurance providers have announced that they will help their customers who are in financial trouble. In these challenging times, the car insurance industry has seen some changes:

• 
  Car insurance companies are refunding premiums during the coronavirus crisis. Since the declaration of a national emergency in the US, the number of cars on the road had fallen drastically. Many companies have pledged to give paybacks to their customers, as car accidents are decreasing with fewer drivers on the road. More than 82% of auto insurance companies like State Farm, Geico and Liberty Mutual are offering policyholders refunds and credits to save money, totaling more than $6.5 billion over the next two months, according to the Consumer Federation of America.
• Numerous policyholders lost their jobs and now are seeking ways to cut off car insurance expenses. So many people’s lives have been altered by the coronavirus already, and many have felt the change most significantly in their budgets. Car insurance can be a financial burden for many drivers, especially in times of crisis. Canceling car insurance completely is not a solution for drivers unless they plan not to drive the car for the whole period, which is highly unlikely. The solution is to apply to coronavirus-related plans offered by the insurers.
• How to handle the current policy. Given the current coronavirus outbreak, most drivers are keeping their cars in a garage and they can be tempted to drop optional coverages like comprehensive or collision. However, drivers who still need to drive should consider that their cars could be damaged, stolen, or totaled in an accident, even if there are fewer cars on the road due to COVID-19 outbreak. Drivers who are planning on not driving at all for a long time, can put their vehicles in storage and keep only comprehensive insurance.
• It is expected to have more expensive premiums in the near future. Insurance providers collect billions of dollars that are not just waiting to be paid out in claims but are also being invested. Insurance companies make real money from their investments. Unfortunately, the investment world is currently on hold and the only alternative left for insurance companies is to raise the premiums once things go back to normal.
• Insurers and policyholders prefer to handle claims online. Everything is going digital in the car insurance world. instead of meeting with agents and claims adjusters, policyholders will have to contact the company via a call of a video conference. When reporting an accident, the policyholder will have to show pictures and videos that show the damage and support their claims. The company will send the evidence to some specialists, wait for results, and then contact the client and start negotiating the reimbursement’s value. Since insurance representatives do no longer physically contact the policyholder, everyone has to go online and check the customer services. Naturally, there are queues forming up. Most people want to know about their premium payments and the recently introduced premium refunds. Companies are recommended to send notifications and e-mails that inform the clients what to expect.

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/.

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

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SocialClimb’s recovery plan will help medical practices navigate the next phase of the pandemic and position themselves for rapid growth as the recovery begins.

AUSTIN, Texas (PRWEB)
April 29, 2020

SocialClimb, the leading patient acquisition solution, is offering their innovative platform and expertise to help medical practices properly configure their practice and physician Google My Business (GMB) listings at no cost during the COVID-19 pandemic. When set up properly, GMB listings can be used to inform medical consumers of telemedicine options, new office hours and safety measures the practices have put in place.

“Medical practices and healthcare professionals across the nation have been thrown off course by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ty Allen, SocialClimb CEO. “They are overwhelmed and overworked, their profitable elective procedures have been canceled or postponed, and they are on the front lines dealing with the health of the nation. We can’t help their patients, but we can support their practice. We are getting their GMB listings in shape so they can communicate more effectively with their patients and be found in Google Local Search results.”

Allen has participated in a number of webinars designed to give medical practices the tools they need to protect their practice and revenue during the pandemic. SocialClimb’s offer to help with GMB listings has been well received, and many webinar participants have taken advantage of the free service. SocialClimb also offers a three-phase recovery plan designed to help medical practices grow aggressively as restrictions on elective procedures ease over the next few months.

“It is essential to have a plan in place to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Pendleton, CEO of Desert Orthopaedic Center in Las Vegas. “SocialClimb’s recovery plan will help medical practices navigate the next phase of the pandemic and position themselves for rapid growth as the recovery begins.”

SocialClimb has partnered with thousands of physicians and practices across the nation to improve their online reputation and power their growth trajectory. Their cutting-edge software empowers medical practices to better connect with patients in need, dominate competitive markets, and fill their schedules with the profitable market share of patients. For more information about partnering with SocialClimb, or to get help with GMB listings, call 866-338-8270 or visit SocialClimb.com.

ABOUT SOCIALCLIMB

SocialClimb helps physicians improve their reputation, dominate local search and increase revenue. Its industry-leading platform lets physicians easily collect reviews, increase search rankings, respond to issues instantly, manage their key listings and strengthen practice and personal reputations quickly. Learn more about SocialClimb at socialclimb.com.

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The COVID – 19 crisis has accelerated patient preference for contactless engagement – medically and financially

Many providers’ recoveries will be frustrated by uncertainty about future disruptions and their dependence on traditional, labor-intensive “paper” billing methods at a time when consumers have placed a high premium on “contactless” digital engagement – Kevin Fleming, CEO, Loyale Healthcare

LAFAYETTE, Calif. (PRWEB)
April 29, 2020

Hospitals large and small, rural and urban, for profit and nonprofit all find themselves in the center of what NPR describes as a Financial Triple Whammy. High costs for COVID-19 treatment and equipment, suppressed revenues for elective procedures and growing numbers of uninsured, financially distressed patients are leading to billions of dollars in losses, furloughed employees, physician dislocation and closures. For healthcare providers, COVID-19 continues to be a financial nightmare. The billions in rescue money coming from the federal government will cover only a fraction of the losses being incurred.

Aggravating this challenge, there is no playbook for healthcare’s financial recovery from this crisis. Unlike past recessions, which were driven by demand-side economics and have historically demonstrated a U or V-shaped pattern for deepening and recovering, the COVID global health crisis is unprecedented in its scope, with no clear picture for when or how it may end. Still, and in spite of the uncertainty, past events can provide useful information for how to proceed.

As more and more healthcare providers begin resuming nonessential services, the profound financial damage wreaked by the crisis will likely persist. The lost revenue that precipitated pay cuts, furloughs and closures – both temporary and permanent – will take a great deal of time to return to pre-crisis levels. Many providers’ recoveries will be frustrated by uncertainty about future disruptions and their dependence on traditional, labor-intensive “paper” billing methods at a time when consumers have placed a high premium on “contactless” digital engagement throughout their care journey. Those who fail to respond will face severe ongoing revenue challenges.

Like other sectors of the U.S. economy, The U.S. Healthcare industry has faced economic recessions before and emerged intact, some much more successfully than others. In a Becker’s Hospital Review interview, McKinsey’s Aneesh Krishna pointed to an article titled, “Bubbles pop, downturns stop”, which calls out the most successful healthcare providers, labeled “resilients.” These hospitals stood out among their peers because of the speed with which they recovered and their growth rate since. The common characteristics among these “resilients” are:

• 
  Flexibility – By strengthening balance sheets and reducing debt to help facilitate mergers and acquisitions in the early stages of recovery when conditions were most advantageous.
• Cost Management – Reducing operating expenses early in the curve, focusing on areas where reductions in spending could be made without degrading patient care (more on that later), and
• A focus on growth – Usually considered “counter cyclical” healthcare has experienced more than its share of the negative effects of the COVID-19 phenomenon. Like other sectors, healthcare providers have been hit by revenue losses attributable to forced disruption in consumer demand.

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 financial triple whammy has made recovery planning more challenging than past events. Depleted cash reserves and higher debt loads have reduced or eliminated flexibility. And a focus on growth seems like wishful thinking when so many organizations are searching for ways to keep the lights on. Cost management, a strategy that has already received so much attention, is one area where meaningful progress can be made toward restoring operating margins.

After so many years of looking for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, one might ask how much more can be done. The answers lie in part in our experiences dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Forced by state and federal mandates and medical necessity, some hospitals have rapidly expanded contactless patient solutions like telehealth, which, according to MGMA offers, “cost savings, higher productivity, less windshield time driving between locations, better work-life balance and other benefits. Additionally, contactless patient interactions align with consumers’ interests – both by maintaining personal safety and by responding to their growing preference for care that’s more convenient, accessible and affordable.

Contactless Digital Solutions Cut Costs and Grow Revenues

Contactless, digital solutions enhance productivity by reducing work and its associated costs. At the same time, their on-demand capacity for rapid deployment (proven in providers’ rapid digital responses to COVID-related problems) and scalability make them ideal for an industry struggling to repair economic damage at the same time they are preparing for a surge in pent up demand for nonessential procedures. Case in point: Patient Financial Engagement.

Long before the COVID-19 crisis, we at Loyale Healthcare joined with other organizations like the Healthcare Financial Management Association(HFMA) in pointing out the need for healthcare providers to radically transform the way they engage with their patients financially. The reasons why are complex and interwoven, but they fall into four key categories:

1.    Patients have become the third largest source of provider revenue overall – Driven largely by the growth in high deductible health plans, patients directly account for more than a third of hospital income. Here, it is critical for providers to remember that patient choice also drives performance from the other two revenue sources, Medicare/Medicaid and private insurers.

2.    Patients are unhappy with their financial experiences – Surprise medical bills, a lack of price transparency and too few payment options have caused healthcare consumers to avoid care because of concerns about cost. More and more these deficiencies have been criticized by consumer watchdogs and legislators, with hundreds of bills pending to regulate objectionable financial practices. For millions of newly unemployed consumers, concerns about the ability to access care they can afford now are more acute than ever.

3.    Hospitals and other providers are poor bill collectors – The roles, processes and systems healthcare providers use to code, bill and collect payment from patients and payers are highly antiquated, expensive and do not respond well to change. Additionally, they have not provided healthcare managers and executives with the important consumer analytics needed to effectively manage this essential revenue source (not to mention valuable patient relationships).

4.    Healthcare has not kept up with changing consumer demand and behavior – Over the last decade, consumers have increasingly expressed a preference for online engagement – a trend that stay-at-home has only accelerated. Even before the crisis, millennials and younger were shifting away from the traditional primary care operating model to retail and digital health solutions because of their improved convenience and affordability.

The Post COVID-19 Digital Path to Improved Operating Efficiency and Margin Growth

As health systems, hospitals and other providers plan for their emergence and recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, Patient Financial Engagement (PFE) will be a critical core asset, operationally and competitively. Effective PFE will accelerate a return to revenue-positive financial performance and enable providers to compete more effectively with surging retail and digital providers. When applied as an end-to-end patient solution, it will reduce costs through automation and self-service and improve patient payment behavior by delivering personalized service at scale – thereby enhancing revenue.

Our experiences with some of healthcare’s largest nationwide providers have given us insight into best practices in the deployment of end-to-end Patient Financial Engagement. It encompasses every touchpoint in the patient journey, including:

• Payment planning – beginning with reliable cost estimates that include what the insurer and the patient are likely to owe, the system automatically offers up multiple payment scenarios that have been customized to suit the requirements of each patient. Options may include discounts for immediate payment, short-term interest free plans or longer-term plans using a third-party lender.
• Digital statement presentation and online payments – Loyale clients have been surprised by the numbers of patients who have opted out of traditional paper billing. Driven in part by consumers’ growing comfort with online interactions, patients express a high degree of satisfaction with bills that combine all the relevant billing entities into one, easy to understand presentation – and to pay it on the spot according to their plan or when they’re ready.
• Robust provider-facing functionality – The productivity of patient access, billing and collections staff and management is dramatically enhanced by “same view” presentation of patient billing information for problem solving and trouble shooting. At the same time, deep analytics extract data from every point in the patient financial portfolio to identify best practices and uncover opportunities for improvement.
• Personalized digital communications – Patients respond differently to different communication channels and styles. Using the Loyale PFE platform, our clients use data-driven, automatically generated workflows to drive patient communications by text, email or chat – and to adjust those communications as patient behavior is observed.
• Leading-edge interoperability – Loyale clients depend on their PFE platform’s seamless integration with all other Revenue Cycle systems and related clinical systems such as the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. They also rely on the ability to deliver the same patient experience in every care delivery setting regardless of the systems in use there. Acting as the core of the patient’s end-to-end financial journey, this provides patients with unfettered access to their financial information from any touchpoint in the system at any stage. Critically, it also illuminates financial stresses for caregivers who are increasingly likely to consider a patient’s financial circumstances when considering a course of treatment.

By leveraging a technology platform like Loyale’s Patient Financial Manager™ to optimize the systems associated with a patient’s financial experience, providers have the unique opportunity to cut costs and improve outcomes – in patient satisfaction and in operating performance. We’re pleased to be in discussions now with several health systems that have already identified PFE as a key strategy in their recovery plan. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to help.

Kevin Fleming is the CEO of Loyale Healthcare

About Loyale

Loyale Patient Financial Manager™ is a comprehensive patient financial engagement technology platform leveraging a suite of configurable solution components including predictive analytics, intelligent workflows, multiple patient financing vehicles, communications, payments, digital front doors and other key capabilities.

Loyale Healthcare is committed to a mission of turning patient responsibility into lasting loyalty for its healthcare provider customers. Based in Lafayette, California, Loyale and its leadership team bring 27 years of expertise delivering leading financial engagement solutions for complex business environments. Loyale currently serves approximately 12,000 healthcare providers across 48 states. Loyale is proud to have an enterprise-level strategic partnership with Parallon which includes the deployment of Loyale’s industry leading technology at all HCA hospitals and Physician Groups.

Dr. Kaliq Chang

When the piriformis muscle presses on the nearby sciatic nerve, symptoms such as pain, tingling and numbness in the buttocks usually show up first. But pain can also be triggered from climbing stairs, sitting for long periods, or pressure on the piriformis muscle itself.

WEST ORANGE, N.J. (PRWEB)
April 29, 2020

Life presents all too many problems that are a “pain in the butt,” but piriformis syndrome literally shows up in this manner, according to Kaliq Chang, MD, of Atlantic Spine Center. A flat muscle located in the buttocks near the top of the hip joint, the piriformis is an unsung hero in our day-to-day lives. The muscle enables us to walk, stay balanced, and shift our weight from foot to foot. When the piriformis muscle presses on the nearby sciatic nerve, symptoms such as pain, tingling and numbness in the buttocks usually show up first. But pain can also be triggered from climbing stairs, sitting for long periods, or pressure on the piriformis muscle itself.

While few are familiar with piriformis syndrome, the condition is more common than you might expect. About 5% of cases of sciatica – severe, sharp pain radiating from the lower back or buttocks down the leg – are actually due to piriformis syndrome, explains Dr. Chang, an interventional pain management specialist.

“Most cases of sciatica aren’t due to piriformis syndrome, even though the symptoms can be so similar,” Dr. Chang says. “That’s just one reason why, if your symptoms are severe or long-lasting, you should see a doctor to get to the bottom of things.”

Causes and diagnosis

Sometimes there’s no obvious reason why piriformis syndrome develops. But the condition does have several established causes, Dr. Chang says. They include:

• Injury
• Unusually vigorous exercise
• Certain foot problems
• Prior hip surgery
• Prolonged sitting, especially if your wallet is in a back pocket over your piriformis muscle
• Unusual anatomy (such as spine alignment, leg length discrepancy or location of piriformis muscle or sciatic nerve)

Diagnosing piriformis syndrome is typically based on your symptoms and your doctor’s observations during an exam. That’s because no particular medical test can confirm the diagnosis. An MRI imaging test can sometimes rule out other causes of sciatic nerve compression, such as a herniated disc.

“It may be difficult to reveal that piriformis syndrome is indeed the culprit behind a person’s symptoms,” Dr. Chang notes. “And piriformis syndrome sometimes also occurs in tandem with spine or disc problems or conditions such as hip bursitis.” Also, Dr. Chang adds, “while it is difficult to diagnose clinically or with imaging, an injection of local anesthetic can be diagnostic.”

Treatment and prevention

As with diagnosis, treating piriformis syndrome presents its own challenges, Dr. Chang says. Treatment can be as simple as avoiding positions or activities that trigger pain but applying heat or ice to tender areas can also help.

Other treatment measures include:

• Physical therapy to exercise and stretch the piriformis and nearby muscles, reducing sciatic nerve compression
• Medications such as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen or naproxen
• Muscle relaxants
• Injections of anesthetic drugs; Botox, to relieve muscle tightness and sciatic nerve compression; or corticosteroids to reduce inflammation
• Surgery, but only as a last resort, to remove a piece of the piriformis muscle or its tendon

As always, prevention is preferable to needing treatment in the first place. Since piriformis syndrome can often be triggered by repetitive movements, such as lunging or running, Dr. Chang suggests practicing good form when doing these activities.

“Try not to run or exercise on uneven surfaces, such as hills,” he says. “Also, practice good posture when walking, running and exercising, and warm up beforehand. It’s wise to avoid sitting for extended periods as well.”

Atlantic Spine Center is a nationally recognized leader for endoscopic spine surgery with several locations in NJ and NYC. http://www.atlanticspinecenter.com, http://www.atlanticspinecenter.nyc

Kaliq Chang, MD, is an interventional pain management specialist, double board-certified in interventional pain management and anesthesiology, at Atlantic Spine Center.

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