Invoicing hospitals

[ryanstum15]

When travel agencies invoice hospitals to get paid, how does this process work? Do they just fax the employee/manager-signed timecard to the hospital along with their own custom invoice, or does the hospital provide the template/rules for invoicing?

[NedRN]

Invoicing by mail is likely still the standard business practice. However, the last time I did that was 12 years ago. Since then, it has been email only, which has big advantages. Less paper, less work, faster delivery at lower cost, and most importantly (to me), tracking sending and delivering. No lost invoices. Faxing invoices seems super cheesy to me but perhaps some do it. In any case, it is a negotiation between you and the facility or vendor manager how invoices are handled.

I've never seen rules about invoicing. Some hospitals may prefer two week billing. I've always invoiced weekly. 30 days net is the business Standard terms are 1 percent interest per month on late payments. A hospital may even prefer to reverse invoice you. I've only seen this with vendor managers, but it can streamline processes for an organized facility.

[ryanstum15]

1 question.. In your experience, what person at the hospital are you usually invoicing? An HR manager or some other specific person/department within the hospital?

[NedRN]

Often it is the person I negotiated contracts with but I seldom know their title. I just ask who I can email invoices to. Simple queries are indeed professional, there is absolutely no way an outsider could guess.

[ryanstum15]

Is there a template you print off the internet to use for an invoice or where do you get your actual invoice forms from?

[NedRN]

Personally, I use Quickbooks but yes, there are a kazillion templates available online. Could even be some free programs available if you use Windows.

Easy enough to make one with Word too. If you are good in Office, I'd recommend an Excel imbed in a word doc.

Ideally all your documents will have a logo as it help lend a professional appearance. That was about the only thing I got professional help - $50 to a guy I was sitting next to at a Kinkos to clean up a logo my sister made for me.

[NedRN]

I should add that you can buy older versions of QB for a song on eBay, just check for compatibility. I just recently updated my 12 year old version when I bought a new laptop. It makes it easy to run your books. It may take some thought to set up your books right, and it might be worthwhile to pay an accountant to do it. I did OK without professional help, but I had studied tax categories extensively.

[DpiRN]

NedRN

How do you go about contracting yourself out to hospitals you never worked for before? Is there a database that all hospitals post on for hired need?

[NedRN]

How do you find travel assignments? Same process, no central data repositories.