Author: jmaslow1

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Fortis ASC Billing Announces New Outsourced Billing Services

There are reasons that businesses everywhere are continuing to embrace outsourcing, especially when it comes to their digital operations. Here’s a review of commercial outsourcing in the contemporary marketplace.

Outsourcing your billing is becoming incredibly common

Outsourcing used to be affiliated with manufacturing in the minds of most individuals. When discussing outsourcing in days past, we frequently focused on the number of domestic job losses that it would produce, or related topics.

These days, however, outsourcing has less and less to do with manufacturing and employment and far more to do with digital operations, especially insofar as billing is concerned.

Hospitals are outsourcing their billing to a never before seen extent, for instance. Medical billing is of the utmost importance, as many patients struggle to make sense of how and why they’re being charged for various medical procedures.

Handling billing in an in-house fashion remains the most common method in the modern medical industry, but more and more healthcare providers are pivoting to an outsourced billing model that allows them to save huge sums of money.

This is particularly notable in the era of COVID-19, as many hospitals and other healthcare facilities are finding themselves in a financial nightmare due to the way the virus affected the economy and typical operations.

Other businesses are outsourcing, too

Hospitals aren’t the only outsourcing centers. Large businesses and large corporations everywhere are embracing outsourcing, especially when it comes to billing. According to a recent report from ZDNet, tech companies everywhere are embracing outsourcing as a method of expanding their “everything-as-a-service” model that’s become a staple of the tech industry over the past few years.

Some entrepreneurs understand that businesses like Fortis ASC Billing Company are more affordable or effective at managing billing tasks than their in-house team.

The healthcare industry is going to keep growing for years to come. This was true before COVID-19 and will remain true after it. We can expect this trend of outsourcing billing to continue for the foreseeable future.

Small businesses that aren’t affiliated with the healthcare industry at all are also beginning to embrace it because of the cost-savings they can reap from such a strategy. In the coming days, expect more digital outsourcing to occur across the economy.

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Hemper Leads The Way In A Rebounding Market

The CBD market went through a boom between 2018 and 2019 when government deregulation led to a spurt in agricultural product of cannabis. However, by the end of last year, the market had become over-saturated and the sectors’ valuation has come tumbling down.

In 2019, there were many CBD companies valued at over $1 billion. That has dramatically changed in 2020.

Companies, such as  CBD Brand, Charlotte’s Web Holdings, are valued at half that, $500 million dollars currently; others are even less. That now presents a new opportunity which companies like Hemper are poised to capitalize on.

The growth in CBD products is hardly surprising considering the whole range of therapeutic conditions it has been prescribed for. These include: anxiety, depression, insomnia, muscle ache, and many more. But CBD just represents one aspect of the marijuana market. An even bigger sector is hemp.

According to forecasts, hemp is expected to grow by 53.1% over the next five years. This market, too, has been spurred by legislative changes in the United States. Bills, such as the 2018 Farm Bill, legalized the agricultural production of hemp on an industrial scale. This then turned it into a mainstream agricultural product which has huge profit margins and is a very lucrative trade for farmers.

Indeed, the growth of the CBD sector can also be attributed to the boom in hemp. Once hemp production was in full swing, by 2018, marijuana by-products, such as CBD, became much more economical to manufacture.

In the current market, CBD growth is now attributed to the growing awareness of it therapeutic benefits among the wider population. Particularly during the lockdown period, which has subjected many people around the world to isolation and loneliness, CBD has been used to treat a range of mental health conditions.

The market is now ripe for mainstream retailers, such as Hemper, to offer CBD products at a very attractive profit margin. That profit margin hasn’t gone unnoticed by mainstream retailers, such as CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, who all plan to sell CBD products in almost 2000 locations across the United States.

And it’s not just retailers. Many US athletes, who use CBD extensively during their training recovery periods, have also launched CBD products. For example, pro rugby player, Grayson Hart, who swears by the therapeutic benefits of CBD, has begun selling his own creams, sprays and oils. Hart says one of the reasons he was motivated to launch his own product line is because many manufacturers contamicate their products with THC – a substance banned by sports anti-doping bodies.

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Budding Musicians Are Turning To Samplified Royalty Free Sample Packs

Technology has dramatically changed the business of music, in the way it is produced and consumed. Now, it’s easier than ever for a budding producer or musician, with little or no money, to cut a track in his or her bedroom. One of the businesses that’s fueling this new wave of music, is royalty-free music sample packs.

These sound loops have become the raw material for recording artists around the world and are gaining in popularity. Literally millions of sound loops are available for download on platforms like Samplified, which provides sample packs royalty free for producers to use in their recordings.

Loops are small snippets of music that are entirely composed by computer. They are usually short melodies that could serve as a hook for a song but without the remaining song. They can be simple sounds composed of one or two instruments or complex multilayered compositions in their own right.

These loops are in high demand and the business to supply them has become very lucrative. Many musicians have turned creating sound loops into a full time job. Someone looking for a full time job in creating and selling sound loops often uses social media channels to connect with producers. Once they’ve found a producer who might be interested in their sample, they will then incorporate the loop in their next track. Sometimes they will change the pitch of the loop, or the tempo, but often times it will be left as it is while an artist records over it.

However, musicians must also be aware that if they are making money from creating loops, then knowing about licensing becomes essential. You will only be able to make money from their loops with a proper licensing framework around their work.

With that in mind, producers will also have to be careful to make sure they get a license for the loops they use or only use royalty free loops.

It has become increasingly common for producers to swap and share loops on online communities, freely and without concern for the licensing situation. One producer, !llmind, went to length on Instagram to explain why he doesn’t like other producers selling loops royalty free.

“The true value to sustain a real career as a music producer is to build your writer/publishing value, over time,” said !llmind. “Sure, you can sell sample packs and kits and make a good living… but if you’ve never tasted the other side and got a major placement or publishing deal or know how important your publishing is, you don’t value it as much, so you would rather sell the “Royalty Free” sample packs because you’re making quick money from it.”

It is important for producers and musicians alike, to think carefully when they sell or buy a music loop. Producers need to know their full entitlement to use a sample and musicians should understand the limitations of selling loops royalty free.

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Market Research Marketwatch

MRI Technology Continues To Advance By Leaps And Bounds

Magnetic resonance imaging continues to be one of the most important healthcare technologies in the modern world, with tens of millions of MRI scans occurring each year in the United States alone. MRIs have come a long way since their early days, with clever innovations allowing medical professionals to peer deeper and more accurately into the body’s cavities with the help of this wondrous technology. Contemporary developments have continued to improve the efficacy of MRI treatments over the past few years, despite the fact that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has upset the entire medical field.

MRI technology can now be used on those who are exercising to determine their overall cardiovascular health, and other innovations are also pushing it forward like never before. Here’s a review of recent MRI innovations, and how the pandemic has changed the field of magnetic resonance imaging. 

4D flow MRI technology is on its way

A few years ago, 4D flow MRI technology was offered up by researchers as a potentially helpful innovation that could assist in the monitoring of cardiovascular health. Recently, researchers who published their findings on June 18th in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging demonstrated that this technology is now feasible and can be tested on patients who are exercising to gauge the health of their hearts. According to University of Chicago Medicine’s website, MRI technology can “show if heart muscle is alive or dead” and is “the most accurate test for calculating the patient’s ejection fraction, a measurement of the percentage of blood pumped out of the heart each time it contracts.” 

Recent public health concerns have changed how MRIs are leveraged by medical professionals. Some researchers are using MRI technology to gauge changes in COVID-19 patient brain activity, but for the most part, COVID-19 patients aren’t being treated with MRI technology. The American College of Radiology recommended that MRIs be avoided for COVID-19 patients unless they were specifically required by medical professionals for unique reasons. Nevertheless, cheap MRI technology has become more widely available in the past few years, though the current overload the healthcare system is dealing with makes it difficult for many to seek out various treatments that they may need. 

Unfortunately, the continued spread of COVID-19 has likely seriously diminished the overall output of clinical research into future MRI innovations. According to one report, universities and healthcare facilities across the country are simply spread too thin to allocate resources to MRI innovations right now. Nevertheless, many patients around the country continue to require MRIs for a wide variety of reasons, so we can expect future research to continue when the pandemic subsides.

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How COVID-19 Has Impacted The Cannabis Industry

Countless businesses have permanently closed their doors over the past few months due to COVID-19, though certain sectors of the economy have remained vibrant despite the economic shutdown imposed to thwart the spread of the virus. The cannabis industry, for instance, has continued to show high levels of growth despite massive changes to consumer behavior since COVID-19 became the grim reality that most people around the world were forced to grapple with in their daily lives. Still, some of the changes to the cannabis industry wrought by the coronavirus remain worthy of discussion. 

Here’s a review of how COVID-19 has impacted the cannabis industry, which sectors are thriving, and how investors and consumers are responding to this shutdown.

Recreational spending remains strong

When the economy shut down in order to prevent the in-person transmission of COVID-19, countless businesses found themselves in a financially perilous situation. Restaurants and other companies that relied on face-to-face interaction were quickly finding themselves bankrupt. Other sectors of the economy managed to survive and even thrive, however, and recreational spending on certain things such as alcohol and cannabis actually saw upticks in many areas. The retail marijuana market is growing so quickly despite the public health pandemic that it recently spurred High Times to make a mammoth $80 million dollar deal to further entrench itself in the industry. 

High Times took over 13 dispensaries previously owned by Harvest Health, one of the largest names in the American marijuana marketplace. This bold decision was likely motivated by the fact that many consumers are dealing with the extra time and stress they’re currently faced with by lighting up. The month of May saw surprisingly resilient numbers when it came to adult consumption of marijuana levels, and we can expect these numbers to remain fairly positive for the foreseeable future. Despite the fact that COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, many marijuana users are reacting to the stress of the current moment by relying on an old, familiar friend. 

Those who predicted the death of dispensaries and marijuana seed banks during the early days of the pandemic were thus jumping the gun. Consumers and investors alike remain confident in the marijuana sector, though the stock performance of specific brands continues to vary on a wide basis for a number of reasons. 

Medical marijuana is changing

Recreational marijuana isn’t the only thing that’s benefited from the pandemic. Medicinal marijuana continues to be in high demand, too, though the public health crisis is forcing medicinal marijauna providers to make some changes in order to rigorously maintain health and hygiene standards. According to one report about medical dispensaries in the state of Ohio, many of these facilities are taking more orders over the phone than ever before. Curb-side pickup is also taking off like never before, as this helps cannabis professionals provide their customers with much-needed goodies without too much face-to-face interaction. 

It’s pretty amazing that marijuana, which remained a cultural boogie man just a decade or so ago, is now deemed essential to the modern economy. This shows har far the industry has come, and how far it may yet grow – literally.

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Exploring The Ongoing Bee Crisis

The last few years have seen the publication of worrying claims about the population of honeybees, wild bees, and other insect populations that have many people concerned about the ecological future of the planet. Professionals like Dr. Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota’s Honey Bee Lab have argued that serious changes are needed to preserve our insect populations. Nevertheless, many misleading news articles and disinformation campaigns have misled large swathes of the public, who are aware that there’s a problem right now but are unsure of what to do about it. 

Here’s an exploration of the ongoing bee crisis, and what insect experts have to say about declining insect populations. 

Bees are critical pollinators

Why are bees important, anyway? Some people are allergic to bees, and others are simply scared of them, leading to many widespread doubts about their importance to our ecosystems. In truth, bees are critical pollinators who provide an invaluable service to local communities. According to Dr. Marla Spivak, bees are our most important pollinators when it comes to fruits and vegetables, not to mention a host of other crops like Alfalfa. “More than one-third of the world’s crop production is dependent on bee pollination,” according to an interview with Dr. Spivak, illustrating just how vital a role these little buzzers play in our lives. 

Bees are often considered to be domesticated livestock because of beekeepers who formally manage their hives. In truth, while many bees are treated in a similar fashion to livestock, wild bee populations are also incredibly important for ecological purposes. Wild bees help increase the stability of crop production across the planet, even when domesticated honey bees are present in the same area. 

Some have chocked up the disappearance of bees to an increase in pesticide use, but this isn’t necessarily true, nor the full story. Getting a budget friendly deal on such chemicals is thus not necessarily the worst thing for insect populations. In her interview, Dr. Spivak notes that a pivot to monocultures in American agriculture – or the tendency to grow only one thing – has diminished the vibrancy of bee populations. Dr. Spivak notes that bee population losses are being offset by beekeepers who are hard at work rebuilding these populations to ensure the industry demand for bees can be met, but that this is a precarious situation. 

The Sierra Club encourages campaigns that seek to save the bees to represent bee diversity, rather than just focusing on the misleading case of the honey bee. While honey bees are important, wild bees and other insect populations must also be carefully looked after.

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Dermani Medspa Is Adapting To COVID-19 With New Social Distancing Plans

Recent reports focused on how spas, salons, and other beauty and wellness services have reacted to COVID-19 thus far provided invaluable information that will help determine whether the global wellness market recovers in the near-future. While spas and salons were some of the first things to be shut down as the coronavirus ravaged the global population, social distancing measures and improved hygiene standards have already made it possible to safely reopen as long as certain steps are taken beforehand to guarantee public health isn’t jeopardized. 

Here’s a review of how the global wellness market is adapting to COVID-19, and why we can expect salons and spas to fare much better than many though they would at the beginning of the pandemic.

In some hotels, spas will remain closed

Certain facets of the wellness market are doing better than others. While dedicated salons and spas that focus on the rejuvenation of their consumers are finding it possible to reopen as long as they follow guidance issued by public health authorities, small-time operations that are a part of larger commercial entities may find it impossible to reopen anytime soon. Spas that are part of hotels, for instance, are finding themselves beset by unique difficulties as the economy begins to reopen. Many hotels don’t want to concern customers and are thus pulling the plug on their spa operations, yet dedicated salons and spa facilities that stand alone elsewhere are beginning to cautiously reopen.

According to guidance issued by the CDC, nail salons are still capable of being reopened as long as employers follow strict rules that ensure interpersonal contact is brought down to the bare minimum. By relying on digital technology to book appointments and by keeping customers far apart from one another, for instance, many nail salons will find it capable to reopen themselves in the next few weeks if they haven’t already. Generally speaking, a review of how the spa industry has adapted thus far shows that serious spas which took hygiene seriously before this crisis don’t have to implement too many changes other than social distancing efforts. 

This is because excellent facilities like Dermani Medspa already regularly sanitized their operations and disinfected front desks, bathrooms, and common surface areas for the wellbeing of customers and employees long before COVID-19 became an issue. It’s thus easy to see that the global wellness industry will perform better than most as we begin to reopen, as professionals in this field are already familiar with keeping customers safe and prioritizing hygiene.

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All About Razor Reports Record Sales During Father’s Day 2020

The continued spread of COVID-19 has led to many disruptions in the marketplace, with entire industries finding themselves going under due to social distancing efforts and a lack of consumer confidence. Other sectors of the economy have actually benefited from an increase in eCommerce sales, however, illustrating that there’s no easy way to summarize how COVID-19 is changing our socioeconomic practices. Recently, Father’s Day 2020 was partially disrupted by COVID-19, though there are reasons to believe that we managed to overcome the challenges of social distancing in order to celebrate dads everywhere.

Sports games, lawn equipment, and shaving gear are all popular facets of Father’s Day, but this year there were some serious changes to these and other sectors of the economy. Here’s how COVID-19 disrupted Father’s Day 2020, and which products were flying off the shelves in an unusual way. 

Online shopping is more popular than ever

It will come as little surprise to most people that online shopping is more popular right now than ever before, largely because most consumers are justifiably fearful of a trip to local businesses which may entail an infection risk. What’s particularly interesting is that Father’s Day usually benefits certain economic sectors more than others, and this remained true this year despite the ongoing disruptions to our economy brought about by the coronavirus.

Outdoor spending, for instance, is commonly given a boost around Father’s Day. Many people like to give their fathers an All About Razor, a few tools for the garage, or elaborate new riding lawn mowers and other lawn care equipment. Early on in the pandemic, many people were actively encouraged to go out and treat their lawns during the shutdown as a way of getting some fresh air without exposing themselves to others. This appears to have taken hold across the country, as many people are embarking upon home renovation and law maintenance projects that they would otherwise lack the time for if they weren’t working from home or beset by a furlough.  

Razors, beard trimmers, and other mens-styling equipment are normal Father’s Day gifts and have been for years. This year, they were particularly popular given that the economic shutdown led many barbershops to close their doors for good. Many people wanted to get a haircut but simply couldn’t for public health reasons. Thus, major media outlets like CNN provided guidance for cutting your hair at home because purchasing clippers and razors became particularly more common this season. 

Unfortunately, other Father’s Day traditions likely suffered due to COVID-19. Many people like to visit local parks or go to a sports game in the proximity of Father’s Day to celebrate their old man, but that was obviously not possible this year to do social distancing guidelines. Indeed, professional sports are still largely shut down in most places and likely won’t return to normal until a vaccine is widely available to the public. In this regard, COVID-19 disrupted Father’s Day 2020 for the worse. Finally, more people bought outdoor furniture than ever before to celebrate the shutdown in style, according to a report from CNBC. At the very least, COVID-19 has ensured that dads everywhere get to enjoy more time in their backyards than ever before.

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aDriving Launches New Driving Lesson Program Post-Covid-19

In the UK, the government is planning major reopening measures in the coming weeks, to ease the country out of lockdown. The country has been in lockdown mode since the Covid-19 pandemic was declared back in March, but 4 July has been named the date when a whole host of businesses are set to reopen.

This is great news for many small businesses, such as hairdressers, nail salons and driving schools. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has explicitly said that car showrooms, alongside other retailers, can open on the 4th. However, the position of driving schools offering driving lessons, such as aDriving, remains more uncertain.

In many ways, driving lessons never stopped. Since March, the government has allowed workers in key industries to be allowed to take driving lessons, while everyone else, including the millions of 16 and 17-year-olds who would be routinely learning to drive, are barred.

But from July, the government is allowing businesses to open, as long as they can maintain a distance of 1m between people. In most small learner cars that is impossible, but in bigger cars, as long as both driver and passengers wear facemasks and other PPE, it certainly is possible.

This is certainly good news for driving schools who have, like other businesses, suffered terribly during the lockdown. Even more good news is that the government announced that MOT tests for cars can also be resumed. An MOT test is what every car needs to go through every few years to prove that it is roadworthy. Without an MOT test, the car cannot be driven on the road.

Because of the pandemic, MOT tests have been paused for the last three months, leaving many drivers stranded. However, unlike other steps for “reopening Britain,” MOT tests can only take place as long as social distancing measures are enforced and PPE is used throughout the test period.

For many in the automotive industry, which has shed 6,000 jobs in the UK alone, this will come as small consolation. However, even these incremental steps will go a long way to alleviating the suffering currently afflicting the sector.

When things do go completely back to normal, businesses, such as A Driving, will be ready to serve customers again to their full capacity. Until then, you can check out A Driving on its website: https://www.adriving.co.uk/

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Samplified Launches New Website Offering Royalty Free Sample Packs

A quiet revolution in the music industry is underway. It is happening in the bedrooms of musicians connected to the internet, sharing and selling sound loops for others to use.

These sound loops have become the raw material for recording artists around the world and are gaining in popularity. Literally millions of sound loops are available for download on platforms like Samplified, which provides sample packs royalty free for producers to use in their recordings.

Loops are small snippets of music that are entirely composed by computer. They are usually short melodies that could serve as a hook for a song but without the remaining song. They can be simple sounds composed of one or two instruments or complex multilayered compositions in their own right. 

These loops are in high demand and the business to supply them has become very lucrative. Many musicians have turned creating sound loops into a full time job. Someone looking for a full time job in creating and selling sound loops often uses social media channels to connect with producers. Once they’ve found a producer who might be interested in their sample, they will then incorporate the loop in their next track. Sometimes they will change the pitch of the loop, or the tempo, but often times it will be left as it is while an artist records over it.

However, musicians must also be aware that if they are making money from creating loops, then knowing about licensing becomes essential. You will only be able to make money from their loops with a proper licensing framework around their work.

With that in mind, producers will also have to be careful to make sure they get a license for the loops they use or only use royalty free loops.

It has become increasingly common for producers to swap and share loops on online communities, freely and without concern for the licensing situation. One producer, !llmind, went to length on Instagram to explain why he doesn’t like other producers selling loops royalty free.

“The true value to sustain a real career as a music producer is to build your writer/publishing value, over time,” said !llmind. “Sure, you can sell sample packs and kits and make a good living… but if you’ve never tasted the other side and got a major placement or publishing deal or know how important your publishing is, you don’t value it as much, so you would rather sell the “Royalty Free” sample packs because you’re making quick money from it.”

It is important for producers and musicians alike, to think carefully when they sell or buy a music loop. Producers need to know their full entitlement to use a sample and musicians should understand the limitations of selling loops royalty free.