Practice Management Alert

6 steps to take before you send an account to the collector

When should you send an account to the collector? The answer varies from practice to practice, depending on the details of in-house collection procedures, says Vincent Gaudio, principal of Collexx Inc., a collections agency in Long Valley, N.J. For best in-house results, follow these billing steps before you send an account to the collector:
 
1. Bill the patient while he or she is still being treated, if you can, says Adrienne Rabinowitz, CPC, billing manager at Western Monmouth Orthopedic Associates in Freehold, N.J. The patient still needs the physician's services at this point and is less likely to ignore the bill.

2. Send two statements before initiating in-house collections procedures.

3. Initiate a phone call to tell the patient you're trying to keep her account from going into collections. Ask if there is anything your office can do to help the patient pay her bill, Rabinowitz says. Sometimes personal contact is all it takes to resolve the situation.

4. Set up a mutually agreeable payment plan to accommodate patients who want to pay but can't afford the entire balance at one time, Rabinowitz says. Have patients sign this agreement, either by coming into the office or by mailing or faxing a copy for them to sign and return.

5. Accommodate the patient's needs to get the bill paid. Send self-addressed, stamped envelopes if you think that will help. Rabinowitz confesses she's even gone as far as to make up a little payment booklet with monthly reminders for one patient. You may think that these individualized efforts are above and beyond the call of duty, but it's worth it if it helps you get paid, she says.

6. Don't waste time when dealing with past-due accounts. "The newer the bill is, the easier it is to collect on, and that's true also for the collection agency," Rabinowitz says.