Practice Management Alert

Sample scripts help staff gain expertise--and more money for your medical practice

You know that collecting money from patients is never easy, but staff can get better at it through role-playing sessions. Live collections training has been invaluable to Joyce Tessier, billing manager at HMM/CBO in Flemington, N.J. HMM/CBO writes its own sample scripts to use in role-playing scenarios designed to train staff on collections policies.

Below are three simple collections scenarios that Tessier uses in training sessions and that you can customize to test your collectors- expertise:

- Scenario 1: You-ve confirmed an appointment with a patient who has a balance due. Payer objection: The patient refuses to bring payment.

- Scenario 2: The responsible party refuses to pay the copay at the time of service. Payer objection: The patient says he has no money.

- Scenario 3: The responsible party refuses to pay, stating the court has ordered the spouse to be responsible for a child's medical bills. Payer objection: The spouse refuses payment, saying the other spouse should pay.

Strategy: Ask each collector at the practice to list the top-three patient excuses for not paying. Take a look at the surveys, and then have staff develop a role play in which collectors have to react to the patient's excuses.

Avoid these: When conducting collections training, Tessier always reminds trainees to avoid words and phrases like:

- Can you ... ?
- Will you ... ?
- Would you like to ... ?
- Did you want to pay for that today ... ?
- Did you want to discuss this with billing ... ?

Use instead: Tessier recommends that trainees use these words and phrases when collecting:

- You need to pay your balance today before you see the doctor.
- We require payment of your balance today.
- How will you be paying your balance today: cash, check, credit card?
- We can take a post-dated check. (Use this as a last resort.)
- Copays are payable at the time of service per your contract with your insurance company.
- I would be glad to set up a payment plan for you.