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Collection Agency for Small Balances
A patient owes my office about $300 and isn’t responding to our billing letter even after we told him that we’ll send him to collections. I’ve now found out that our collection agency won’t take accounts under $500. What do I do?
Question: A patient owes my office about $300 and isn’t responding to our billing letter even after we told him that we’ll send him to collections. I’ve now found out that our collection agency won’t take accounts under $500. What do I do?
Answer: Well, for one thing, I’d have a written policy on when patients get sent to collections. That may include the fact that no patients with balances under $500 are sent to collections. It’s bad to threaten something you don’t intend to do.
You can also shop for a new collection agency that accepts smaller balances.
As far as avoiding this in the future, you can try to collect at the time of service whenever you can. You can also offer patients a small discount (say, 8 percent) if they’ll pay before you send them to collections. That’s less than the collection agency charges, typically, and may get some action.
Make sure not to stretch your collection efforts over too long of a time period. The older the account, the harder to collect - folks are not more likely to respond to the third letter than the first.
Asset Protection and Financial Planning
December 6th 2021Asset protection attorney and regular Physicians Practice contributor Ike Devji and Anthony Williams, an investment advisor representative and the founder and president of Mosaic Financial Associates, discuss the impact of COVID-19 on high-earner assets and financial planning, impending tax changes, common asset protection and wealth preservation mistakes high earners make, and more.
Reducing burnout with medical scribes
November 29th 2021Physicians Practice® spoke with Fernando Mendoza, MD, FAAP, FACEP, the founder and CEO of Scrivas, LLC, about the rising rates of reported burnout among physicians and how medical scribes might be able to alleviate some pressures from physicians.
