A precollections letter is the final warning that a patient receives before a delinquent account is turned over for formal action by a collections agency. Many practices send this letter themselves, on their own letterhead, but recently more practices have realized that patients are more likely to pay immediately when they receive a letter from a collections agency, rather than from a medical office. So, since a medical office can't misrepresent itself as a collections agency, many are hiring real collectors to send this letter, paying only $1 or so if the patient pays right up. The practice doesn't start to pay the standard commission (typically 20 percent to 35 percent), until the account goes into the regular collections process.

Precollect Letters