Patient Services and Collections

Uncollectable Money

This is the most difficult money that Providers are unable to collect!

In the US, uncollectable patient balances is a significant problem for healthcare providers. According to a report by Definitive Healthcare, in 2018, US Healthcare Providers had $38.3 billion in bad debt. Hospitals could report bad debt as the difference between what was billed to patients and the amount patients actually paid, regardless of whether the hospital ever anticipated receiving the full amount.

There are several reasons for uncollectable patient balances in US healthcare. Patients accrue unforeseen medical debt when payors charge for out-of-network providers. For some, this occurs while a patient is unable to choose the provider or treatment, they prefer

• Deductibles are rising, which is causing more medical costs to slightly shift toward the patient’s responsibility. As that change occurs, providers are struggling to get reimbursed as high out-of-pocket spends can be hard to collect from patients.
• A Providers incurs bad debt when it cannot obtain reimbursement for care provided; this happens when patients are unable to pay their bills, but do not apply for financial assistance, or are unwilling to pay their bills.

There are several strategies for providers to collect on outstanding patient balances.

• We help them to get patient money at the time of scheduling. We will offer payment options to fit the patient’s ability to pay. They can make payment convenient.
• Patients to cover copays and patient responsibility at check-in, creating a medical office payment policy, including a patient responsibility agreement in your check-in paperwork for patients to sign, talking with patients to work out a payment plan that is comfortable for the patient and practice, offering forms of financial assistance such as state programs or Care Credit.
• Keeping credit card for auto processing. This can be done with the intake paper work.
• Patient statement and balance reminder calls – This can be weekly and monthly based on the practice requirement.
• Pre collection agency reminders – Pre collection agency reminder and notice are sent to patient. We try to collect maximum amount here by offering the discount to patient on the complete amount.

Collection Agency

Despite of multiple calls and reminders to the Patients when they are not willing to make payments or they have a bad address - Collection Agency comes into the picture – As Debt collectors we use letters and phone calls to contact delinquent borrowers and convince them to repay what they owe.