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You’ve provided your patient with quality service and its time to get paid and your patient is no where to be found. By following these ten steps, your practice will dramatically increase the odds of collecting your patient accounts receivable.

#1 Develop a Defined Credit & Collection Policy

One of the major causes of overdue receivables is that the practice has not defined to its patients and staff when accounts are to be paid. If patients are not educated that accounts are to be paid on time, then the chances are, they’ll pay late or not pay at all.

#2 Ask For Payment in Full at the Time of Service

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking your patients to pay their balance in full at the time the services are rendered. Don’t just let them walk out the door and then assume that once they receive the invoice, they’ll pay.

#3 Invoice Promptly & Bill Regularly

If you don’t have a systematic invoicing and billing system, get one! You’d be surprised at how many patients delay paying simply because they have not been reminded. If you have to do it manually, that’s certainly better than nothing or you can hire an outsourcing service to handle this for you.

#4 Frequently Contact Past Due Accounts

There is no law that says you can only contact your customers once a month. It’s very easy for a patient to put your bill “on the back burner” and disregard it. Contacting your patients every 10-14 days, at a minimum, will greatly increase your odds of that patient paying your invoice.

#5 Have a Plan to Follow Up With Past Due Accounts

Determine ahead of time what action you will take and at what point in the process the action will occur and then train your staff accordingly. A sample plan could consist of the following:

Day 1- Ask your patient to pay their balance in full at the time you render the service. If the patient is unable to pay the balance in full, consider utilizing a payment plan that will automatically draft your patients account on a monthly basis for a predetermined amount. Day 30 - Send 1st statement to patient requesting payment. Day 45– Call patient and send letter. Day 60– Send 2nd statement (consider sending final notice at this time). Day 75– Make 2nd phone call and send 2nd letter. Day 90 - Consider turning over to a 3rd party to help with collecting the balance owed.

#6 Take the Emotion Out of the Collection Process

While you do have to “tread lightly” when it comes to demanding your patients pay, you provided a valuable service and deserve to get paid. Let your patients know this. Call them and ask them if they were satisfied with your service. When they say yes, politely explain to them that in order for you to continue to provide top-notch service, they need to pay their balance. Don’t forget to thank them for choosing your practice for their health care needs.

#7 Train You Staff

If your staff has not had any training in bad debt recovery, get some. Not only are there specific skills involved in collecting money, there are also legal issues to consider.

#8 Admit any errors on your part

If you’ve made a mistake, admit it and correct it. When dealing with a patient who is upset, the best thing you can do is listen. Once you understand their complaint, accept the blame and rectify the problem immediately.

#9 Hire a Professional

A professional collection service can motivate customers to pay in ways you simply cannot. Services can include collection attorneys, collection agencies and small claims court. Before using any of these expensive options, research them in detail to determine which one is most cost effective and a good fit for your practice.

#10 Keep in mind nobody collects every balance owed

This is just a part of doing business, especially in the health care industry. The main objective here is to do everything you can to reduce the amount of your uncollectible accounts.

By following the steps you will dramatically improve your practice’s collection of patient accounts receivable. The key is to develop a system that works and be disciplined about implementing it. This may take some work up front but your practice will be greatly rewarded in the end.