Healthcare providers are facing more and more cases where patients don’t pay their medical bills. The in-house staff of medical offices is fed up with being turned into part-time debt collectors.
Working with a collection agency is no longer a complicated process. An experienced collection agency will protect your reputation while recovering patient bills. Their services will seamlessly integrate with your existing billing process, providing online status reports and eventually depositing the amount recovered directly in your bank account.
Need a Medical Collection Agency? Contact UsServing Hundreds of Doctors NationwideEasy to use • USA Citizens-Only Team • 24×7 Secure Portal • High Recovery Rates • Expert Medical Collectors • Free Credit Bureau reporting • Low fee |
Why take your unpaid medical bills so seriously?
If a medical practice works on a 20% profit margin, say 3% of its patients do not pay, then effectively 15% of the net profit is gone. Collecting money from existing patients is much more important than getting new patients.
How does a medical collection agency work?
A good collection agency should be willing to work with your specific needs to achieve your debt collection goals. They must provide you with the following four choices:
Fixed Fee Collections ( Amicable tactics)
Step 1: We send five reminders on your behalf, a process also known as first-party collections. At this stage, the account has not yet entered the collections phase. You should allocate a patient to this step when their invoice is overdue by 30 to 60 days. If your team is understaffed and you prefer to have them focus on their primary duties, opt for the Step-1 service for managing accounts. This approach will save time and energy, and alleviate the weekly frustration your staff experiences in prompting patients for payment.
Step 2: Dispatch five formal notices at regular intervals on the collection agency’s letterhead, a procedure known as third-party collections, which are loaded with legal rhetoric. This step marks a significant shift, as it signals to the patient that their account is now under the purview of a professional collection agency. This transition significantly increases the probability of payment. Employing this assertive, yet measured approach typically maintains the integrity of your relationship with patients. Most practices transition accounts to this step when they are 60 to 120 days overdue, a strategy that has proven to yield effective results.
Cost:
- Step 1 or Step 2 costs about $14 an account ( 5 contacts).
- Step 1 and Step 2 combined service is about $20 per account ( 10 reminders/demands)
- If you buy more accounts, the cost per account goes down further. Unused accounts NEVER expire.
Contingency Fee Collections ( Intensive tactics)
Step 3: In this service, a professional debt collector calls (📞) your patient. The debt collector will also do the skip tracing to find the latest contact information of the debtor (like phone number, address etc.). Collectors are not given any fixed salary and only keep a percentage of the money collected, so they work harder to recover for you. Most collection agencies will keep 40% of the amount collected and remit 60% to you.
Step 4: Uncollected accounts can be assigned for legal collections (after your approval). These accounts must be of a minimum dollar value to justify the attorney cost.
Need a Medical Collection Agency? Contact Us
New laws impacting medical debt collections
This does not prevent collection agencies from taking a court judgment against the patient. Undoubtedly all these laws make medical debt recovery harder. Therefore it is important to involve a collection agency ASAP before it becomes too late. We recommend transferring accounts to a collection agency when the debt is 60-120 days past due. |
How soon can I forward a patient’s account for collection?
You can send a patient for debt collection at any time, per your office’s financial policy. Most medical practices transfer accounts after 60 days. It is advisable to send the patient for collection after determining final insurance coverage. This avoids confusion since the patient’s insurance coverage can differ from what was initially estimated.