Optometry Coding & Billing Alert

Collections Tip: Get your money by calming patient fears

Patients who don't respond to your early collection efforts may be staying quiet because they fear that the optometrist's care will suffer once they confess to having payment problems. "You'd be amazed at how many people have that concern," Rabinowitz says. If you're making collection calls, be sure patients realize that what happens in the billing office does not affect the quality of care they receive. Many times this is all the patients need to know, and then they give a sigh of relief and arrange to pay, she says.

Make sure to tell a concerned patient that the doctor doesn't need to know anything about the status of his bill as long as a payment plan gets worked out. This information will put the patient's mind at ease, yet also make him realize that he must make payment arrangements, she says.