If your practice has 20 percent or more of its patient accounts receivable outstanding 120 days or longer, you're likely suffering from a collection problem, experts say.
Procedures aimed at securing payment before and during a patient visit will save the practice time and money, says Lori A. Foley, CMA, a consultant with Gates, Moore & Co., a physician practice management consulting firm in Atlanta. "It's always most expensive to collect your money after the patient has gone out the door," she says, noting that a practice spends about $6.35 to collect payment on the average outstanding patient bill. "You've got statement paper and mailing costs and the costs of employee time spent on follow-up. It's not recoverable."
The best way to ensure that you are paid is by adhering to procedures that focus on collection, starting at the beginning of the visit, says Susanne M. Byrd, business manager of Podiatry Associates of Wausau, a five-physician practice in Wausau, Wis. In the first three months of sticking to her practice's collection procedures, patient accounts receivable declined about 10 percent, she says. Today, the practice turns an average of about five out of 100 delinquent patient accounts to a collection agency. "Consistency and follow-up are important," she says. "Once you get into a routine of faithfully following your precollection procedures, you will see a turnaround in accounts receivable."
Podiatry Associates takes the following precollection steps, which Byrd recommends to other practices:
Set a financial policy. New patients are asked to sign a financial policy form that details the payment agreement between them and the practice (to view the form go to
www.codinginstitute.com/extra/mob). The form has separate paragraphs for different types of patients, including those with insurance, workers' compensation, personal-injury coverage and Medicare. Each section points out the patient's responsibility. For example, the insurance section states: "You are responsible for deductibles, copays, noncovered services, coinsurance and items considered 'not medically necessary' by your insurance company."
The form also specifies that copays and deductibles are due when services are rendered, and the remaining balance is due within one month of notice from the insurer. It also includes Medicare assignment and the sections for authorizing release of information. After asking the patient for insurance information, the staff member at the front desk checks the appropriate sections on the form and asks the patient to read the sections marked, and sign and date the form.
New, uninsured patients are asked to sign a different financial policy form (see Web site mentioned above). It states payment will be made at each visit and provides a section for making full payment by credit card or by monthly payments due on the 1st or 15th of each month. [...]
