Practice Management Alert

You can control the conversation and get better payment results if you're prepared with the right responses

When patients with past-due accounts say they can't afford the bill or don't know anything about it, you need to react quickly to maintain control of the collection call.

Depending on how extensive your in-house collections efforts are, you may encounter many reasons why patients say they can't pay their bill immediately. Check out these two common patient excuses and reap the benefit of our experts' collection call advice. Patient excuse #1: "My wife always does the bills and takes care of our finances, and she's at work. I don't know anything about this bill, so I can't help you." Best answer: Pointing to a spouse is often a stall tactic, says Gary Kinne, president of Asset Recovery Inc. in Rutland, Vt. Make the most of a stalling spouse with two easy steps:
 
1. Ask for the spouse's work number. In case the unavailable spouse is truly the better party to speak with about resolving a debt, you should first try asking for her work number. Try a well-crafted request like this, says James Christensen, MCE, president of JC Christensen & Associates in Sauk Rapids, Minn.: "Mr. Johnson, your wife takes care of the bills - I understand that. And you tell me I need to talk with her. I'm very willing to do that, but in order to do that I need you to assist me, and that would mean I need to get her number at work." If Mr. Johnson says his wife cannot have calls at work, you know to stop this pursuit immediately and move on to the next step, Christensen says.
 
2. Enlist the stalling spouse's help. You might continue the conversation like this, Christensen says: "Mr. Johnson, I can appreciate that your wife handles the bills, but understand that you are responsible for this debt as well - and you and I together need to get this resolved."

Tactic: "Create some urgency" by asking what time the working spouse will get home, Kinne says. Then either you can ask Mr. Johnson to have his wife call your office when she gets home, or you can arrange to call back in the evening when she will be available, he adds.

Another way: Instead of simply asking Mr. Johnson to have his wife be in touch by the next day (which may never happen), create a sense of obligation and responsibility in Mr. Johnson by making him the middleman between you and his wife. Come to an agreement in which you say Mr. Johnson should speak with his wife, arrive at a fair and feasible payment plan, and contact you in the morning, Christensen says. [...]