Debt Recovery

Financial businesses of all sizes frequently struggle with their accounts receivable, trying to recover money from those 2%-3% accounts who just refuse to pay on time, even after repeated followups. This is when a financial collection agency can be extremely helpful to recover money from unpaid bills.

Financial institutions often spend too much of their own time, resources and money chasing after these delinquent accounts then they are worth. After a few contacts, even the in-house employees feel helpless and frustrated since these borrowers refuse to budge, continue to give awkward excuses, start your ignoring calls and repeatedly break their promise to make payments on time. Some of them may even become unreachable or relocate to a new address unknown to you.

Writing off these accounts can result in a big financial hit for any business. These bad debts can either lower the profit margin of your company and in extreme cases, drag your income statements in red, and causing cash flow issues for your financial business.

Accounts which do not get resolved in the first 90 days, rarely get settled. If these accounts are not transferred to a Financial Collection Agency, the likely-hood of they ever getting resolved reduces by 10% every passing month.

Loans, mortgages, credit card debt, student loan, overdraft fees, returned checks and account fees are some of the most common debts incurred by financial businesses like Banks and Credit Unions. Some debts may be as low as $20 and others running into thousands of dollars. Borrowers can be individual consumers or business entities.

Summary of Financial Collection Agency’s Services

Collection Letters Service

The upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account. Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees. Low-cost option. Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or other fees. Agency gets paid a portion of the money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls the debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit if recommended by the attorney.

You must hire a financial collection agency which has extensive experience in both Consumer debt collection and commercial debt collection. They should ideally be licenced in all 50 states. Banks and Credit unions use collection agencies extensively.

If you need a cost-effective financial collection agency: Contact Us

It isn’t uncommon for people to have unpaid debt wind up at a Collection Agency. Sometimes they forget that they have an outstanding balance and other times, they simply don’t have the money to pay the lump sum.

If you are a business owner, you may have been forced to make the difficult decision to send your delinquent customer or a business partner to a debt collector.

Most B2C debt is transferred to a collection agency after 60-90 days of non-payment. Most B2B partners try to postpone making this move, but if they are dodging your requests for payments, you may have not have had any other choice. The question is, will this move ruin your business relationship?

Debt collectors are often met with a negative connotation. Your delinquent customer or a business partner probably won’t be happy to learn that you sent their balance to a collector. The good news is, debt collectors use a diplomatic approach specifically so that your business relationship remains in good standing. They understand the importance of business relationships and work hard to preserve it. They will work with the debtor in order to consolidate or get rid of their debt entirely.

To get a full grasp of this concept, let’s look at how a collection agency works in order to determine how it affects your business relationship.

Understanding How Debt Collectors Work

If you decide to send someone’s unpaid balance to a collection agency, they will be immediately notified; usually via phone call or a collection letter. These contacts are often met with apprehension because being sent to collections can possibly effect the debtor’s credit score if the creditor has requested the collection agency to report the debt to the credit bureaus. And, naturally, this can ruin their chances of getting a car, a house, or a business loan.

When Debt Is Sent To Collections

It’s difficult to know when it is time to write off the unpaid debt as a loss. If you have been working with your business partner for some time, you may wait for months or even years before you decide to send their debt to collections. However the chances of recovering the past due amount go down by about 10% each month. The longer you wait, higher the chances are that you will never recover your money.

There is no set dollar amount or time frame that depicts when it’s time to write off unpaid balances. If you get the impression that your partner isn’t going to pay off their capital or they haven’t made an effort to set up payments, you should absolutely cut your losses.

Debt can be sent to a collection agency 31 days past the due date, though many wait until after three to six months of nonpayment. It is recommended to use Debt Collection Letters after 60 days past due date. If the debt is over 120 days or more past due then go for the Collection Calls service.

How It Affects The Debtor’s Credit Score

Not everyone’s credit score is affected unless the original creditor instructs the collection agency to report the debt to the credit bureaus. Generally speaking, those with higher credit scores are often penalized more points than those who have a lower credit score. The amount owed will also determine how many points will be shaved off their credit score.

How A Collection Agency Will Approach Your Delinquent Customer or Business Partner

If someone owes you money, knowing how collection agencies approach debtors can help you rest easy about your decision. In the past, the tact of a debt collector was to make relentless phone calls demanding payment. And if you’re looking to maintain your business relationship, having put your partner in this situation is obviously going to cause some tension.

However, now with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), agencies use a more subdued approach when contacting your partner or associate.

Talk To Your Associate First

As the original creditor, you can only send someone to collections 31 days after the payment is past due. The best practice to maintain your business relationship is to talk with your associate first. Have a system in place to send out reminders that payment is due. This includes regular emails, phone calls, and other points of contact.

Approaching your associate about their late payment first can help preserve your relationship. This is recommended instead of sending them straight to collections without warning or notice of this action.

 The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

This act was created once it had been made clear that, “Abusive debt collection practices contribute to the number of personal bankruptcies, to marital instability, to the loss of jobs, and to invasions of individual privacy.” Along with other reasoning established in this act, debt collectors may not be abusive or vexatious when approaching debtors.

Instead, collection agencies will approach your partner in an amicable way. They may even give guidance on setting up payments to their debt. With these practices, you can rest assured that sending someone’s debt to an agency should not ruin your business relationship. We only recommend notifying your business associate first and educate them on your impending decision to write off their debt. Once you’ve made your decision, the debt agency will take the reins to help settle the outstanding balance.

Conclusion

No Collection Agency can guarantee that your business relationship with the debtor will remain intact during the collection process. However, this article simply conveys you that all good collection agencies use diplomatic and an amicable way to collect a debt, rather than the common notion that debt collectors are intensive, abusive or threatening. This drastically ups the chances to retain your business relationship. If any agency uses threat tactics, it just violated the debt collection laws.

It’s an unfortunate reality in business that not everyone pays their bills. No matter how careful you are about setting proper payment terms and sending reminder letters, there will always be some portion of your receivables that are difficult to collect.

Classically, the process for recovering a portion of the debt owed has been to either outsource the uncollectable debt to a “Collection Agency”. A Collection Agency will attempt to collect the delinquent debt and charge a percentage of any funds recovered.

Historically the methodology of collecting debt was not amicable at all till the US government intervened and introduced debt collection laws like the FDCPA and TCPA. FDCPA is a consumer protection amendment, establishing legal protection from abusive debt collection practices.

Earlier the Debt collectors regularly badgered delinquent accounts, threatening legal action when necessary. These fear tactics could be effective, but they also soured any future relationship between the debtor and the original company.

And this was a problem because many people that fall behind on payments don’t do so out of malice, or a desire to steal from the companies they do business with. They have a legitimate reason when their bills go unpaid. They even have a strong desire to pay off their bills as soon as their financial condition improves.

They may have lost a job, encountered large, unexpected expenses, or suffered some other financial setback that prevented them from settling their debts. These are people that want to pay, but can’t for reasons outside of their control.

Given time, they would likely return to being customers in good standing, once their circumstances improved. But the likelihood of this happening is drastically reduced when standard, confrontational debt collection techniques are employed.

There’s a Better Way

Confrontational debt collection assumes that your delinquent customers are terrible people, actively trying to rip you off, and it treats them that way. Since this frequently isn’t the case, it’s far better to try and come to an amicable solution that respects your customer’s situation and works to establish repayment terms they can afford.

Consider someone that’s missed a few paychecks and doesn’t have the savings to pay what they owe. Calling repeatedly and threatening lawsuits if they don’t immediately settle their balance isn’t going to change their situation. If they can’t pay, they can’t pay.

A structured payment plan, on the other hand, would reduce the amount they need to pay right now, allowing them to pay off the remainder in affordable increments. Brokered negotiations allow both parties to come to a solution that works for them, allowing the creditor to recover some portion of the money owed them while providing the debtor payments that don’t further damage their financial stability.

Amicable recovery is a fundamentally different way of approaching debt collection because it assumes the best about people instead of the worst. It’s less confrontational and more cooperative. As a result, it’s generally more effective, and it’s certainly less expansive than the legal proceedings that might be necessary without it.

If you’re facing uncollectable receivables, it’s worth considering amicable recovery solutions before resorting to less friendly methods. Your customers likely want to pay you, and if you work with them, they can. And when they do, it’s likely that they’ll be grateful, loyal customers for life.

Looking for a collection agency that employs an amicable approach to collect debt: Contact us

Contingency Collections, also called Traditional Collections, is the most popular debt collection service to recover your money from defaulters.

The concept of “Contingency debt collection” is really simple – Once the Creditor has tried enough to recover his money from the Debtor without success, he finally hires a Professional Collection Agency to collect money from the Debtor. The Creditor does not pay anything for the Collection Agency’s recovery efforts till they actually recover money from the Debtor. The Agency deducts the contingency fees per the contract and returns the remaining money to the Creditor. No other costs or hidden fees.

For example: If a Creditor assigns an account to a Collection Agency with an outstanding amount due of $1000, and a collection agency charges a 40% contingency fee thenScenario 1: If the Collection Agency recovers the full amount, then the Creditor gets $600 and the Agency keeps $400 Scenario 2: If the Collection Agency recovers only half the amount ($500) then the Creditor gets $300 and the Agency keeps $200 Scenario 3: If the Agency recovers nothing, they get nothing. No Collection – No Fees

Benefits of Contingency Collections:

1. If a collection agency does not recover any amount, it results in a net loss for them. (Why?) A collection agency invests resources, manpower and uses expensive softwares to collect money from the debtor, regardless a recovery is made or not. Therefore, the Collection Agency puts its best effort and resources into recovering your money.

2. The Creditor has nothing to lose. In fact, most of this past-due debt would have been written off as a loss, all recoveries translate into a nice profit.

3. By involving a Collection Agency, you have just given a powerful message to the debtor. He is more likely to pay now than ever before.

4. Collection Agencies are up to date with the latest debt collection laws, which lowers the chances of a counter lawsuit versus when your own under-trained employees were attempting to make a recovery.

5. Most agencies can do contingency debt collections in both English and Spanish, even attempting to locate a missing debtor using advanced skip tracing.

6. Biggest advantage is off-loading the hard work of debt collection to a 3rd party. Who wants to follow up with a customer/patient again and again? By outsourcing those hard-to-collect accounts, you have also outsourced all the stress and stopped wasting too much time on accounts that have a very low chance of ever paying anyway.

7. Many collection agencies offer customizable strategies and plans to meet the specific needs of businesses, increasing the likelihood of successful debt recovery.

8. Collection agencies keep records of the debts they attempt to collect and the process they follow. This documentation can be useful if a business decides to write off the debt as a tax deduction or if it ends up in litigation.

Are you looking for a cost-effective collection agency with low contingency rates? Contact us

Note: Contingency collections / Collection Calls are best suited for accounts over 120 days past due. For accounts less than that one should consider the flat-fee-based Collection Letters service.

 

Delivering exceptional collection results while engaging in compassionate patient interactions to maintain hospitals’ reputation are the core principles of our medical debt collections. We emphasize patient satisfaction and have a proven track record of successful late-stage debt collections.

Nearly all hospitals in America face a significant burden of unpaid medical bills. Emergency room visits, uninsured patients, those with limited insurance coverage, and the rising cost of healthcare contribute to an increasing portion of out-of-pocket expenses for patients. We can help you collect your claims from insurance companies too.

Need a Collection Agency? Contact Us Using Epic Systems? Collection Utility is available too! Proudly Serving Hospitals Nationwide, References Available.

In addition to unpaid patient bills, hospitals often have outstanding receivables with insurance companies, which may delay or dispute claims for various reasons. An experienced hospital collection agency can manage these unpaid patient bills and even handle collections from insurance companies when necessary.

A medical collection agency should have a deep understanding of the patient-doctor relationship, insurance laws, HIPAA privacy laws, and several debt collection laws that vary by state. Hospitals also require a multilingual collection agency to recover money from Spanish-speaking patients.

Unpaid medical bills remain a persistent challenge for healthcare providers, impacting both financial stability and patient well-being. Here’s a closer look at the issue and contemporary strategies for tackling it effectively:

The Scale of the Issue

Unpaid medical bills constitute a significant financial strain on hospitals and healthcare facilities. According to the latest figures from the American Hospital Association, uncompensated care—which includes charity care and bad debts—totaled approximately $41 billion annually. These numbers can fluctuate due to changing economic conditions, evolving insurance landscapes, and healthcare policy modifications.

Why Do Medical Bills Go Unpaid?

Several factors contribute to patients failing to pay medical bills:

• High Deductibles: Rising popularity of high-deductible health plans leaves many patients facing large out-of-pocket costs.
• Insurance Issues: Lack of insurance or inadequate coverage leads patients to shoulder significant expenses.
• Complex Billing: Patients often find medical bills confusing and challenging to understand, causing delays or non-payment.
• Financial Priorities: Patients might prioritize other immediate expenses, such as housing and utilities, over medical bills.

Impact on Healthcare Providers

The financial strain from unpaid bills forces healthcare facilities into difficult decisions:

• Reduced Resources: Hospitals may cut budgets, reduce staffing levels, or eliminate less profitable services.
• Debt Sales: Many hospitals resort to selling unpaid debts to collection agencies at significant discounts, incurring considerable losses.

Consequences for Patients

Patients also face substantial repercussions from unpaid medical bills:

• Credit Damage: Unpaid debts sent to collections can severely damage credit scores, limiting patients’ future financial opportunities.
• Stress and Anxiety: Debt collection actions increase stress, exacerbating health problems and negatively affecting overall well-being.

Available Assistance Programs

Recognizing these challenges, healthcare providers and governments offer various assistance programs:

• Charity Care Programs: Many hospitals provide financial assistance or sliding-scale payments based on income and financial need. If a patient qualifies for Financial Assistance (501r compliance), we encourage them to apply for it instead of harassing them. This protects your non-profit status.
• Government Assistance: Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments help partially offset hospitals’ costs for treating low-income, uninsured patients, though gaps often remain.

Modern Solutions to Tackle Unpaid Medical Bills

Hospitals and policymakers are increasingly adopting innovative solutions:

• Transparent Pricing: Clear, upfront pricing helps patients understand expected costs, reducing surprises and disputes.
• Improved Financial Counseling: Enhanced counseling services guide patients through available payment plans and assistance options.
• Technological Innovations: Leveraging technology to simplify billing processes, enabling easy-to-understand digital bills and online payments.
• Insurance Reform: Policies advocating for broader insurance coverage and lower deductibles can significantly reduce unpaid medical debt.
• Collaborative Debt Resolution: Hospitals collaborating proactively with patients through structured payment plans or settlements, preventing debts from escalating to collections.

By adopting comprehensive, patient-focused financial practices and policies, hospitals can significantly reduce the impact of unpaid medical bills, improving financial stability for providers and patients alike.

Healthcare finance can change over time. It’s a good idea to check the latest statistics and policies for the most up-to-date information on this topic.

Need a Collection Agency? Contact us

When you’re running your small business it can be difficult to stay on top of everything. In the middle of incessant daily workload, one aspect that may get overlooked is that an invoice may not get paid on time.

Whether you’re a doctor, a lawyer, or a dentist, the chances of a client’s invoice (or several invoices) going awry the inevitable. If you want to decrease the number of unpaid client invoices, your best bet is to stay on top of your practices and look for loopholes in your payment process.

So, here are 10 signs your invoice may not get paid on time.

1. Your Client’s Contact Information is Wrong

The most common way that a client invoice will not be paid on time is if their contact information is wrong. This is usually done in error, but if the client’s email, phone number, and address all are wrong, then it’s safe to assume this was done intentionally. These are the people who never planned on paying for your services in the first place.

The best way to catch these scammers is to test their contact information before delivering your service. If they don’t reply or answer to phone calls, emails, or other forms of communication, then you may want to consider handing them an invoice ahead of time or request a prepayment.

2. Your Client Pays with a Check

In today’s tech-savvy world, it seems safe to assume that your clients will want to pay by credit card, cash, or a mobile payment service like Venmo or Paypal. However, there are those select few who still hold fast to their written checks and try to use them as a payment method.

One of the reasons that payment in checks have fallen by the wayside is because they take longer to process, they can bounce, and they are ultimately less convenient. If your client tries to pay with a check, make sure to routinely follow up with the payment processor else your invoice may not get paid on time.

3. They Aren’t Organized

A client who is disorganized is instantly going to cause you problems. While being scatter-brained isn’t a deal-breaker, it should serve as a red flag about how the payment is going to be. These clients may be picky about what they want or they may change their mind multiple times during your agreement with them.

Either way, this sort of mentality should be a clear indicator that this client may have trouble remembering to pay their invoice. Either that, or they may ask for revisions for the delivered work or clarification before relenting to payment.

4. You Aren’t Organized

Understandably, running a small business requires you to lean on other people for support. But even if you have someone in charge of your invoice processing, it is still up to you to make sure that your invoices get paid on time.

Being unorganized is not a luxury that entrepreneurs can have. If you haven’t laid out terms for your services or you procrastinate on sending invoices, you will create a snowball effect that will ultimately collapse your enterprise. Not only should your finance department be organized with payment spreadsheets and reminders, but your employees should be dutifully aware of the process to get invoices paid on time.

5. You Don’t Have Multiple Payment Options

Payment options are a lucrative strategy to have in place simply because it serves as an incentive to get invoices paid on time. If you only allow for credit cards or checks, then you are doing you and your clients a disservice. Multiple payment options make it effective and easy for clients to pay you (on-time).

Payment channels such as PayPal offer safe and secure deposits. Most people these days are familiar with these services, so following up with a variety of payment options will motivate your client to pay on time.

READ MORE: Customer Relationship Management for Small Business

6. Your Client Questions The Invoice

Another obstacle that results in late payments is if your client questions your invoice. It could be that they are just confused about the formatting (which we’ll get to next) or there are additional fees that you didn’t disclose upon your initial agreement.

This is why it is vital to have a clear outline of your service or product and that your invoice directly reflects what your client received. Having a questionable invoice sets a precedent for your clients not to trust your business – and that can lead to a downfall in your reputation.

7. You Don’t Have Correct Invoice Formatting

Following up with that, it’s always important to have a cohesive and clear format to your invoices. Make sure to brand your invoice with company logos, contact information, and an address. Your invoice should also always be itemized, even if there is a contract in place that specifies the extent of your services. Having a clear invoice will make it next to impossible for your clients to question your services, therefore leading to invoices getting paid on time.

Here are a few other items you should have in your staple invoice format:

• Invoice number
• Invoice billing date
• Service start date
• Service end date
• Payment terms and options

8. You Don’t Follow Up

One misstep that will lead to a pile of unpaid invoices is not having a follow-up schedule system in place. You should always be aware of when your clients’ invoice should be paid, that way you can send out payment reminders. One study confirms that only 18% of 90-day invoices will actually get paid. So essentially, if you wait more than 30 days to send follow-up reminders, you are less likely to get paid at all.

On top of sending out invoice reminders, it’s important that you are sending the invoice to the correct person. This falls in line with your company’s organization. If you are a B2B business, then you may have to send the invoice to another department who takes care of payments. Ask the person you are working with directly who to send the invoice to. Then, do your due diligence to send the invoice and reminders to 2-4 people in that company so that someone knows to pick up the bill.

9. There Isn’t a Contract

Some freelance businesses don’t work on a contract basis for lack of knowledge on how to set them up. But working without a contract is like accepting a job without knowing the payout.

A contract is necessary to outline your company’s restrictions, payment options, fees, and expectations. It may seem like an unnecessary maneuver, but realistically it protects you and it protects your client should any of the conditions change throughout your business together.

10. You Don’t Assign a Late Fee

The most striking motivation to have your invoice get paid on time is to set up a late fee. Without implementing a late fee charge, your clients have nothing to lose by paying you late (or not paying you at all).

If you make it clear in your contract, invoice, and initial meeting that all invoices must be paid in full within 30 days, you will be more than likely to start seeing regular payments. If not, clients may take that as a sign that they are free to pay as much as they can whenever they can.

Contact a Collection agency

If you are finding it hard to get things in order or are stuck with too many accounts receivable, the do not hesitate to hire a collection agency. Do not attempt to hire a collection agency near you, instead hire one which is good, has higher collection rates.