All hospitals in America carry a substantial volume of unpaid medical bills due to the sheer number of patients they see every day. Limited insurance coverage and the ever-increasing cost of health services result in a larger share of out-of-pocket expenses for patients. Additionally, hospitals have receivables with insurance companies too, who often delay or dispute a claim for one reason or another.
Delivering superior collection results and enhancing patient experience during the recovery process are the core principles of medical debt collections.
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Unpaid accounts receivable leave a tremendous financial strain for hospitals who themself need these funds urgently for the smooth operation of the facility. Lack of required funds can not only turn the income statement of a hospital in red, but they also adversely impact the quality of medical care and their ability to buy modern equipment that other patients may need.
- Immediate action is needed to collect medical bills before the patient/guarantor exhausts his funds to other creditors. We want you to be paid before other creditors.
- Applying calculated pressure along with persistent demands is the key to recover your debt. The diplomatic approach of a debt collector forces the patient to relent to his persistence.
- Hospitals should not accept low ball settlement offers immediately because collection agencies are usually able to collect the full outstanding amount, or make the patient agree to a settlement offer of no less than 80%.
- The last and final step is legal collections. This includes an attempt to freeze the debtor’s bank accounts, garnish wages, or put a lien on his property. Not every account makes it to the legal suit, an attorney decides that after evaluating the case.
Collection agencies are an integral extension of any hospital, recovering thousands (or even millions) of dollars for them, helping to turn their past-due accounts from red into the black. Hospitals cannot hire just any debt collection agency; they need a collection agency that has extensive experience in the healthcare industry.
A hospital debt collector 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 that can recover money from Spanish-speaking patients. A hospital debt collection agency should be able to send diplomatic Collection letters to patients whose date of debt is less than 120 days and intensive Collection calls for older debts, or those carrying high balances. If nothing works, then the collection agency should be able to take the patient to court and attempt to obtain a favorable judgment to recover money from assets or through wage garnishment. Legal action is the last resort which most hospitals tend to avoid.
Patients requiring long-term care, emergency care, and those with a critical illness can rack up substantial medical bills they cannot pay. Therefore, hospital debt collection agencies must also perform advanced Skip tracing scrub on patients who become unapproachable or to know if they have filed for bankruptcy. Some collection agencies also perform Litigious patient scrub; this is important. Some patients have a history of suing hospitals and healthcare practices. A collection agency must inform hospitals about such litigious debtors and suggest an appropriate strategy to deal with them. Simplifying your billing statements also helps to recover more money from patients.
If you need a Collection Agency with extensive experience in serving large hospitals and the healthcare industry, contact us.
Large U.S. hospitals and health systems use Epic Systems health information technology to organize electronic medical records. You will be able to securely transfer accounts for collections in no time using the collection’s utility that integrates with your Epic software.
Covid pandemic has adversely impacted the finances of nearly all hospitals nationally, therefore recovering older unpaid bills become even more essential. With stimulus payments reaching people now, many patients have that extra cash flow to make payments on their past-due bills.