Improving Collections at Your Practice
Many practices wish they had the internal resources to “touch” patients with outstanding balances more before sending them to collections. They barely have enough time in the day to file claims and get the bills out, let alone make any calls or mail any late reminders or final warning letters. They keep intending to, and at some point, they realize they just don’t have the time and they send the accounts to collections many months later. Since patient AR depreciates in recoverability at a rate of 15% per month*, this delay is quite costly.
Some practices make an extraordinary effort to follow up on their accounts and are actually spending more in time and resources than they are getting back. Or they work the accounts a reasonable amount, present the provider with a list of accounts they feel are ready for collection and the provider says “why don’t you call each of these patients one more time?” The staff knows this is a useless endeavor at that point, but feel obligated to comply with the provider’s request and who knows when they’ll find the time for all those calls?
If this sounds familiar, we encourage you to set up a demo with our partner Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI) and have a look at their Accelerator service. While TSI is a licensed third party collection agency, their Accelerator service is not collections. It’s “first party” follow up, meaning that they do the work, but your patients believe it is your practice who is calling them and writing to them, not a collection agency. TSI remains invisible to the patients. The patients still pay your practice directly, and with TSI’s fees typically in the range of $9-15 per patient account balance submitted, the cost of using TSI is way lower than what you’d spend internally (even for a part-time staffer) and they’re seeing an average 78% response rate! TSI even guarantees their results in writing so you have no risk in trying their service.
MicroMD offers a free interface with TSI that allows you to review a list of patients who have received a certain number of statements and then select which ones you’d like TSI to follow up on. When you receive payment, you post it into MicroMD as you normally would, and the interface notifies TSI of the decrease in balance, so they can either close a paid account or continue to pursue the remainder for a partially paid account.
Whether you need an extra pair of hands for “first party” follow up, or you are looking for a third party collection agency, TSI can help you in an effective, inexpensive and legally compliant manner.
Contact MicroMD’s designated TSI representative Karen Cooper, MBA
Karen.Cooper@transworldsystems.com
732-704-7626 x101
www.goTSI.com/KarenCooper
*Source: US Dept of Commerce Study
