Payments > Patient Billing

DISABILITY

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ellie:
patient is self pay- called to ask when she would be sending a payment ? She said she had filed for disability and is waiting for a reponse, states she has no money.  Would you even send her to collections ???

PMRNC:
That's loaded question that we can't answer really.

Has patient received sufficient billing notices? In other words did the provider make an effort to collect? (3 billing cycles is fine) If so and the provider WANTS to, he can write-off OR send to collections. Purely his call.

If this is a patient that will be returning, then the provider can have the patient sign your financial hardship agreement which you can review within some time. In my opinion only, you don't want to give too many of these perks to a patient who is a regular patient as it tends to set a precedence, I typically recommend collection procedures on high balances for returning patients and then proper dismissal of patient's as per their own policies and procedures.  Does your office have a Policies and Procedural manual, if not they should get one, that will answer 90% of your questions!

DMK:
As a biller/practitioner's wife/patient, I always try hard to put myself in everyone's shoes.

PMRNC is absolutely right regarding office policies and procedures, when the patient presented for treatment an agreement was made to pay for services rendered.  As a responsible person, the patient should be making payments, even if they can not pay in full.  I usually regard that as at least making the attempt and that keeps them in good graces.

While I appreciate that many people have financial hardships, the doctor still has bills to pay, if everyone decided not to pay their portion of the bill they wouldn't be in business long.

Does the provider take credit cards?  Can the patient pay $5.00, $10.00 something?

You may also want to ask the provider what they would like to do for that PARTICULAR patient, and then shore up the office policies so that, in the future, you would have a sort of scripted response.

Money is always sticky, and some patients will even resort to the "I thought doctor's were supposed to help people, and all they want is money".  And that always hurts my feelings.....then makes me mad.

Alice Scott:
Those patients are annoying most of the people they come in contact with.

Michele:
I don't understand why they wait until they've been billed so many times before they mention the position they are in.  Don't they know when they came in that they won't be able to pay?  Tell the dr so that he/she can decide what to do then, instead of wasting time and money sending statements when they knew they wouldn't respond.

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