Cash patients

[ruthie72]

Do I still have to send a patient a bill showing paid each month when they are a cash patient?

[DMK]

No.  That is a waste of time, money (postage, your time), and paper.  You can print a super statement at the end of treatment or the end of the year if the patient requests it for their taxes.  The beauty of cash pay is that it eliminates the paper billing (both to insurance company and the patient).  There is still data entry though and, as a billing service, be sure you're billing paid for your TIME!   

[PMRNC]

I agree, generally no, however I have a client that wants even his cash pay patients to receive a statement every quarter. I usually run those in their own batches.

[Billergirlnyc]

I have clients that want the same too, Linda. I also have clients with patients who have healthcare spending accounts/flexible spending accounts/medical spending/savings accounts etc that reimburse them quarterly. I have a few who nitpick and want it immediately after the services are rendered and we oblige (they usually claim they can submit any time of the year for reimbursement). It's gotten to the point that if I sign a client who works closer to Wall Street or the UN (just a trend I've seen) I already know how much work we'll be doing with monthly (sometimes weekly) statements. I price accordingly.

[PMRNC]

I have one of those health savings accounts myself and we can submit throughout year as well, I usually have my doctor just print me out something quarterly or bi-annually.

[RichardP]

Assume Patient A pays his entire bill at the time of service.  Assume Patient B has a payment plan that stretches out over 24 months.  Assume Patient C pays half at the time of service and asks to be billed for the rest.

Q1:  Do you refer to Patients A-C as cash patients?

Q2:  Do you use any other label(s) to distinguish Patient A from B, and B from C?

Q3:  What do you do when you have not received any payment from Patients B or C after 30-45 days?  That is, do you have any problems with cash patients not paying until/unless they receive a statement?

[PMRNC]

I'm pretty sure she meant those with $0 Balance      

I use payment codes. The more detailed your payment/adjustment codes are the better reports. I can run a report right now and see WHAT patients have not made their "partial" payment.   For my cash patients there are a few codes I use to distinguish what kind of cash pay they are.

[RichardP]

I'm pretty sure she meant those with $0 Balance

Thanks.  Your interpretation of the original question is different from my interpretation.  If you are correct (and you probably are), that gives the original question a whole different meaning to me, and makes the questions I asked irrelevant.