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medauthor:
Hi All,

I guess I will be the first to offer a comment on the new Contract E-Book regarding collecting a % on co-payments collected at the time of service.  Personally, I disagree with this.  I never have nor will I ever collect a % on co-payments.  I don't think it is fair to providers as I did not do any work to collect that money.  I have, in fact, warned potential clients that there are billing companies that do this, and I will never do this to you (potential client).

Again, I am speaking about co-payments collected at the TIME OF SERVICE!  If I have to send out a patient statement for a co-payment or co-insurance amount due, then yes--that would be included in my %, but never, never when the patient pays at the office!

Do others share my feelings?

Pay_My_Claims:
I don't collect on copayments/deductibles/coinsurance at all, as I strictly do FLAT FEE billing and totally dislike that old age nonsense of % based billing. I include the cost of sending out statements to patients into my flat fee billing. It includes my cost of paper, stamps, envelopes & ink varying on the size of the practice. I have a set amount of statements that will go out, and if they are to include any verbal collections, that is a separate negotiated fee. I also have a collection company that I refer clients to for further actions on the accounts. I personally view collecting on copayments as "nickel and dimeing" the provider and view it in a negative way. I mean my copay is just 10 bucks, and at a % rate of 10 you are only making a dollar. You would have to do a lot of volume to make a huge amount of money doing this. How do you even keep up with what is being paid in the offices??  If I was a provider, there would be no way I would pay a billing service a % of the copays that my staff collects in the front office. That is double dipping to me and totally unprofessional and unacceptable in my opinion.

well i would say more, but this is a HOT topic to me so............exit stage left!!

medauthor:

--- Quote ---I personally view collecting on copayments as "nickel and dimeing" the provider
--- End quote ---

Charlene, I could not have said it better!  That is my exact sentiment!  ;)

PMRNC:
So you don't post, track, report and send patient statements? If so I would tend to agree with you. For those that are billing on a percentage, and tracking, reporting and sending patient statements I think it's bad advice to tell bilers not to charge for these!  NOW if you have a provider who is 100% perfect on collecting copayments and coinsurance (OOP) up front..KUDOS to you and again I would agree I would cut provider a break also.  Billers charging on a percentage are POSTING, TRACKING, REPORTING and sending patient statements .. bottom line if they don't bill the provider for those, they ARE losing money. PERIOD.that's a fact, not an opinion.

PMRNC:
I want to add that Michelle and Alice's book on contracts is AWESOME.. I admire their dedication to this really good topic. They earn my respect with this completely, they could have taken the easy way out and offered up a template contract with fill in the blanks like so many others before them..but they didn't.  KUDO's GALS.. I LOVE IT AND WILL BE ENDORSING IT ALL THE WAY!!!

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