Payments > Patient Billing

medicare patient.....turning to collection agency?

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DMK:
Since it's Medicare you HAVE to try to collect it.  At least for a certain amount of time.  The doctor can always have a financial hardship policy. 

The best policy is to collect at time of service what you know is due.  And to let the patient's know right up front what their portion is.

jennifer8055:
Thanks for the information.  I need to bring up the financial hardship policy with them.....I've used it at another practice I worked for and it saved the doctors time in having to review every account for possible turnover.  If other doctors are anything like mine, sometimes, they just say write it off, i know i'm never going to see it anyway, even if we do turn them over.  In that instance, we list them as "bad debt" and write it off, but keep it listed on the account, so if the patient comes back, they have to pay it along with paying their deductible/coinsurance up front for any new services.

PMRNC:
I also suggest you make sure you comply with Federal Fair Debt/Collection Practices as well as any state consumer collection laws in place. You mentioned patient just stopped paying.. so you need to check regs to see when that statute of limitations clock began to tick again. A good collection agency can guide you on this. Also make sure you have followed all state collection laws even if you didn't send it to collections. ie; mini Miranda, consistent billing, etc.

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