We're pretty aggressive about collections in our practice. We let people know that they don't get the NEXT visit if their account is past due for the LAST visit - unless they're bleeding or dying. Refusal to treat non-life-threatening stuff is NOT abandonment. Generally they pay up. The problem is if you let the balance get TOO BIG it becomes impossible for them to face, and you never get any of it. As soon as the EOB comes back saying it's part of the deductible, the bill goes out. Be gentle and firm WHILE THE BALANCE IS SMALL. Collect SOMETHING whenever they walk in the door - even if its only $20.
Roy, I keep a copy of our Amazing Charts database on my laptop, and can connect to the office server from home as well. If the ER calls at 2:00 AM and I flip on the computer and they're not my patient any more, I tell the ER doc that that patient isn't mine and ISN'T MY PROBLEM ANYMORE. I can tell them "Nope - we dismissed them in April of last year. Admit 'em to the hospitalists if they don't have a new doctor." Sorry - getting me out of bed at 2:00 AM to admit you is a privilage reserved for patients in good standing.. not deadbeats who have been dismissed, or people who have left because we expected them to pay their bills and now at 2:00AM want to come back because they made a mistake by leaving.
We actually had one tell the ER that we were their primary when they needed to be admitted in the middle of the night, who we had never heard of. When we had the ER doc ask them if they were SURE we're their doctor as we had no record of them, they said "Well, I've been MEANING to establish with them for MONTHS now!". They did not get admitted to my service.
Our policy - which is cast in stone - is that if you leave the practice either to dodge a bill or because the grass is greener at the clinic down the street - that you are placed on the "do not book" list.
It is AMAZING how well this works!
In mutual poverty,
V.
