Ben, check out the thread Stop Extending Credit for a few opinions about this. There is one surgeon who conveniently provided a copy of the letter he gives to patients about his policy. I'll probably base my letter on it.
Doctors, especially PCPs, have basically been hoodwinked and battered into a business model where you do not do the things other businesses do. A third party dicides what you get paid for your services. They decidehi which services should be combined into "one" service with no increase is price. Someone refuses to pay you for services you have already provided?? OH no, don't send them to collections!This has got to stop!
We have been sending people to collections for non-payment for several years now. It works, and the few patients that you lose are ones that you don't want anyway, since they do not respect you enough to pay for your services. They paid the grocery store. They paid the water bill. But they tossed your bill into the trash.
Last year we began a policy of having patients with unmet deductibles pay an "estimated fee" at the time of their visit. We've lost only 2 patients, but the policy creates a logistical nightmare mainly due to tracking and being sure to refund overpayments in a timely manner.
The doctor we share office space with has begun to require credit cards kept on file. He isn't losing tons of patients. I just wanted a nice PCI compliant method of storing them...preferably offsite. We'll start implementing next month.
