In my capacity as a contracted office manager and billing company, this is an issue I deal with very regularly.
My office procedure for dealing with collections, is if the patient has NOT attempted to contact us regarding the bill, they're put on a list and sent to the doctor or practice owner showing the amount, date last seen, date last paid. If the owner signs off on collections we send them off to Credit Collections USA. The more recent the debt when placed for collections, the lower the percentage, so the sooner the patient can be placed for collections, the cheaper the collections fee will be.
We add a 30% surcharge to the total before sending it to collections. We sometimes negotiate this amount off if they pay in full immediately. Once the account is sent to collections, the outstanding amount is written off to BAD DEBT. Some docs prefer not to do this because they get loans based on their receivables, but generally that's how we proceed.
Once placed for collections, the practice has to pay the collections fee even if the amount is paid directly to the practice, so we encourage the patient to set up a payment plan through the agency.
