Chicago here, FP/Sports Med. We have been owed 28k on average a year and try to collect, have never used collections...in the past i was always afraid i would lose the patient, but honestly, they aren't paying me so who cares. Last year I instituted that if you had a large deductible or coinsurance and haven't met out of pocket we would collect 150 up front and bill fro the rest on a new problem/new patient visit...well guess what I put a dent in it and still ended up at abou 25K outstanding because i only covered 150 towards a patient who wasn't gonna pay.
This year i now collect ALL money upfront. we bill insuranc eand all money collected goes towards the deductible.
If you have a 500 dollar deductible and used 432 of it , we collect the remaining. if you have 500 and you ate it up but have 3000 out of pocket and 30% you owe, we collect 30% of the visit nd the brace and the injection and everything else.
We have had two people not wnat to see us, one filled out paper work in our office and walked out when asked for money before we took them back...everyone is warned on the phone and on email about this ahead of time with exact numbers as we run the insurance ahead of time.
But guess what, this jan/febaand so far march, i am not living month to month as far as my salary....
This is the way to go, and fire all people who won't pay.
we stoppped actively collectingb but when someone calls for an appt we know you still owe from 4 years ago and we let you know, you pay over the phone then we make an appt for you, if not, cya and go stiff someone else.
