I appreciate your detailed response and all the points you mentioned. Here's my rebuttal
We actually have a pretty strict policy regarding collections. They get multiple statements, a minimum of 3 typically, which ACPM generates and logs each month, we call the patient's weekly to follow up on delinquent accounts, which we also document in ACPM, and before the statement is sent to collections, they get a call and written notice that their account is going to be sent.
We also send them a generic letter indicating that we've been unsuccessful reaching them and want to know if they're OK. If any of this mail is returned by the post office as a bad address, we contact the PCP to see if they've been in touch with the patient and that we can't reach them.
Once it goes to Collections, we give the attorney a copy of the record of contact attempts and statements that were sent and we stop trying to reach the patient. The collections attorney sends them several letters before requesting funds from us to file suit. Most people go find a new doctor on their own if we had to send them to collections to get paid.
The problem is that if a patient won't return a phone call to address an issue - financial or otherwise - they've already broken the relationship - but you can be sure they'll call and give you an ear full when they want something.
When we discharge a patient, we do send a certified letter letting them know that as of a certain date, we will be available to them for 30 days for appointments and/or refills, but in no event longer than 45 days past the specified date and that we will send their records to a physician of their choice.
What happens if your receptionist of 5 years, the front office collective memory, leaves and you hire a new person?
The problem with just deactivating a patient, IMO, is that, when you go to search them and they don't show up in the system, someone is more likely to just start a new account for them. If your front office staff, or whoever is making new patient charts, doesn't know to search ALL instead of ACTIVE, you have the potential for the same issue down the road.
At least by creating a Hard Stop, which can be overridden by a Practice Manager or the physician, you can keep the chart available and easy to find and the appropriate decision maker can make the call as to whether or not the patient will be allowed back into the practice - it prevents receptionists from booking people that have been dismissed.
I hate that this is even an issue that needs discussion. I don't like paying for healthcare when I have insurance either, but that's my problem, not my doctors - that's what credit cards are for (but I digress).
