Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Credit Card Payment Plan

Almost a year ago there was a discussion about collections. I have pulled up a couple of them, but I couldn't find the one I was looking for. In one of them, someone suggested using a service they us whereby when a patient chooses to do a payment plan, it is set up through a company which manages the monthly payment using their credit card.

This makes sense for two three reaons.

1. It shows that the patient is serious about setting up a monthly plan.
2. You will get paid every time on the same general day (first of the month, let's say).
3. And, the only way the patient will not be paying the monthly payments is if they call the company themselves and discontinue.

This would allow you to immediately discharge the patient, because they are in effect saying we no longer choose to pay on our $400 back bill.

I have always been wary of payment plans, because the patient agrees to one, pays for three months, and then becomes later or, worse, misses two payments.

But, I was hoping if someone could recommend on of these companies.

Thanks.

Bert

If in 'immediate discharge' you mean 30 days after sending the certified return receipt discharge letter; don't think a refusal to abide by a payment agreement is immediate material for dismissal as would say threatening behavior or drug diversion would be.
We use a billing service so I get quarterly reports of the bad debt with recommendations from the service for action to take but is up to me, interesting there are patients who are close to being on my 'social' side of the scale who have old/bad debt makes me wonder why they don't communicate with the office to resolve the issues?

Well it is bad when you have these "hard and fast" rules. Now, most of my great patients don't get in bad debt. And, sometimes, you have to ignore for some patient. Like I have one patient with mito and her two siblings who come here, and this is an awesome family. Now, they would never get behind, but if they did, I would never dismiss them.

But, we have two ways of getting bad debt off the books. If it's a certain figure, we go with giving them the option of paying half, but we also offer payment plans. BUT, as I have found out, payment plans suck, because then they get behind on their payment plan. I can't recall who it was that told me/us about the CC thing. I hope it is not sexist to say it was a female. When I say credit card plan, they decide to pay $20 monthly. They get an account with this company who deducts $20 each month (I am sure it could be PayPal or their bank) and pays it to us. Obviously, they get a piece of it.

But, this way, the patient has to actively call the company and delete the account, which they can do with one call. Then you get a report stating that and, unless the patient has a good reason, like they are overextended with debt, they are released. I would guess you could suspend their account for two or three months.

I would just think this would work much better. But, I can't find the thread and/or I can't find one of these companies that do this.

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.

I also would be interested in hearing about such a company that would handle this, at the patient's expense, rather than my billing department.

For our payment plans, we get a credit card number and their authorization to bill a certain amount every month, minimum 100 dollars. (Hey, they pay that much for a cell phone or cable). To stop it they have to cancel the card or tell us to stop. We still have problems with payments getting stopped along the way.

I guess at some level I don't see the attraction of using a credit card to pay over several months.

The whole concept of a credit card is to pay up front and leave the interest costs to the cardholder.

They are relying on our kindness not to charge them interest (or less interest) while they are paying off a bill incurred in the past


Greg

Generally, in my office, if the account balance is over $100, I continue to send monthly statements until it reaches the 120-day aging column. Everything over 30 days gets an "Overdue-Please Remit Payment Now" Sticker. Once it reaches the 120 day statement, if I haven't received any payment on the account, they get a new shiny sticker. 'If full payment is not received within 10 days of receipt of this letter, it will be turned over to our collections agency and your credit rating could be affected.' Of course, this one goes out certified and usually illicits a response. Of course, some people don't pay until it is sent to the collection agency and they get a letter from a Lawyer. They pony up quick and typically with a sob story.

Everyone comes on hard times in their life, I get it, but c'mon people, if you can't pay your bill, pick up the phone and work something out. That being said, I HATE payment plans because, again, something came up and they couldn't make their payment.
I would love to just lay into some people when they pull that stunt. Would you skip out on the bill at your favorite restaurant? No? Then why would you do it to the person taking care of you?!?
Sorry everyone, rant over.

-Trista

The whole idea of this thread is to find a company that will handle the payments via a CC. I am not worried about the patient paying interest. Just as tcost said, the problem is you set up a payment plan, then they miss two payments, and you are back to square one. I suppose you could terminate them at that point or send to collections. We don't do collections.

The beauty of their allowing a 3rd party program which handles the payment via the patient's credit card is you will get every payment on time. The patient can cancel at any time, but now they are, in effect, telling you they have no intention of paying.

A lot of this, again, is due to our private insurance companies. Even the good patients come in, pay their copay, then expect their insurance to pay the rest. Then they don't because of a deductible and two months later they get a bill for $105 they didn't expect. And, it goes on from there.

Yes but the whole logic of a credit card would be to put the $105 on their credit card and then they can pay off that balance over time to the credit card company rather than making monthly payments to you

Greg

But, they aren't going to pay the whole balance of $600 on a credit card. Just like they aren't going to take out a loan to pay me. I can't force them to pay cash or use credit to cover their balance. I can dismiss them or turn them over to collections if I wish.

So, there are thousands of people with payment plans to physician's offices. I once had a payment plan with a hospital. I guarantee you (there is even an active thread on the board right now) that any time the topic of bad debt comes up, people will say they want the whole amount, settle for some amount or accept a payment plan.

So, once my biller talks to a person who is 120 days late for something like $300 and that person agrees to pay $20.00 per month, I want one of these companies which handles that. I will accept a payment plan IF it is set up with one of these companies. I know they exist, because someone named one in the long thread on collections before.

Hey if they want to pay me using their credit card, we have a credit card machine specifically for that. But, if someone owes me $600, they aren't going to be able to afford that even on their credit card.