If not, he said, you're still better off cutting a single refund check than sending statement after statement to collect unpaid balances. Make your back-end collection procedures efficient. No matter how much you try to collect copayments before service is rendered and coinsurance or deductibles before patients leave, you'll have to bill some patients. Start by prioritizing your balances. Instead, try to collect when the patient returns for a follow-up visit.
Most consultants suggest sending out three statements with progressively stronger past-due notices.
Mr. Carpenter, for example, said the third statement should indicate that the practice will place the account with a collection agency within 10 days if unpaid. Consultants emphasize, however, that you need to turn over unpaid balances for collection. Though you may be reluctant to take that step, you only make billing problems worse by waiting. Your patients talk to each other. Because Mr. Halley believes that anything you measure improves, he suggests tracking the cash you collect as a percentage of total charges on a daily basis.