Column 14: Accounts Receivables Write-Off Date. The date when the facility transferred the account balance from the accounts receivable to the bad debt expense account.
Column 15: Return from Collection Agency Date. The date when the hospital received the account from the collection agency. Specific for non-indigent claim, could be applied to non-dual indigent, but doesn’t apply to dual indigent.
Column 16: Collection Efforts Ceased. The date in which the facility stopped pursuing collections. If your facilities process is to pursue any additional internal collections after returned from an outside collection agency, then that date should be used. Otherwise, this date will be the same as the return from collection agency date.
Column 17: Medicare Write-Off Date. The date of write-off as it’s allowable for the Medicare bad debt report. For dual indigent claims, it would be the same date as the accounts receivable write-off date. For non-indigent claims, it should be the date returned from the collection agency or the collection efforts ceased, whichever date is most recent.