also helpful to patients who
have misplaced their initial
statement, recently moved
or had their balanced-owed
change due to insurance
adjustments.
Don't write off bal-
ances arbitrarily.
Have a plan for low-balance
collectibles. If a patient
owes only a few dollars,
consider whether repeated-
ly sending statements is
costing you more than what
is owed. For example, you
may decide to write off anything under $10, because it's not worth the
time and money. Just be sure there's a reason behind this policy —
you don't want to be writing off balances because it's the convenient
thing to do.
Set up an in-house payment plan. If a patient's insurance refuses
to pay for non-covered services, set up an in-house monthly pay-
ment plan and get the patient's credit card on file before the proce-
dure. This lets you slowly collect your debt while also ensuring
patients aren't overwhelmed by a single high-sum collectible.
Document payments. Keep patient payments organized and
apply them to the account as soon as you collect them. Patients
3
4
5
Coding & Billing
CB
3 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 6
Did You Know?
Roughly 60% of
covered workers at
firms with 3 to 199
employees now have
a deductible of
$1,000 or more.
