Do you know if your payment allocations are up to date? We are frequently approached by consultants who ask us to look at their old debt with a view to collecting what is perceived as unpaid – figures in the region of £50-100K outstanding debt are not uncommon.
But is that amount of debt really outstanding or is that just what the report from their practice management software is telling them?
From our experience, there will typically be many payments that have been received but not marked off against the patient records and therefore the figure that is showing as outstanding is not a true amount. Without your records being up to date, it will be impossible for you to know what is truly outstanding, and whether your secretary is wasting her time chasing debt that has already been paid, plus there is a high chance you will upset self-pay patients if you chase them for payment that they have already made.
If this situation sounds all too true, there are a number of changes that may help:
- Set up a dedicated business bank account that your secretary has viewing access to – that way she will see all the payments that have been made and can allocate to the patient’s account
- Make sure your secretary has time and is up to date with allocations – often this gets left and doesn’t happen regularly as they are busy dealing with clinical aspects of your practice
- Make sure any insurance shortfalls are dealt with straightaway by invoicing the patient
- Alternatively outsource your billing to a dedicated company that ensures all your fees are collected and allocated.
Trust Health provides exceptional medical billing services and ensures that you receive all your invoiced payments, that your practice management software is up to date for each patient and that you receive full detailed reports each month. Without fail, we will ensure your payment allocations are up to date.
