Your practice probably has a financial policy in place, but do you have a patient collection policy in place? Many dental offices will answer no to this question, which can be a major issue in your business. If you don’t have these documents in place, every patient that walks in the door is going to have a different understanding of payment terms and how you collect; as a dental practice you do not want this.
Patient Collection Policy
Improve The Way You Run Your Practice
One of the best things you can do for your office is to have an effective patient collection policy in place for new patients to read over. It not only ensures consistency for each and every patient, it also gives your staff a clear, concise understanding of how to deal with new patients, how to collect on accounts, and how to deal with different payment options, for each new patient that your office takes on. So, what should be included in your patient collection policy? These are a few things to consider when setting up the policy:
- Simplicity – Avoid legalese and conflicting terms. Make it clear, concise, and easy to understand for patients and your staff.
- Discuss It – Talk about the new patient collection policy with your staff. This guarantees everyone is on the same page, understands it, knows what questions to ask, and knows what is required, each time they do sign up a new patient who walks into the offices.
- Inform Patients – The worst thing you can do is have a policy in place, and not let patients know about it. Many patients say they weren’t aware of co-pays, insurance coverage, what they had to pay for, and so forth. When your staff discusses the payment plan with each and every patient, it eliminates this confusion. Further, it guarantees you are not going to be dealing with issues each time a new patient comes into the office.
Make sure everyone is on the same page. Not only should your staff be fully informed of the dental collection policy, but each and every patient (new and old) should know it is in place, how it works, what they are responsible for, and what the insurance companies are going to cover, if they do have an insurance policy in place when they come to visit you.
Transparency Equates To Higher Efficiency:
Not only will your staff work more efficiently with clear cut patient collection policy in place, but it will also ensure your patients fully understand what is going to happen, what they have to pay, and what portions of the bill they are responsible for, each time they visit your office. If each and every patient hears and reads the same thing, and signs the collection policy before being seen, there is no way they can say they weren’t aware of something or didn’t understand it. But, if your offices do not work in a uniform manner, confusion will result, lost bills and unpaid bills are going to occur, and new patients are not going to understand how your office practices are, when it comes to collections and paying for the work they have done.
Whether you have a big or small practice, a collection policy is a must. It allows for uniformity, it makes it fair for every patient, and the policy is a guarantee that your staff is fully aware of how much to charge, and how to collect on accounts, each time a patient comes through the doors to have work done.
Patient Collection Policy
There are many ways you can reduce the total number of accounts which go into collections. With this said, there is no way to eliminate the total amount of bills which aren’t paid by patients. If your office is still struggling to collect, after setting up a patient collection policy, let us help you collect on these accounts. Simply fill out this short form, let us know what issues you are having, and we will contact your practice to discuss the options our collections agency can provide. In many cases, your patient collection policy will help reduce the total number of unpaid bills, we can help collect on the other portion which patients still aren’t paying.
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Click the button below and get a free dental patient collection policy agency quote today. After all, you can keep doing what you’re doing (and hope for a different result), or you can work with a collection agency that can help you recover what’s rightfully yours.