The majority of copays should be collected on the day of service. But you may be asking, what do you do if a payment goes uncollected? In a perfect world it wouldn’t be an issue, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. Even when following the prevention tips above to a T, balances may still go unpaid. When balances accumulate, it might result in either having to write it off as Bad Debt (for balances less than $100), or sending it to Collections (for balances over $100).
If copays are not collected on the day of service, we go through a billing cycle of 90 days. The second and third notices that the patients will receive are not warm and fuzzy. Collecting payments once a patient leaves our office takes a lot of work. Sending them bills and notices will only increase their chances of leaving our practice. Avoiding sending bills is a great way to retain happy and loyal patients.
VIEW: Example of the first statement with explanation.
