Turning Red to Black Blog

The landscape for accounts receivable and collections seems to be changing on a daily if not hourly basis during the first few weeks of our national response to the coronavirus.  While many initiatives like stay-at-home-orders and social distancing are paramount to containing the spread of this virus, many aspects of life must continue in order to sustain a fragile economy. 

There’s a great quote from Rocky IV when the American hero is getting beaten rather decisively by the Soviet brute, Ivan Drago and heads back to his corner bewildered.  He says he sees three of them out there to which his boozy brother-in-law instructs him to “hit the one in the middle.” Decent advice when you have three Dragos in your field of vision and you know only one of them is the actual man.  Seems reasonable for Rocky to hit the one in the middle.

If you like the Rolling Stones song by the same name, you’ll really appreciate this scary fact, Americans are only answering their cell phones 47% of the time according to Hiya, an authority on the subject.  Less than half of all attempts to reach consumers on their cell phones are successful and yet statistics show that Americans check their cell phone every 12 minutes or 80 times each day!

Every year, we begin pushing our clients to get their placements in ahead of the new year in an effort to have those accounts optimally primed for tax season.  With 44% of taxpayers expecting their returns to be the wealthiest check they’ll bring home this year, opportunity abounds for all accounts receivable professionals.  Each year, over half of recipients use at least a portion of this money to pay down debt or their everyday expenses.

This month we are highlighting the Consumer Protection for Medical Debt Collections Act which is being sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich and should be coming up for a vote early this year.  H.R. 5330 is important to our medical clients for two very specific reasons.  First, it would limit any medical account from going into collections for two full years.  If that isn’t enough to worry you, H.R. 5330 would also eliminate your ability (and our ability) from reporting any medical account to the credit bureaus for one full year.