Turning Red to Black Blog

Through some of the toughest regulatory environment factors ever faced by third-party debt collectors, the industry is responsible for collecting approximately $78.5 billion in total debt in 2016 according to a study commissioned by ACA International all the while dealing with exceedingly fewer complaints.

Did you know that the most dangerous part of running a business is collecting bad debt?  The minefield that we, as a collection agency, must navigate day in and day out applies to anyone collecting bad debt.  So, when it comes down to the actual act of collections it’s more than fair to ask, “Who’s got your back?”

As we begin preparing for the festivities of the Thanksgiving Holiday and remembering the things we are thankful for this year, let’s not forget to also begin thinking about ways in which we can start preparing for the relief that many of your patients and customer will come into during tax season.  You may be thinking that it’s way too early to start thinking about what happens in February, March and April but, in truth, the first recipients of tax returns will be getting them by mid-January while the peak for tax returns quickly follows in mid-February!  That’s not a lot of time to prepare unless you start doing so now.

As the Eve of All Hallows approaches, bringing with it the crunch of leaves beneath our feet, we, kindred spirits of the billing and revenue cycle domains of Dante’s sprawling Inferno don our masks of anonymity and set forth to fill our goody bags! We seek not trickery, nor sticky, sugary treats… we seek information on this eve and yearn to fill our coffers with all that our digital palettes can obtain!  Approaching each door, we ask in muddled tones, “Trick or Treat?” And if we are lucky, perhaps we shall be given these bits which can help ease the often-daunting nature of our daily accounts receivable tasks:

It is important to start including billing and contact language in your Patient Agreement forms to allow your billing department and third-party vendors to contact your patients in the manner that they prefer.  Consider this, 2016 was the first year that saw the threshold of households with only cell phones and no landline surpass 50% and this number is only increasing by the day.  Not only that, but the way in which consumers communicate will change even further as messaging services – in their many incarnations – become more prevalent throughout your patient base and a millennial generation now coming into their own and having surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest living generation two years ago.