Bad Debts can be avoided by:
- Carrying out an Online Eligibility Check (OEC) prior to the procedure
- Taking the prepayment for any Out Of Pocket (OOP) from the client before providing the services
- Asking for full payment if the client has no private insurance or no Medicare number
- Out-Of-Pocket (OOP) if fund allows. Ensure that your IFC references that the client is responsible for full payment of the account to include any other charges should the fund decline to pay
- Utilise Direct Billing to Medicare (Bulk Bill)
- Utilise Direct Billing to Medicare (DVA)
- Utilise Direct Billing to Health Funds (ECLIPSE)
- Request for comment on the invoice that payment is due within 14 days
Reminders
Should you need to send out reminders for Private accounts, this is best done by sending SMS Reminders in the first instance.
- Setup the Reminder SMS Template in Utilities - Templates (Autotext). Here is an example ...
- Go to Regular Tasks - Find Transactions
- Select the Date Range
- In the Outstanding column with the Filter row enabled (CTRL+F and CTRL+S to save), filter on Not Equal to $0.00 or Greater than $5.00
- Select All by pressing CTRL+A
- Right-click and select Send SMS and select the relevant SMS Template
Patient accounts that are unpaid in total
Steps
Go to Reports - Statements (this should be a task for the third week of each month if you follow up accounts monthly or every second week if you follow up accounts fortnightly)
For 14 or 30 day accounts:
- Select the previous month date range
- Select 'Print Invoices' for patient accounts if unpaid in total as they will require this detail for claiming
Note: Invoices will print with a 'stronger' comment such as 'This is a friendly reminder that your account is overdue. Please pay immediately'
For 30 or 60 day accounts
- Select the month prior to the previous month date range
- Select 'Print Invoices' for patient accounts if unpaid in total as they will require this detail for claiming
Note: Invoices will print with a 'stronger' comment such as 'Your account is well overdue. If not paid within 7 days, this account will be forwarded to the debt collector'
Patient accounts where the OOP ONLY is outstanding
- Complete the above steps, however, these can be sent out as statements and not invoices if you wish.
- You have the option of printing letters as well with the statements
Third Party Payers
- Complete the above steps, however, these can be sent out as statements.
- You have the option of printing letters as well with the statements