We hope that our patients never stiff us with an unpaid balance. However, it can happen … and it is important that your practice has a system for identifying your collection accounts. In your Dentrix software, there are five steps that I recommend you complete for every account that you send to collection. Yes, I do recommend that you use a reputable collection agency when you have unpaid account balances.
You can’t just sweep these unpaid balances under the rug and hope they somehow disappear into the universe somewhere. I see it all the time on the collection manager report where accounts are listed and the financial coordinator says, “Oh, I need to write that off. They are not paying that balance.”
These unpaid balances cannot just sit on your accounts receivable report and collect dust. You must have a systematic process to deal with these accounts and take the emotion out of it. I know it’s hard because you want to believe that the patient will walk in one day and apologize and write you a check for the balance. However, this is a slim reality.
Below are the five steps to put in place so you can effectively manage any past due accounts and the accounts that you send to a collection agency.
- Change the family billing type to the “Sent to Collection” number. Changing the billing type will allow you to filter the account from reports and billing statements.
- Inactivate all family members so they will drop off any continuing care lists and drop out of any automated communication you have set up with third-party software.
- Reject all unscheduled treatment plans. That way, if the patient ever does come back to the practice, you will start from scratch.
- Make sure to add a patient alert so that you will have a pop-up on all Dentrix modules if anyone from the family calls to schedule an appointment. This is probably the only time its okay to click “ALL” when creating a patient alert.
- Sending the family a dismissal letter is usually the one step that gets missed. I understand you don’t want to lose a patient. However, if the patient calls with a dental emergency, you must see him or her unless you have dismissed that patient out of your practice.
If you want to take a deep dive into this topic and the entire revenue management system, I would recommend my course “Your Guide to Managing Accounts Receivable” which will go through all aspects of A/R management.