Clinician billing reports are sent out monthly, the last week of the month for the purpose of informing clients of their open balance accounts. The report shows which accounts are delinquent, and at what stage of our collections process they are in. The purpose of this is to allow therapists to get involved to increase the likelihood of collecting, or to allow them to request a write-off of any high-conflict balances they do not wish to pursue.
The billing director has the discretion to compile this information in any format that seems effective to help therapists understand the workflow. The reports should group accounts by the structured letters and call categories (30, 60 and 90 days, etc). It should highlight clearly those accounts that will be written off without any further intervention by the therapist (after certified letter is sent). Those balances are written off within a couple of weeks, barring any payment made by the patient (which should prompt the written off balance to be re-instituted). Balance write-off should be noted in the patient account and in the Alerts for the account.
Therapists should be encouraged to include a personalized note when appropriate, that they can sign and have sent by the billing department. They should be encouraged to call and offer a payment plan option to the patient. Contact by therapists greatly increases our collection rate.
This procedure may change after implementation of Inbox Health.