Almost 80 million Americans have problems with medical bills according to a survey published by The Commonwealth Fund.
That number of those facing difficulties is up 34% since 2005.
If you’re a healthcare professional or practice manager and you read that statistic, it’s discouraging. I could go into further detail based on the survey’s results and break down all of the reasons why so many modern-day patients struggle with paying off their medical debt, but that falls outside the scope of this blog post.
The bottom line is that you need to implement safeguards in your practice to protect your accounts receivables. You simply can’t afford to.
How are you supposed to operate if your patients can’t pay you?
The best way to protect your revenue as a healthcare organization and/or practice is by establishing a comprehensive collections process.
In other words, the majority of what your team’s efforts should pertain to after a patient receives treatment is collecting from them.
That means multiple tasks such as…
Creating and mailing the patient’s statement (hopefully not to the wrong address)
Tracking the life of the patient’s balance
Sending payment reminders via text and email
Appending dunning messages to the top of your statements as the account ages
Preparing past due and dunning letters just in case
Sending actual phone calls to patients
It’s a comprehensive strategy that requires a lot of upfront and ongoing work from your team. But it could help keep your doors open by ensuring that you have a steady stream of revenue.
Like the point I made before, I could go on and on about each facet of a good collections process. However, that also falls outside of the scope.
Instead, for this blog post, I’m going to focus on giving your customers a phone call, one of the most tried and true forms of communication. Of course, you can’t just pick up the phone, dial and ask your patients to pay you. You don’t have time for that and that doesn’t help your efforts in providing a great practice experience.
Calling your patients and telling them bluntly that they have to pay you isn’t going to work. What will end up happening is a lot of yelling on the other end of the phone, angry patients and bad online reviews about your practice.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that you likely don’t have time to pick up the phone and call all of your patients that still have an outstanding balance with you. In other words, you’ll need to delegate some of the work associated with this portion of your collections process.
If you don’t get some help from your team, you’re going to fall so behind that it will feel like you never implemented anything, to begin with.
You want to trust your team that they’re going to know exactly how to hold a collection conversation with your patients, but it’s a sensitive topic.
The way to keep the conversation productive while ensuring that your team doesn’t offend any of your clients when calling on them to collect is by drafting a variety of scripts. To save you time, we’ve written 5 scripts for collecting money from patients.
Table of Contents
Script 1 - Calling The Forgetful patient
Nearly 20% of patients admit that the reason why they didn’t pay their medical bills on time was that they simply forgot.
Sure, you could argue that 20% isn’t that much. From a small fractional percentage, 1 in 5 doesn’t sound that bad. But collecting from your forgetful patients is much easier than someone who couldn’t afford to pay their bill in the first place.
Odds are all they need is a simple reminder that they came to your organization for services.
Team Member: Good morning, this is John from Dr. Richard’s office. Am I speaking with Elizabeth Watson?
Elizabeth: This is she.
Team Member: Hi Elizabeth, I’m calling on behalf of Dr. Richard in regards to your overdue balance with us for the appointment you had one month ago.
Elizabeth: Oops, I completely forgot. It’s been really busy at work lately.
Team Member: That is fine, work gets ahead of us sometimes. Since I already have you on the phone, we can settle your balance now.
Elizabeth: Absolutely, let me get my card and we’ll get this settled. Thank you so much for the call.
The first script to help you in your quest to collect money from your patients covers those who forget. It happens more often than you think and you shouldn’t hold it against the person you’re calling.
As such, you’ll notice the politeness involved in the script above. The team member frames the conversation in a way that’s collaborative. It’s almost as if they’re outright saying, “Let’s work together as a team and settle your balance.”
For example purposes, the delinquent patient has time to pay right then when they receive the collections call.
Of course, it’s not always going to be that easy. There will be times when the person on the other end forgot and they don’t have time to pay on the first call. If that’s the case, call them back the next day and let them know that before they hang up.
Script 2 - Calling The Patient Who Didn't Receive The Statement
A worst-case scenario for many healthcare organizations is sending a patient’s medical bill to the wrong address. That’s considered a HIPAA violation and it could lead to large fines from the government if the mistakes happen on a large scale.
Of course, if you call one of your patients and they state that they never received their statement, to begin with. That doesn’t always mean that their bill went to the wrong address. Maybe there was a printer error or a mailing error. Either way, your script should look as follows…
Team Member: Good Afternoon, this is John from Dr. Richard’s office. Am I speaking with Elizabeth Watson?
Elizabeth: Yes,this is Elizabeth.
Team Member: Hello, Elizabeth. I regret to inform you that you still have an outstanding balance with us.
Elizabeth: I never received my bill, so there was no way for me to know when it was overdue or how to pay it.
Team Member: I apologize for that. That could’ve happened for a lot of reasons. We’ll have to figure out what went wrong on our end and get back to you on that. In the meantime, would you prefer that we pay it over the phone or electronically?
Elizabeth: I would prefer that I pay it electronically.
Team Member: Great, is your email address still abc@xyz.com?
Elizabeth: Yes, that is still my email address.
Team Member: Fantastic, thank you. I’m going to send you an email that contains instructions on how to access and pay your bill electronically after we get off of the phone. If you don’t get it, make sure to check your spam folder.To make this type of phone call a step further, you should provide your team with an email template to use in tandem with a patient that prefers online payment. That way, the team can send a follow-up email with payment instructions immediately after the call.
Emails templates also further mitigate the risks associated with HIPAA and this type of communication (bonus points if your template includes a disclaimer).
Script 3 & 4 - If The Bill is Incorrect
80% of all medical bills contain errors.
That statistic isn’t very encouraging. Of course, the error doesn’t always have to be on a services and/or charges level. It could be contact information related.
In any case, what I’m trying to say is that having a script ready to go that helps guide your team through the scenario where there was a mistake in billing is essential.
Team Member: Hello, this is John from Dr. Richard’s office. Is this Elizabeth Watson?
Elizabeth: Hi, John. It is.
Team Member: I am calling regarding the bill we sent you for the appointment you had with us in July, our records indicate that it is now overdue.
Elizabeth: I actually haven’t paid the bill because there’s a mistake on it.
Team Member: OK, I’m sorry to hear that. Could you please describe to me the mistake? I’m pulling up your statement now and can edit it as you talk through it.
Elizabeth: (Explains the mistake)
OR
Elizabeth: (Explains the issue. She misunderstood the details.)
Team Member: Thank you for your explanation. However, it seems you might be misunderstanding the details. (Explain the misunderstanding).
Elizabeth: Oh, sorry about that. Now that you’ve explained it I see what happened.You’ll find that some patients think that there’s a mistake in their bill, but it's a misunderstanding of their charges. Due to that reason, it’s a good idea to create a script that has IF logic built in it.
If the mistake is real, then go this route. If the mistake is a misunderstanding, say this instead.
That way, you’re preparing your team for anything that could happen and they won’t freeze up on the phone with the patient you’re trying to collect money from.
Script 5 - When The Patient Has Financial Trouble
Over a quarter of patients have had trouble paying off a recent medical bill.
That’s a hard statistic to swallow. Yet, it’s the reality that many healthcare organizations need to understand. The cost of healthcare doesn’t show any signs of decreasing anytime soon, either.
In other words, your practice needs to prepare itself for the inevitable conversation with a patient that has financial trouble.
It’s an awkward conversation, but it needs dealt with.
Team Member: Good morning, this is John from Dr. Richard’s office. I’m looking for Elizabeth Watson.
Elizabeth: This is Elizabeth. I know that I still have a medical bill to pay from the appointment I had, I don’t have the money to pay it all off.
Team Member: I’m sorry to hear that. How can we help resolve this?
Elizabeth: (Explains the reasons for her inability to pay.)
Team Member: I see. Thank you for sharing your situation, and your honesty is appreciated. With how expensive healthcare services are, I want to assure you that you’re not the first patient that couldn’t pay their bill with us. Luckily, we provide financial assistance and the ability to establish a customized payment plan that caters to your budget.
Elizabeth: That might be feasible. How do I get started?
Team Member: Since I have you on the phone, we can create a plan now together. How does that sound?
Elizabeth: Let’s do that. Thank you for being so understanding.
Discussing the financial situation with a patient that owes you money is a sensitive topic. But it’s possible to navigate such a conversation in a way that’s collaborative and beneficial to both parties.
Sure, establishing a payment plan might take longer to receive what’s owed to you in full. However, they allow you to predict your accounts receivable and ensure cash flow.
Script 6 - Effective Voicemail
You can’t make a few phone calls without running into a few answering machines.
These days, every generation has a different preference when it comes to communicating with them.
To make matters worse, 73% of people say that it's increasingly more difficult to reach them via phone. Yet, all is not lost because 1 in 3 people listen to their voicemails. Believe it or not, that’s a high success rate.
Because of the inevitability of your phone calls hitting voicemail, you should create a script for that as well.
Team Member: Good morning, this is John from Dr. Richard’s office. I’m looking for Elizabeth Watson regarding her recent visit with us. According to our records, she has an outstanding balance of $150.00 that’s due one week from receiving this message. Please give us a call back at 330-342-0568 at your earliest convenience if you have any questions about your balance. You can also pay electronically by visiting our online portal.
Having a script for collection-based voicemails is particularly helpful for healthcare organizations because HIPAA still applies.
Due to the risk involved, the last thing you want to do is have one of your team members unintentionally over-share protected health information on a recorded message.
Conclusion
Establishing a series of scripts for collecting money from your patients isn’t some new-age, groundbreaking idea. It’s a process that the biggest collection organizations have in place to ensure that their clients get paid.
Yet, you don’t have to automatically write off all of your bad debts and send them to such an agency. All you have to do is templatize some of your scripts around your patients that haven’t paid you yet and make a few phone calls.
If you use the scripts within this blog post, tailor them to your organization, workforce and patients and then watch your accounts receivables grow.
