The basics: curbing delinquent self-pay debt

Delinquent accounts attributable to Medicare/Medicaid, managed care companies, and third parties, are a major problem. The delinquent accounts of individuals are no less a problem. It is a given that sometimes an individual who owes a hospital money will not pay the bill, which may result in the hospital turning over the delinquent account to a collection agency and thus losing a large percentage of the revenue from that account to the agency. If the bill cannot be collected even by the collection agency, then the account becomes a total write-off, costing the hospital the labor and products it used in servicing that account. Thus, developing the skills to achieve in-house payment resolution is critical.