BUSINESSGetting patients to pay: Gentle ways to get the checkReminders can cut a significant source of receivables -- patient bills.By Robert Kazel, amednews staff. Sept. 22/29, 2003. Some doctors will bill a patient and wait almost indefinitely to get a check back. W. Sanderson Grizzard, MD, used to be one of them. But then Dr. Grizzard, a Tampa, Fla., ophthalmologist, began to realize that some patients' proclivity to mail in payments late or not at all was a palpable threat to his balance sheet, a drain as subtle as a nick in the bottom of a water bucket. In 1998, he and his partner figured out that 29.3% of their patients were paying their bills more than 120 days overdue. Total accounts receivables at the time had ballooned to $660,000. "I know I'm going to come across as a mean old doctor who's making people pay their bills, but people need to pay their bills," he says, speaking emphatically and with disbelief, like television's Dr. Phil dressing down guests who should know better. "Somehow patients have gotten into their heads that they don't have to pay for medical care." Physicians often blame low revenue on dwindling reimbursements or high liability insurance rates, but may pay scant attention to slow payment of outstanding balances by patients. Getting patients to pay has been more of a challenge for some doctors recently because of the economic recession. Moreover, experts say, many patients have come to view the insurance system as an undecipherable labyrinth, undoubtedly baffled about how much they truly owe or when they "really" need to pay. The thorny issue of patients' lack of loyalty also undercuts some doctors' willingness to collect aggressively. Because so many patients switch doctors nonchalantly, doctors may well resist tightening up payment policies if they fear patients might not come back. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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The doctors are in the house
The AMA's House of Delegates is holding its Interim Meeting Nov. 7-10 in Houston, addressing issues such as health system reform and physician payment. Meeting coverage - Slideshow Feature articlesHealth reform review The Massachusetts experience Litigation stress Being sued is personal as well as professional Comprehensive coverage
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