Overview

Through years of experience in managing accounts receivable for therapy practices, our team has developed this suggested workflow for collecting past due client balances and sending accounts to collections.

1. Friendly Reminder Call: If a client has been sent two consecutive statements and has not made a payment or payment arrangements, you should attempt to contact the client via phone. Verify that they have received the statements and are aware of the balance.
2. Past Due Letter: If you are unable to reach the client directly, leave a voicemail and send a past due letter stating that payment is past due. Remember, you cannot leave information regarding the collection on the voicemail; you can request that the patient return your call. Click here for an example of a Past Due Letter
3. Delinquency Notice: After the third statement, if a client has not provided payment or made payment arrangements, they should be sent a delinquency notice letter stating that their account is about to be sent to collections. Click here for an example of a Delinquency Notice Letter
4. Collections: After the fourth statement, if a client has not provided payment or made payment arrangements, their account should be turned over to a collections agency. Clients should not be mailed any further statements once their account has been turned over. Additionally, it is important that the account is labeled and removed from your monthly A/R.

If the client pays off their balance or makes other payment arrangements at any point during this workflow, the process starts over. If a client has a large balance, we suggest resolving the balance in three monthly payments.

Label Accounts in Collection

We recommend using the Client Identifier field to label accounts that are going through this workflow. The label they should be assigned depends on which step you’ve completed in the workflow.

To label a client’s chart:

1. Navigate to Clients > Client List.
   
2. Locate the desired client, and click the blue edit pencil to edit the chart.
3. Enter the Client Identifier into the Identifier field (up to 4 characters).      
4. Select one of the Save options.

Exclude from Batch Billing

This process will prevent balance statements from being created for the client accounts that you have sent to collections.

1. Navigate to the client’s chart using your preferred method.
2. Underneath the client’s name, check the Exclude patient from batch billing checkbox.       
3. Click Save & Close to apply the changes.

Remove Balance from Monthly A/R

To remove balances from your A/R that were sent to collections, please review and follow the steps in the Account Balance Write-Off article. To track clients whose balances were written off for collections, please review the Account Write-Off Balances Report.