Happy Ending to Our Doctors'
Debt Collection Agency Experience

by Vera
(Chicago)

I actually hated the idea of hiring a collection agency, but as the economy got worse, so did the list of people who stopped paying our office.

We have six doctors in our office, and unlike in the past when there were a lot of outstanding receivables, the unpaid bills were spread equally between new and old patients, young and old, and those with and without serious medical problems.

Of course, we realized that we were ahead of many businesses, since we, at least, had some insurance and Medicare reimbursements. Still, though, the solution no one wanted – hiring a collection agency – seemed to be getting closer.

We interviewed companies and then visited their operations. Our decision was based on how we thought their employees looked. If we saw a lot of employees on their phones making faces or gestures, or texting away, we immediately dismissed that company. We wanted people who would at least concentrate on our patients and their problems.

We found one, that happened to be heavy on female employees, maybe a coincidence and maybe not – where the employees seemed more focused on the work. Instead of “silly faces,” they seemed to be spending some additional time on the calls.

I asked one of the supervisors about quotas, to see if there were limits on how much time could be spent per case. She said they had suspended quotas because it led to rudeness on the phone.

One of the doctors told me that two of his patients had called him to say that they were sorry about the unpaid bills and to comment on how “nice” the person who called them had been. They actually wanted to please the collection agency personnel, which we never counted on.

We collected enough money to clearly justify the decision to hire an outside agency. It also took pressure off our staff, whose jobs were to greet and help our patients, not make them feel badly about money.