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In the end, you may very well be better off outsourcing your medical or dental accounts receivables to one of the new medical and dental collection agency/accounts payable processing centers. According to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), your medical or dental billing notices fall under essentially the same regulations as a mega-bank's car loan collections.
Real-World Medical and Dental Debt Collection Law Quandaries
Anne, a secretary at Westville Orthopedic Associates, calls up a patient who just turned 18, to remind him of an outstanding copayment. The patient's mother answers the telephone. Should Anne:
1. Take the issue of the co-payment up with the patient's mother?
2. Leave a message with the patient's mother to remind the patient of the outstanding co-payment?
3. Leave a message for the patient to call the Westville Orthopedic Associates back?
Finding Medical Malpractice LawyersFinding effective medical malpractice lawyers to handle your case completely and thoroughly may seem like a difficult thing to do. Many of the lawyers that you come across, will not seem that high in quality. Or, you may be shocked to learn that they have many cases on their plate and may not have enough time to take care of your needs as well. So, finding a medical malpractice lawyers that are good quality may seem, well, difficult. But, there are some things that you will need to consider when looking into any of the options that you come across.
Here are some things to consider about the ..
4. Say she will call back later and quickly hang up?
All but one of the four options above will be a violation of federal debt collections law. Can you guess which one?
The correct course of action is option number 3. Why are the others illegal?
Look at each of the options above:
1. It is illegal to disclose a debt to a third party.
Billing Solutions: Is Outsourcing Your Invoice Processing Service A Good Thing?
Outsourcing your bill printing can alleviate many headaches and is generally less expensive than doing the printing yourselves. However, there are many reasons why companies outsource this function.
According to information pulled from the Best Practice Systems website the top five reasons that companies outsource are to improve company focus, resources are not available internally, free up resources for other purposes, make capital funds available, and reduce and control operating costs.
Improve Company Focus
Outsourcing lets the company focus on broader business issues while ha ..
2. See number one; remember that messages regarding a debt are essentially disclosures to a third party.
3. This is the only suitable course of action.
4. The FDCPA requires all creditors to identify themselves when making a call. While you can't say what you are calling about, you must say the name of your business before hanging up.
Not ready for your medical or dental practice to become a law practice? You can get around medical and dental collection law matters by outsourcing the entire job to a professional medical or dental accounts receivable processor or medical collection agency. This option also has the benefit of saving your staff a lot of work.
After all, not only is your medical or dental practice not a law practice, it's not an accounts department, either.
About the Author: Joel Walsh has written more tips on debt collection law: http://www.debt-collection-laws.com/?%20debt%20collection%20law [Web publication requirement: create live link for the URL/web address using "debt collection law" as visible link text/anchor text; EXCEPT if redistributing (article bank, aggregator, or clearinghouse), anchor text optional.]
Source: http://www.isnare.com Joel WalshDental & Medical Legal Debt Collection
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