September 2020 Manage Patient AR

This BIG Idea is a deeper dive into managing patient account balances.  The customized analysis described here goes far behind the functionality of practice management systems I have seen.  This practice pulls patient balances for patients not on a payment plan who have not made a payment in 30 days, have not had an encounter drop to patient balance in the past 30 days, and where the overall patient balance is over a set dollar amount.  Your practice is different and may use different metrics to determine which patients to focus on, such as whether the patient has been turned to collections in the past x years, whether the patient has a future appointment, or the patient financial class.  Whatever metrics work for your practice, the important thing is to have to the patient accounts receivable data in enough detail to manage patient balances accordingly.  Once you do have the data, listen for ideas on how to filter patients off the report for a period of time once the account is worked so that you can focus on remaining patients.  Are your patient accounts receivable balances higher than they were before COVID hit?  Listen for ideas that will help you generate better reports and better results in your practice.