4 Reasons healthcare collections need to be cordial

If you are running any type of healthcare facility or medical practice, we know how hard you have worked to cultivate new patients. It can take years to build a thriving practice and along with the best medical care, the way you do that is to provide a warm and welcoming environment at every phase of the patient experience.

The patient experience starts from that first phone call for care all the way through how that person is treated in the office, by all levels of staff, and after the visit. It includes good times and bad. And it also includes the process of medical collections and how that patient is treated during times of financial hardship.

Care and collections is a phrase all our staff know and understand here. They are aware that the relationship you have with your patients is a precious one and do everything in their power to maintain that connection.

 

 

After many years as a leader in medical collections, we know these important items to be true.

Being nice is the right thing to do

Forget all the other reasons for just a moment. Treating people with respect is just the right thing to do. Whether you are making internal collection calls for payment or hiring a medical collection agency, those that contact your patients should be having a cordial conversation with those people. We cannot think of any reason to get angry, upset, or even nasty with a patient. These people are in your care and even when in collections, they should feel safe.

Being respectful equals better results

So we’ve established that being nice is just common sense and a dignified way to conduct your communications. But when it comes to debt collections, being pleasant will help you achieve far greater results. Do you want to continue to do business with somebody who is mean to you? We didn’t think so. Your patients will not want to deal with you any longer if they feel uncomfortable regardless of the situation or conversation. And do you really want to have any type of conversation with someone you cannot connect with?

Being nice gets results. The chances of coming up with a solution to an unpaid bill increase dramatically when two people can connect and have a cordial conversation. It really is that simple. If your staff is making internal collection calls, their number one goal yes to be nice. #2 is to find a way to get that bill paid.

Cordial debt collections preserve your reputation

It is far too easy now for people to try and ruin your hard-earned good reputation in the community. Before we had social media in our lives, there were not many outlets available for someone who wanted to complain. But now, anyone can get online and through a whole host of platforms, complain about your business for medical practice. Just a simple post on Facebook can damage your reputation. But more damaging are platforms such as Google reviews and Yelp. While they can help your business, negative reviews can damage your reputation. It’s not easy to get a negative review removed from certain platforms so cordial debt collections have never been more important.

Saving you time and money

A cordial debt collection program for your healthcare practice will preserve your resources.

Let’s create a scenario for you. You have patients that have not paid what they owe you. If you have staff that cannot be nice on a follow-up call, that patient will most likely hang up on you or at the very least not want to work with you to find a solution. Human nature tells us to put our guard up.

Now what? Your staff needs to spend more time making more phone calls. That wastes time, money, and other resources that could be available to your medical practice.

Being nice on your follow-up calls and trying to understand someone’s situation will allow you to preserve more internal resources. Having a demeaning tone with a patient over the phone will backfire time and time again.

Being nice saves you money.

Do you want to learn more about one of the most effective healthcare collection programs in the market today? Contact our team now!