Physicians Practice - March 2008 - (Page 58)

ASK THE EXPERTS THE SOONER THE BETTER Make sure not to stretch your collection efforts over too long of a time period. The older the account, the harder to collect. want to violate any contracts. If I set up the new practice as new corporation with its own tax ID, is this a safe idea? malpractice. That rule extends even further the length of time that you must retain patient records. Hang onto any records related to legal actions in which you have been named as a defendant or in which you think you may be called as a witness. Keep those records until the conclusion of the case and all applicable appeals have been exhausted. Don’t overlook other legal obligations regarding patient record retention. Medicare records must be maintained for a minimum of four years. Depending on the type of patient, Medicare may require an even longer retention period. Review your applicable third-party payer agreements to see what your contractual obligations are to maintain records of their insured patients. OPENING A SECOND, CASH-ONLY PRACTICE A It would be nice to be able to do both at once, but the consensus among the experts we spoke with is that it can’t be done. This is an area of healthcare management that is still being ﬂeshed out, though, so it might be worth getting your own attorney to look into the speciﬁcs of your plan. What is possible is to keep your regular practice but charge for noncovered services as is done in the more standard concierge-style practices. COLLECTION AGENCY FOR SMALL BALANCES Q I have a standard practice that contracts with commercial payers and Medicare. I’d like to open a cash-only practice in a second location but don’t Q A patient owes my office about $300 and isn’t responding to our billing letter even after we told him that we’ll send him to collections. I’ve now found out that our collection agency won’t take accounts under $500. What do I do? A Well, for one thing, I’d have a written policy on when patients get sent to collections. That may include the fact that no patients with balances under $500 are sent to collections. It’s bad to threaten something you don’t intend to do. You can also shop for a new collection agency that accepts smaller balances. As far as avoiding this in the future, you can try to collect at the time of service whenever you can. You can also offer patients a small discount (say, 8 percent) if they’ll pay before you send them to collections. That’s less than the collection agency charges, typically, and may get some action. Make sure not to stretch your collection efforts over too long of a time period. The older the account, the harder to collect — folks are not more likely to respond to the third letter than the ﬁrst. NEW PATIENTS SEE NP FOR SOME PAYERS Q It is economically beneficial for our nurse practitioner to see new patients from certain insurers rather than myself; 58 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | MARCH 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://merage.uci.edu http://merage.uci.edu http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - March 2008

Physicians Practice - March 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Try a Little Tenderness Second Opinion Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: The Value of First Impressions Noteworthy Cover Story: Your Complete Guide to Patient Service Billings & Collections: Rules to Code By The Administrators Desk: Selecting an EMR Technology: Learn to Love Your Nerd Ask The Experts Coding The Guide The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs The Great Practice Makeover: When Bad Things Happen to Good Practices Start It Up - NEW! The Law: Audits 101 In Practice: Do As I Say... Pretty Please? Healthonomics: Handling the Changes Wrought by Medicare D Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - March 2008

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