I wanted to share another support question I received from a client this morning, along with the advice I provided.
“I have a quick question, to see if I should do the same for a patient I’ve been dealing with before the virus.
I have tried to contact the patient’s mom several times. When I do she will say I’ll drop off a payment etc. I always explain if she can’t make it to the office and wants to make a payment she can do so over the phone. I have sent letters to her and still no response.
Is it ok during the current situation to dismiss her if I continue to get no response?”
This question has two answers. If this person were repeatedly delinquent prior to your shutdown and her behavior and response to your collection efforts is the same (or worse) now as it was before, then yes, you can dismiss the patient without fear of any legal repercussions. That is the first answer. The second answer is: No matter how bad this account may be, do you want to dismiss her now and suffer a possible PR blowback when she goes on Yelp or some similar type of social media and says, “I have six kids and my husband is laid off and this nasty orthodontist kicked my poor child out of his practice when I only missed one payment.”?
It makes little difference that this account may have been many months past due, truly obnoxious, missing appointments, poor clinical cooperation, etc. because you cannot defend yourself or the practice by using any of that information, which is all confidential.
The best choice in cases like this, once you have done all of the letter collection activity that you believe is reasonable, is to wait until the practice is formally back to work, send the #6 (Maintenance) letter which gives them 30 days to make a financial arrangement you can live with. If, within that 30 days the patient/parent contacts you and makes a quality, reasonable, financial agreement, one that you genuinely believe will be kept, then all is good. If not, at the end of that 30 days write the account off and send the dismissal letter.
