Steps to follow while on conversation with a patient

Call the patient’s phone number.

1. If the patient
couldn’t be reached at the home phone number, try calling the work
phone number. If both are unreachable, make a note of it.

2. If the number is busy, try sometime later and if it’s still busy, make a note of it.

3. If you reach a voice mail, leave a message just asking the patient to call us back.
For example : "My name is Kevin calling from Dr XYZ’s billing office and would like to
talk to __________ (Patient). Please call us back with your insurance information at
____________ (Our given phone #).

4. a. If someone other than the patient comes on the line, ask for the patient and if the
person says that there is no one by the patient’s name, make a note of it.

b. If the person says that the patient lives there, but is not available at that time, ask the
person when the pt will be available and leave a message with that person asking the pt to
call us back at our given ph#. Also verify the patient’s residential address.

Never tell the outstanding amount to a person other than the patient or leave a
message on the voicemail with that detail.
Reveal this detail only to the patient, if the patient asks for it.

5. If the patient is available, inform him/her that this is regarding the treatment rendered
to him/her on the specific DOS and that the bill is still outstanding.

a. If the patient says that he/she had insurance coverage during the time period,
he/she was given treatment, get the insurance details such as the Insurance
company name, policy ID#, effective date and termination date (if applicable),
group# or plan#.
b. If the patient didn’t have any insurance coverage at that time of service, inform
him/her that she would be responsible for the outstanding bills. In such a case, ask
if the patient has received any statement from our side and if he/she needs another
statement to make the payment.

If you talk to the patient, always verify the patient’s details like SSN, complete
name, residential address etc.

6. If the patient says that he/she will make the payment, ask for the mode of payment the
patient wishes to use.
a. If the patient is paying by a Credit Card, then get the credit card details like
Card#, Card Type, Expiration Date, Card holder’ s name etc.
b. If the patient is paying by check, then the check should be sent to our given pay to
address, in the name of the Dr or the provider group, for the outstanding amount.
Ask him/her, when the payment is likely to be made.
c. If the patient is paying by cash, then request him/her to drop by and make
arrangement to pay at the Dr’ s office.
d. If the patient says that he/she is not in a position to pay the whole amount, then
ask him/her to call our Client’ s office at the given phone# and discuss how the
payment can be made.
e. If the patient says that he/she has not received any statement, then verify once
again the patient’ s residential address and inform him/her that you would make
the arrangement for the statement to be sent as soon as possible, however request
the patient to make arrangements for the payment.
f. If the insurance has already made the payment and the patient owes the
responsibility for the co-insurance, explain the guarantor that the insurance has
paid its portion and it is now his/her responsibility.
g. If the insurance has applied the claim to the patient’ s deductible or if had denied
the claim stating that the services are not covered as per the patient’ s plan, explain
this to the patient and convince the patient that he/she has to pay for that.