The health care collection agencies are a type of debt collection agency that specialize in collecting an overdue payment for doctors in private practices and other professional agencies.

 

Also known as the accounts receivable management industry, these collection agencies have increased manifold in the recent years, especially in the healthcare sector.

 

Research shows that the number of bad debts have been rising rapidly in the UK, over the last few years. Interestingly, a recent study also indicated that from the total number of cases of pending debts, there is a vast majority of patients who owe huge amounts of debts inspite of being properly insured for medical care.

 

Healthcare collection agencies follow a specific set of working principles and methods for the purpose of collecting overdue payments on the behalf of doctors in private practice.

 

To begin with, a doctor in private practice does not need the prior consent of the patient in order to forward his/her case to the collection agency. In addition, when a particular collection agency contacts the concerned patient, no reference is made to the kind of treatment whatsoever and the amount involved is the only aspect discussed, thus avoiding violation of the doctor-patient confidentiality.

 

For the purpose of collection of the payment, the debt collection agency will attempt to contact the patient by sending out letters or making telephonic calls.

 

However, there are certain stringent laws and regulations that have been put into place to protect the debtors' interests also. For instance, the County Courts Act, 1984 states that the issue of 'look-alike' letters (resembling court summons) is a punishable criminal offence.

In a situation where all attempts as above have failed, the creditor has the discretion of seeking a legal settlement.

 

The most significant impact of such a step is the possible garnishment of wages which can occur as a result of the court judgment. However, the collection agencies are not allowed to make a threat of garnishing wages or any other threats of being sued. Such documents are required to be issued entirely and strictly by the court.

 

Inspite of the massive and parallel increase in the number of health care collection agencies and the number of seekers of the service, there are certain obstacles faced by the workers of this industry.

 

Here we have briefly listed the main obstacles in this context.

 

·         Personal nature of the disease, which the patient might not want any collection agency to know about

·         Death of the concerned patient which makes it ethically difficult for the agency to recoup the payment

·         Heavy resistance from the patient or his/her family

·         Genuine financial hardships being faced by the family

·         False contact details furnished by the patient or his family

Even in the face of spiralling of the number of collection agencies, the doctors in private practice recognize the fact that collecting a bad debt from a patient is quite unlike collecting payments from credit card defaulters.

 

Professionals suggest that practically formulated and well-designed strategies need to be put in place for collecting the maximum debt.