Sally McKenzie

You've decided that 2013 is the year that you are going to make the most of marketing your practice. Congratulations, I can virtually guarantee that it will be one of the best decisions you will make. The key is making sure that you have a sound budget to fund this critical practice system, not just for this year but for the long term as well. And that requires a solid collection strategy.

Your objective is to achieve a 98% collection rate. Here's how to get there:

1. Check your accounts receivables. You have to know where your numbers are so you can establish your collections goals. Your practice management software should be able to provide an accounts receivables report for you. Thoroughly review this report at least once a month.
2. Evaluate your financial policy. This written policy is a priority, and it is a cornerstone in your collections system. Provide it to every new patient and periodically distribute it to existing patients. In addition, before any major treatment plan begins, review the financial policy with the patient and ensure that they understand their responsibilities and their payment options.
3. Tap the right person for the right job. Effective collections requires someone who is assertive, tactful, confident, and goal oriented. Some people are simply not cut out for this job. If your only option is someone who is uncomfortable asking for money, get professional collections training for her/him. If another staff member is better suited for the position assign the responsibility to that person and train her/him.
4. Collect at the time of service. Accept cash, check, credit card, or debit card. This must be consistently implemented at dismissal. For more costly procedures, provide payment options such as allowing the patient to pay in two or three installments within a specified time or offering the services of a treatment financing company.
5. Give your collections coordinator a private space and uninterrupted time to make delinquent account calls. Begin making those calls on day 31. Payment was due when services were provided, and the patient has already been given 30 days to pay. Carefully review the account to assess payment history. Make sure there is no error on the part of the practice. Be polite. Be a good listener. Be firm. Be persistent. And document everything.
6. Be consistent. Avoid the temptation to allow some patients to just slide by. Before you know it, all the exceptions are killing collections and derailing your budget.

Establish and implement a carefully crafted and fully supported financial policy in your practice, and, before long, you'll have necessary revenues to not only market your practice effectively, but give you and your team a raise as well.

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Katherine Eitel

Every day we are faced with issues that must be resolved between two parties. For example, working on performance issues with employees, helping children become responsible young adults, keeping patients happy while enforcing practice policies, and even negotiations as straight forward as purchasing a car or a home.

As long as you feel you must have a particular outcome (for example, the practice won't survive without a certain employee; you can't live without that particular car; you couldn't bear to see your kids miss their baseball game, you can't imagine not seeing every patient that phones your office, etc.) then you will negotiate/communicate very differently, and probably to your disadvantage.

The greatest truth I have learned in negotiating a successful outcome was this:

If you enter into any conversation, debate, conference, meeting, discussion, or negotiation absolutely sure that you are comfortable walking away empty-handed... you will almost always come away a winner.

Not that you should be smug or disconnected, but simply that you will not be communicating from a place of fear. You will be communicating from a place of strength and confidence which is transferred to the other party through voice tone and body language, as much as the actual words you choose.

Think about this as you discuss issues with your team members, patients, family members, or business associates. Always operate, negotiate, and communicate with a certain level of detachment from a particular outcome... and always from a place of strength, never fear.

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