Every dollar counts. Here is how to collect them all.

Growing a practice is a risky business. The larger it gets — more offices, more staff, more patients, more expenses — the greater the need to install controls that ensure every dollar owed to the practice is collected.

That’s on the one side. On the other is the need to maintain positive patient relations. For a practice like ours, whose population is primarily of cataract age, memory is sometimes scarce, and checkout, without the right interventions, could seem interminably long.

While I am not one to use sports metaphors, I do adapt them: the best defense is the well-planned, well-executed offense.

I have asked our director of front desk services, Jessica Kube, to tell our story for the next few paragraphs.

GATHER YE INFO WHILE YE MAY

While we try to gather as much insurance information as we can at the time of scheduling — the right insurer, copay numbers, deductible figures, and so on — there is always more to do at checkout.

We don’t know if there is co-insurance involved or whether the patient has met his or her deductible. And then there are additional fees for cash services, such as refractions, or for over-the-counter products that need to be paid at checkout.

About eight months ago, Matossian Eye integrated a cloud-based verification system. With this system, we can log on before the patient’s visit to get the most up-to-date insurance information for the upcoming visit.

This information then goes to the billing department, so that an accurate bill is ready for the patient to pay by the time the patient is done with the office visit.

A CONTRACT IN THE CLOUD

Or not. For the past few months, we have been requiring all new patients to let us maintain a credit card number on file. These credit card numbers are maintained in a secure cloud-based system. This arrangement is a contract between Matossian Eye and the patient. In a few months’ time, we will do the same with established patients.

For patients in a system like this, they won’t get phone calls or receive paper bills through snail mail for the collection of outstanding bills. As for the practice, it won’t be spending money on postage nor devoting staff time on collection calls. With the extra time, staff reaches out to patients who haven’t been to the office for some years to encourage them to schedule an appointment.

IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE

For the past four years, I have enjoyed bringing to you the do’s and don’ts, the should’s and shouldn’ts, that can help make you, your staff and your practice more progressive, patient-centric and, yes, enlightened.

This is my last column. I thank you all for your notes, acknowledgments and encouragement. OM

Cynthia Matossian, MD, FACS, is the founder of Matossian Eye Associates. Her e-mail is cmatossian@matossianeye.com