How to List a Past Due Account on a Patient's Credit Report

A successful medical practice is not just about treating patients. You must also manage your practice's accounting processes if you expect to make a living. One such task that a medical practice must complete is collecting money that is past due. Accounts that are more than 90 days old should be reported to credit bureaus. If your patient sees the account on his credit report, he may be more likely to pay it.

Instructions

1

Call your patient about his past due account and explain that you plan to report it to the credit bureaus. In some cases, your patient may be able to make a payment.

2

Enlist a credit reporting service to process past due accounts. The service will charge a small fee, but it will format the information correctly and contact patients' credit bureaus. This is a smart choice if you have a small practice and need to report past due accounts only a few times each year.

3

Contact a collection agency to help you report past due accounts to the credit bureaus. These companies also help you collect fees you are owed by contacting the patient and, if necessary, garnishing wages and freezing bank accounts. However, since collection agencies take a percentage of any money they collect on your behalf, large past due accounts may be expensive to service.

4

Consider getting a membership in one of the credit bureaus. Membership will allow you to report past due accounts directly to the credit bureaus using their electronic interface. Membership can be a hefty investment, so it's not for medical practices that don't have at least 100 credit accounts to report each year.