DOING IT YOURSELF

©2000 Michelle Dunn

Some healthcare professionals, hospitals and clinics feel that they can collect past-due accounts themselves. This could save the fee charged by a collection service.

Some of the costs involved in doing it yourself are:

• SALARIES — A collection supervisor and collectors will have to be paid.
• TELEPHONES — Collectors spend a lot of time on the phone, some of these calls will be long distance.
• POSTAGE — Collectors send a lot of notices and verifications of bills and there will be a large increase in postage.
• COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE, AND OTHER EQUIPMENT — This could involve a big initial investment. Also, you may need to be able to do some skip tracing, and credit reporting on these patients.
• TRAINING — Collectors need to know the laws in the state you are located and also follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. They may need to be trained in skip tracing, collection techniques and letter writing.

Things to look out for when collecting yourself:

Make sure your collection staff is thoroughly trained in consumer debt counseling, state and federal credit and collection laws.

Do not spend too much time, which is money, on pursuing accounts that you don't feel you will collect on.

Have at least one collector who is familiar with small claims procedures

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