We've identified 5 Best Practices that are meant to be used as guidelines when creating Payment Plans.
Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that outlines how to manage Payment Plans for your practice. Be sure to include information such as what type of patients/balances qualify for a payment plan (e.g., balances greater than $500.00), who the payment plan has to be approved by (e.g., must be approved and signed by Office Manager), forms that need to be completed and where they’re saved (e.g., Credit Card Authorization forms, uploaded to patient’s record via CMD), as well as step by step instructions on how to create the payment plan in the application (feel free to use this Help Page as a resource when creating your SOPs).
For reporting purposes, update the account Type for the patient to Payment Plan or Payment Plan Collection.
Have an agreement in place with your patient. CollaborateMD offers customizable form-based superbills, which can be created for payment plan agreement letters. Download and customize our Sample Payment Plan Installment Agreement.docx form. This form can be uploaded to CollaborateMD as a Form-Based Superbill so that you can easily print it from the application.
Set up statements for patients with payment plans using any one of CollaborateMD’s statement options. Having statements in place will ensure an easy transition for staff to focus on collecting payment plan balances.
Manage payment plans using CollaborateMD’s new Dashboard gadget called Payment Plan Balances. This gadget can be added to your dashboard and shared between necessary staff members.
It is recommended that the practice/office set up the following standard operating procedures based on personnel, current procedures, and preferences.
Eligibility Criteria: Define the types of patients (e.g., those with high deductibles) and/or procedures (e.g., those not covered by most insurance payers) that are eligible for a payment plan.
Administrative Fees: Determine if patients will incur any administrative fees opting into a payment plan.
Multiple Plans: Determine if patients may have multiple payment plans on file.
Plan Options: Define plan limitations, such as, payments must be made at least monthly, each payment must be a minimum of $10.00, payment plans cannot exceed one year in length, etc.
Patient Agreements: It is highly recommended that patients that opt into a payment plan sign an agreement with the office. Please feel free to reference and/or use the Payment Plan Agreement form offered by CollaborateMD.
Payment Options: Determine the types of acceptable payments for payment plans.
Payment Plan Statements: Determine which type of statement the office will use and configure messages for patients. Note: Automated and Enhanced User Print statements may incur additional fees on your account with CollaborateMD.
Late Payments: Determine if there will be penalties for late payments. If needed, create a debit code to be used for this purpose.
Non-payment: Determine if there will be penalties for non-payments and/or if payment plan balances will be sent to collections and if so, when. Please reference the steps below for detailed steps on setting balances to collections.