Daily Processing of Payment Plans
BEFORE PROCESSING payment:
- Look at what the monthly payment should be. Careful not to process more than what patient agreed to. (i.e. If the account is behind, we still process only for the monthly amount agreed to and work out FIRM arrangements for the rest.)
- Watch the date: If it is 10 days after the patient agreed we could charge it, because we missed the payment = CALL the patient first and apologize and make sure they are still okay with it being taken out.
- Watch for notes in the comm log and in the financial notes.
When payment declines:
First time occurrence call patient immediately and pretend that we don’t have the right information on file. “Hello Sally, This is Cassie from Cascade Family Dental. I was processing your payment plan today and I think I may have the wrong card on file for you, because it came back declined. Do you mind if I just verify the last 4 digits of the card?” If you are not able to speak to the patient leave that as a voice mail asking them to call you back.
This usually sparks the reason why the payment didn’t process. This is a good time to ask the patient if the date still works for them or if a better date is needed. Also EDUCATE that payments that are declined get a $30 NSF fee, so let’s make sure we get terms that are going to work.
On a 2nd decline, call patient again. Assess the $30 late fee, educate patient again about the fee. Waive only if payment is brought current that week. 3rd decline: Notify patient that card is still declining; you have tried to reach them on several attempts. Account is being turned over to collections if you don’t hear from them by (give a date 7 days out)
After 7 days – LOOK for account notes in comm log or financial section to see if they called in and talked to anyone. If no communication = fast track to collections. (Send Cassie a task)
- Comm log all declines and patient interactions. We don’t mess around with payment plans! Give a 1 strike your out policy = 1st time we might need to fix an expired card, or work with the patient having trouble to skip a payment to the end or find a better date – but 1 time is all they get.
- BE FIRM: Arrangements need to be kept, as we are doing them a favor already. Helpful script: “Sally, I am so sorry that you are having a hard time. However, I have worked with you in the past to help you out, and I had a commitment from you for this (name the arrangement: i.e. $50 on the 22nd to bring the account current. That commitment was broken, I now need $150 (full amount due) to bring the account current by (date – give 7 days) or the account moves into collections and you will incur additional fees.”