For any successful medical or dental practice in Virginia, providing excellent patient care is the top priority. However, the financial health of your practice depends on another critical function: efficiently managing patient accounts receivable (A/R). When A/R ages, it can strain your cash flow, consume valuable staff time, and pull focus away from what you do best. Let’s discuss how we can reduce the cash your practice is owed in 5 steps.

Reducing Accounts Receivable in 5 Steps

The key to a healthy revenue cycle isn’t aggressive tactics; it’s a proactive, systematic approach. At Gilliam & Mikula, we’ve seen firsthand how a few fundamental processes can dramatically reduce outstanding patient debt. Here is a five-step checklist your practice can implement today to ensure you get paid sooner and more consistently.

Step 1: Verify All Insurance Information Upfront

The most effective way to manage A/R is to prevent problems before they start. The root of many unpaid claims and surprise patient balances is inaccurate or outdated insurance information.

• Action: Before every scheduled appointment—not just for new patients—your front desk team should verify the patient’s insurance eligibility and benefits. This includes confirming that the policy is active, noting the correct co-pay and deductible amounts, and identifying any required pre-authorizations.
• Why It Works: Upfront verification confirms the patient’s coverage, preventing claim denials down the line. It also allows you to inform the patient of their estimated financial responsibility before services are rendered. This transparency builds trust and prepares the patient to pay their portion, significantly improving your point-of-service collection rates.

Step 2: Offer Clear and Convenient Payment Options

Today’s patients expect the same convenience from their healthcare provider that they get in every other area of their lives. A rigid or confusing payment process is a barrier that can directly lead to delayed or missed payments.

• Action: Clearly communicate your payment policy to all patients. On your website and intake forms, list all accepted payment methods, such as credit/debit cards, online portal payments, and text-to-pay services. For larger balances, have a defined, written policy for offering structured payment plans.
• Why It Works: Making it easy for patients to pay drastically increases the likelihood that they will. Offering multiple modern options caters to patient preferences and removes friction from the payment process. A clear, accessible payment plan policy for those who need it shows flexibility and can secure payments that might otherwise become delinquent.

Step 3: Maintain Consistent and Timely Statement Delivery

Out of sight, out of mind. If patients don’t receive regular, easy-to-understand statements, they are likely to forget their balance or become confused about what they owe.

• Action: Implement a system for sending statements promptly after insurance has paid its portion. Your statements should be clear, itemized, and free of confusing medical jargon. Detail the service date, what insurance paid, and the final patient responsibility. Use a multi-channel approach, leveraging both mail and automated email or patient portal notifications.
• Why It Works: Consistency is key. A regular billing cycle keeps the patient’s financial responsibility top of mind. Clear, simple statements reduce patient calls to your office seeking clarification and make them more confident in paying the balance.

Step 4: Establish a Firm Internal Collections Timeline

Hope is not a strategy. Every practice needs a written, internal policy for how and when to follow up on past-due accounts. This ensures that no account slips through the cracks and that all patients are treated fairly and consistently.

• Action: Define a clear timeline. For example, a second statement is 30 days past due, a follow-up email is 45 days, and a personal phone call is 60 days. Document every communication attempt. The goal of these communications should be courteous and helpful—to understand if there’s a problem and remind them of their obligation.
• Why It Works: A structured timeline creates accountability and ensures persistent follow-up. It demonstrates that your practice is serious about collecting what it is owed. Crucially, it also establishes a clear cutoff point where internal efforts cease, which leads directly to the final, vital step.

Step 5: Know When to Partner with a Professional Agency

There comes a point when the time, effort, and resources your staff spend chasing a delinquent account cost more than the potential return. Recognizing this moment is critical for protecting your practice’s productivity and profitability.

• Action: Your internal collections timeline should end with a clear decision point—typically between 90 and 120 days. If an account remains unpaid after consistent internal efforts, it is time to partner with a professional collection agency.
• Why It Works: A professional agency like Gilliam & Mikula is singularly focused on debt recovery. We have the specialized tools, legal expertise, and FDCPA-compliant processes to collect effectively while protecting your practice’s reputation. Partnering with us frees your staff to focus on patient care and managing current A/R, not on chasing deeply delinquent accounts with a low probability of success. It turns a resource drain into a potential revenue stream.

We Will Reduce Your Practice’s Accounts Receivable

By implementing these five steps, your Virginia practice can take control of its accounts receivable, improve cash flow, and build a more financially secure future. If you need help collecting on medical debts, contact us today!

Gilliam & Mikula is centrally located in Richmond, Virginia, and serves clients throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our attorneys have over forty years of combined experience in various practice areas, representing individuals and businesses. We are licensed to practice in all General District Courts and Circuit Courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia including, Central, Tidewater, and Northern Virginia areas.

The attorneys at Gilliam & Mikula are here to smoothly guide you through the “legal maze” and ensure that you achieve the most favorable outcome.

The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.  Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. 

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