Getting Credit for Unpaid Small Accounts: Keeping Existing Patients

Neil Baum, MD

Neil Baum, MD, is Clinical Associate Professor of Urology, Tulane Medical School, New Orleans, LA, and author of Marketing Your Clinical Practice: Ethically, Effectively, and Economically, Jones Bartlett Publishers.

Certainly patients with large balances need to be motivated and urged to pay for the services that they have received. However there are patients who have small balances that are probably not worth turning over to a collection agency. You basically have two options: You can send him or her to a collection agency in which case you’ll never see that patient again, or you can write off their old balance and send them a letter informing them of your kindness and welcoming them back into the practice.
 
A sample letter might be written as:
 
Dear patient,
Our practice has written off your balance as a gesture of good will. We are pleased that you are a patient in our practice and we invite you to call for a follow-up appointment if you need our services in the future.
 
To your good health,
Dr. Nice Guy\Nice Gal
 

This nice gesture for patients with small balances is an excellent way of retaining good patients in your practice. Many patients with small balances call to thank the doctor for relieving their debt and allows them to return to the office for further treatment.
 
Bottom line: It is a lot harder and more expensive to attract a new patient to your practice than to keep an existing one. Sending a nice note relieving patients of small balances is one method that is inexpensive and results in patient retention.