Bad Debt Collection
1. Reporting of accounts to all three national credit bureaus
2. Client reports such as monthly statements, performance analysis and debtor inventory
3. Telephone contacts supplemented with a series of letters
4. Bilingual collection notices and verbal contacts
Sarma is fully bonded and insured. We are also fully compliant with current HIPAA regulations. Our commission is based solely on a contingent fee basis. If you are concerned with regulations and security measures, please visit our technical support area.
Sarma is prepared to accept patient account files electronically. Upon receipt of such files, the accounts are loaded into the automated collection system. Once the files are loaded, the collection process begins. We attempt to secure payment in full or obtain a reasonable payment arrangement or third party payor information, which Sarma pursues. During this process, the guarantor receives the initial collection notification. Ongoing letters, phone calls, credit investigations and skip tracing efforts continue until the account is either resolved or deemed uncollectible. Accounts are deemed uncollectible for a number of reasons. Some of those are: complete refusal to pay with no path to resolution; indigent status due to unemployment or prolonged illness; or unable to locate debtor and make contact in spite of thorough skip trace efforts. Each client has the option of determining how they would like the accounts handled at such time. Our collection management system and predictive dialing equipment provides the flexibility to customize any program to provide the best value to your company. Based on a client directive, accounts can be reported to all three national credit repositories after 30 days from placement.
Skip trace resources used include batch processing with National Change of Address ( NCOA ) and Banko, which provides information on consumers that have filed for bankruptcy protection. After the automated processes, accounts with balances over $100, receive manual skip tracing efforts. With both telephone and on-line access, we identify good phone numbers through the telephone company s directory assistance, the on-line smart pages, white pages and yellow pages. Another on-line resource used for both skip tracing and asset identification is Accurint. All of these resources provide us with information for both debtors and nearby neighbors. Sarma researches new vendors on an ongoing basis to identify additional cost effective tools to assist us in locating skip debtors. Sarma s skip trace process is driven by account balance and potential recovery for the client. Accounts with larger balances receive significantly more skip trace efforts than those with smaller balances.
In the bad debt collection process, all letters are sent on Sarma letterhead and the telephones are answered Sarma. How may I assist you?
Regardless of whether an agent is on an inbound, or outbound call, the debtor is informed that SARMA is a collection agency and is attempting to collect a debt, according to federal and state regulations. An outbound call might be as follows:
"Hello. May I speak with Mr. John Smith Jr.? Mr. Smith, before I continue, because you are a Jr., I d like to verify the last four digits of your social security number please. Is it 9876? Thank you. Mr. Smith, this is Suzanne Cash and I m calling from Sarma on behalf of our client, [Insert Company Name Here], regarding your outstanding balance of $150. I do need to inform you at this time that this telephone call is an attempt to collect a debt and any information I obtain will be used for that purpose. Now, it appears this balance is from services provided to you on August 15, 2001. Would you like to clear this balance today by applying it to your Visa or MasterCard?"
The telephone calls continue in an attempt to resolve it on the first contact. Resolution could be payment by credit card, checking account information for an electronic debit, or a payment agreement can be set, providing us additional insurance information, attorney information, etc. Stalls and insincere objections are met with an increasingly firm approach.
For early out, bad debt and payment monitoring processes, we provide monthly system-generated reports to each client to reflect the status of all accounts placed with Sarma. In addition, each client will be provided with summary reports showing placement and collection statistics as well as dialer call volumes and result statistics. We also have the ability to create custom reports through our Report Writer Function.
