Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 1, Cash Handling

This is the 1st in a 3-part series about best practices for auditing collection agencies that support revenue cycle management. You can read all of the installments -- and download the valuable questionnaires -- here:

1. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 1, Cash Handling

2. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 2, Training 

3. Focus on 3 Key Areas to Audit Collection Agencies: Area 3, Compliance Plan

The rise of high deductible medical plans has changed the face of the consumer healthcare experience, forcing providers to dedicate increasing attention (and resources!) to the financial aspects of patient care. As more and more providers seek to find the right balance between a clinical focus and the needs of running a business, revenue cycle vendors are engaged to take on the expanding work of patient financial services on behalf of providers. This includes first-party work like sending bills and adjudicating claims efficiently, as well as third-party delinquent account collections---all under the yoke of growing regulation.

Even when vendors are engaged, responsibility remains with providers to ensure that their service providers are (and stay) compliant and well positioned for the evolving regulatory landscape as it pertains to medical collections.

Over the next few days, we'll focus on three areas providers should focus on in their audit of revenue cycle vendors. Each article will also be accompanied by a questionnaire that is free to download. We'll start with... 

Cash Handling

From a patient’s perspective, contact from a first-party collection agency should look and feel very much like an extension of the trust they’ve developed with their provider. As vendors handle the financial aspects of the patient experience, patient trust can and will erode if they make a payment that is never remitted to the provider client. Enter the importance of vendor cash management. How should providers conduct a thorough audit of a collection agency’s cash handling practices? 

Download a complimentary copy of this questionnaire here: Cash Handling Questionnaire