Practice tip of the week: Can You Discharge Patients with Unpaid Balances?

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With all the useful information available on Physicians Practice, it is easy to become overwhelmed.

With this in mind, the tip of the week is a chance to reflect on some of the wisdom found all across the site. In the April 2021 slideshow on discharging patients with unpaid balances, Ericka L. Adler, JD writes the following:

Can a practice legally refuse to treat a patient if they have an unpaid balance but they haven’t been officially dismissed from the practice?

In all patient challenges, the most important goal is to avoid a claim of patient abandonment and assure that patient care is not neglected. Regardless of the reason for your issues with a patient, whether it’s unpaid bills, failure to follow advice, or mistreatment of staff, the same advice applies:

1). Document any issues you are having with the patient.

2). If no agreement can be reached regarding payment of amounts due, follow up in writing and let the patient know that unless a payment plan is established by a certain date, the practice will provide notice of termination.

Click here to read the rest of the article and be sure to check back next week for another Tip of the Week!