Munster Hires Trustmark for Collection Agency Services

The city of Munster, Ind., is working with a local collection agency to recover $30,000 in delinquent payments. The town council recently awarded the one-year, renewable contract to Trustmark Recovery Services, also of Munster. Trustmark primarily services hospitals and physician groups, with most of its clients in the Midwest.

The unpaid fees have remained steady and represent less than 1 percent of the town’s annual revenues, Shafer added. He said Trustmark will be paid 25 percent of the collected amount in cases without litigation and 40 percent for cases involving litigation.

The town worked with Trustmark several years ago when the municipality ran its own ambulance service, and the collection firm helped recover delinquent bills, said Dave Shafer, Munster’s clerk-treasurer, who had recommended going to the outside firm to collect on unpaid water utilities bills, traffic accident settlements and other delinquencies.

“We’ve relied on the town attorney for collections, but thought it would be better to use someone who specialized in the collection process because they do it all the time,” Shafer said.

Trustmark “did a fine job for us before and they are known to us,” Shafer added. Trustmark’s business with the town for ambulance fee collections ended when the town privatized the ambulance service.