New Association to Establish Accreditation Program for Health Care Collectors

“Right now the health care industry doesn’t know who the health care experts are,” Nixon said. “If 80 percent of your business is health care, regardless of size, then you can be considered an expert because you have the experience.”

Curtis Warfield, chief executive of NPAS, Inc., which manages $5 billion in receivables for 230 hospitals, said many hospitals, especially small health care providers, need help assessing new players in the business.

“Self pay accounts are growing at an astronomical rate. And (private equity firms) are starting up companies like gang busters.  If (hospitals) had someone assisting them with that process, that would be a good thing,” Warfield said.

Lawrence said AHBA won’t just take members’ word or paper documentation as proof of standards compliance.  AHBA will conduct annual site visits to verify the information on a company’s application.

“If you say you’re recording calls, you’ll have to prove it,” Lawrence said. “You’re not going to say yes to all these things and expect that no one will check on it."

“All of ABHA’s standards protect the health care provider from the company they use that could cause them financial problems,” Nixon said.  

Besides, the association will help agencies obtain the necessary employee certification and provide guidance to meet other qualifications, he said.

Kaulkin Ginsberg Healthcare Analyst Michael Klozotsky, who will serve on AHBA’s Advisory Board, said the association couldn’t come at a better time, given the well established and growing concern among health care creditors about their reputations in the communities where they do business. “Negative images, coupled with the rapid increase in unpaid receivables, makes it essential for the ARM industry to implement certification and/or accreditation criteria long discussed by other industry organizations,” he said.

“Accreditation helps rehabilitate the industry’s image,” Klozotsky said. “It says: here are companies that are operating above and beyond the ARM industry’s standards.”

Klozotsky added that there’s a consumer benefit to encouraging ARM accreditation.

“If to be accredited an agency has to go above and beyond HIPAA and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), you have to treat patients compassionately,” Klozotsky said.

Nixon said he believes health care providers have wanted this kind of accreditation for years. But they don’t know what to ask for.

“There’s a baffling disconnect between the two (medical debt holders and ARM professionals),” he said. “They don’t know the vocabulary to say this is what I want.”

Reichardt, who is looking to place 60 to 120 day receivables with a new agency, agreed that it will be easier having an organization she can turn to for help qualifying candidates.  If fact, “When I sign a new agency, I may require that they go for accreditation,” she said. “That would put my mind at ease.”

If you are an ARM industry firm currently working in the healthcare market, or a healthcare industry professional responsible for accounts receivable outsourcing, and would like more information about the Accredited Healthcare Business Association, please contact Michael Klozotsky, Analyst, Kaulkin Ginsberg Company, at 240-499-3836 or mklozotsky@kaulkin.com.

Kaulkin Ginsberg is the parent company of insideARM.com.