Starting Up a Medical Collections Company in 2017 – Why It’s Still Profitable
It’s pretty hard not to realize that you have an outstanding hospital or doctor’s office bill anymore. With medical billing and coding being its own career in the healthcare industry, no longer are patient records being lost in drawers and bills not being processed for months. Unfortunately, just because patients find out about outstanding medical bills sooner doesn’t mean that they’re able to pay them at the same fast rate. With things moving faster in the medical world, collections is also catching on. Hospital administrators earning the equivalent of an MSHA salary have to constantly come up with new ways to increase profits for their companies, year after year. At Regis College, medical billing and collections is an area that students cover as they work their way through the healthcare administration program. Launching a medical collections company is a way for you to get into the medical field while staying strictly on the business side.
Can You Really Just Start a Medical Collections Company Without a Background?
Well, yes and no. The more experience that you have in almost any part of the healthcare field, the easier it is going to be for you to feel comfortable in your work zone. If you can look at bills and understand what services are being charged, and even perhaps why, you may have better insight into some of the debtors. Otherwise, you’re going to need to learn how HIPAA regulations are going to be tied into your company procedures. In addition, you will need to know the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act extremely well, and then make sure that your workers are compliant as well.
Will I Need to Invest a Lot Into a Medical Collections Company?
An attorney will make sure that your training materials cover everything legally necessary for you to feel confident enough to put your collectors on the phones. Your attorney can also go over scripts used to contact people with outstanding medical bills, as well as your collection notice template letters. After that, you’ll still need to keep an attorney on retainer so that time sensitive issues can be dealt with swiftly, but if you’re paying monthly you can likely negotiate some kind of discount.
How Much in Profit Can a Medical Collections Startup Make?
Many new and enterprising medical debt collection companies begin with a single employee. If you have your MSHA online, all you really need is enough to pay your lawyer, buy a portfolio of charged off medical debts and a sturdy headset, and you’ll be able to keep everything that you reap in profits to yourself. Not bad for one of the most profitable startups that you can launch in 2017.
Despite the fact that you can make tons of money collection on medical debts, not too many people are comfortable putting themselves at risk legally. Then there’s the other people who just don’t feel comfortable belonging to the collection industry itself. And if you still think you may have a few outstanding medical bills floating out there, note that there’s a chance you can come across your own collections accounts.
