Hospitals Missing Out On Collection Opportunities, Study Finds
The Tennesseean, by Getahn Ward, 4/15/08

Health-care providers don’t do enough to collect on many payable bills or to provide government assistance or charity care to patients, according to an analysis by Franklin-based nTelagent Inc.

The company works with health-care companies to improve collections.

Its analysis of account balances from 40 providers nationwide found that about half of patient accounts with some capacity to pay for services were written off when they could have been re-billed or outsourced for collections.

Another 17 percent of accounts could have been eligible for government assistance or charity care programs, but were also written off as bad debt, the analysis showed.