April 17, 2020
Nearly all customer offices are closed except for emergency patient care and virtual diagnosis and treatment. So far, we have been able to keep our full staff employed and working for you. We are pleased to serve your needs and make certain that your income is protected and managed effectively during this very difficult time.
We are in week 5 of the lock down and based on our data of almost 400,000 currently active responsible parties, we have noted the following:
Payment Trends
- Payment volume remains strong, running at nearly normal levels
- Payment failures are lower than the same time last year at 5.4% (5.8% LY)
- Payment failure reasons remain consistent with normal patterns
- Call volume to our call center is returning to a more normal level. We had expected this to increase more than it has.
- Payment deferrals have increased to a little more than 3/4 of 1% (.77%), still very low
- Deferral requests seem are not biased toward one payment method: Card or ACH
Responsible Feedback
- This week we have received many calls asking to setup arrangements for past due payments. It seems that the stimulus checks are perhaps being used to catch up your missed payments.
Observations
- The trends noted above are solid evidence that you should stay the course with your payment plans.
- You should be communicating with your patients and billing parties regularly, either through email, text or phone calls.
- In your communication, please remind responsible parties that they can speak with OrthoBanc should they need to discuss their payment plan. Please include our responsible portal website URL my.orthobanc.com and our number (800) 636-6600. They can speak with us via email, on-line chat, or telephone.
- Availability: Our customer care team is available from 8am until 7pm eastern time, Monday through Thursday and from 9am until 5pm eastern on Friday. The responsible portal is available 24/7 for self-service features such as balance inquiries, updating payment methods, making on-line payments or for help requests.
Free Webinar
On Wednesday, April 22nd at 2:00 EDT, Marla Merritt will host a live webinar to introduce new tools we have released to help you build business during this time of social distancing. You will not want to miss the webinar. It will also be repeated on April 23rd and April 27th. Be sure to reserve your place as these webinars will fill up quickly and the audience size for each is limited. Click here to register.
Preparing to Reopen Your Practice
Once the coronavirus has begun to subside and our federal, state and local governments allow a restart of our economy, you’ll want to ramp up as quickly as possible. That is going to take preparation, prioritization and planning.
Paul Zuelke recently emailed a message with excellent thoughts about preparing to reopen. If you didn’t see his message, I highly recommend that you read and consider his advice. You will find his article here.
We certainly appreciate the trust you place in us to work on your behalf. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you desire to do so. I’ll enjoy hearing from you. My contact information is below for that purpose.
Bill Holt
OrthoBanc’s President/CEO
bholt@orthobanc.com
