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Archive for the ‘Bill Payment Services’ Category

Bill consolidation companies handle payments for your accounts and lower your rates. They can also negotiate waivers for late payment fees. Before signing up with a company, you will want to compare rates and terms. You also need to monitor your payment statements to be sure there are not errors.

Helping Your Get Out Of Debt

Bill consolidation companies, also known as debt management plans or DMP, eliminate your short term debt within five years. They also lower your interest rates with creditors, who set predetermined rates. All companies will get you the same low rate. In some cases, creditor will also agree to waive any late payment or other fees if you are working with a DMP.

You pay the bill consolidation company one payment, which includes their fee. They then pay the accounts you have agreed to consolidate. Interest rates from some debts, including student loans or mortgages, cannot be reduced and do not make sense to hand over.

Fees are based on each account handled. Monthly fees are the most common practice, but some companies charged large upfront fees. Since many clients drop out of the plan before completion, monthly fees are the better option.

Some creditors will report to the credit reporting agency your use of a DMP. This may temporarily prevent you from opening new accounts. But after several months of regular payments, your credit may be in good enough standing to qualify to open credit card accounts. After a year, you may also be able to apply for a mortgage.

Finding The Best Companies

The best bill consolidation companies solely handle debt management. Companies that offer other services, such as debt negotiation or bankruptcy, don’t always provide the best service.

When you investigate companies, ask when your accounts will be paid off. Reputable companies will give you a different date for each account since they know what the current rates are. All the need to know from you are your account balances and creditors’ names.

As with any purchase, you also want to compare fees. By requesting quotes from several companies, you will quickly find out what is reasonable.

Watching Your Statements

Paperwork mix-ups, defunct business, or poor service can all result in missed or late payments on your credit history. To protect yourself from a lower credit score, continue to monitor your bill statements. At the first sign of a problem, call your creditor and bill consolidation company to resolve the issue. This preventative approach can save you hundreds in fees and higher interest rates.

1. I am from the Legal Department and you are being sued.

From my experience less then 2% of all debts listed to a collection agency ever result in formal legal proceedings and in most cases legal costs required to initiate a lawsuit have to be advanced by the collection agency. From a business perspective, it makes no sense to throw good money after bad hoping to recover the legal costs and the debt if you do not have enough assets available to satisfy the judgment being sought after. It’s just not worth it to the collection agency. Bill collectors use the “legal department” threat only because it is scary and most people don’t know better. The fact is that most bill collectors sit in a tiny 3″x 3″ cubicle and pretend to be someone they really aren’t on the phone.

2. I am going to garnish your pay cheque.

In order to get any piece of your pay cheque, the bill collector needs a judgment from a court in their favour but the collectors will not seek a judgment unless they have reason to believe that you have enough assets to satisfy a judgment. Pursuant to Section 7(2) of the Wages Act (Ontario), no more than 20% of your wages may be garnished. A creditor can bring a motion to increase the amount of wages that may be garnished but a debtor also has the right to bring a motion to have such amount decreased. I have heard Collectors tell people they will garnish 50% of their pay but the truth is that even if they get a judgment, garnishments rarely exceed 15-20% of pay. Again they only use the threat because it scares people and most don’t know any better.

3. If I don’t have payment by 4 p.m. today, we are (Insert threat here).

Bill collectors are paid a commission to do their job and so are the managers that are breathing down their necks in order to hit their targets. Some aggressive bill collectors can make six figures annually if they push people hard enough. They will tell you anything if they feel that it will result in a payment and a bigger commission cheque for them.

4. Pay in full, monthly payments are not an option.

They want full payment from you because they make more money off you when you pay in full. Payments are always an option; in most cases going directly to the creditor will get you a monthly payment plan. It won’t fix your credit but you will at least be able to stop the demand for full payment.

5. Collectors can call you as much as they like.

Pursuant to Section 22(6) of R.R.O. 1990, Regulation 74 to the Collection Agencies Act (Ontario), there are restrictions on the frequency of calls that collection agencies can make to you. Despite what they may tell you a bill collector cannot harass you. If you register a letter requesting the collection agency to communicate with only in writing the calls should stop otherwise you can escalate their behavior to their ombudsman or provincial ministry to take further steps.

6. Collectors can call and harass your family, friends and neighbours.

A collection agency can only contact a third party to confirm your home address and telephone number or your employer to confirm your employment, title and business address; that’s it (Section 22(3) of Regulation 74 to the Collection Agencies Act). If the collector divulges details about the debt or tries to embarrass you, there are steps you can take to deal with and stop this behavior.

7. Bill collectors can talk to you any way they feel.

Bill collectors can be obnoxious and rude; many think that insulting people will get the debt paid. Collection laws prevent this type of behavior reoccurring if you escalate it and deal with the issue. If you feel that they have mistreated you by using profanity, intimidating or coercive language, you can certainly stop it. They will most certainly deny the activity so a tape recorded conversation or voice message will be your best friend here.

Collection agencies and bill collectors have a bad reputation because they are a business like any other whose goal is to generate profits for its shareholders; its their job to push you hard to pay. There are ways to deal with the debt and their behavior but it takes time and a certain investment in researching your rights. Try not to avoid the debt but find a way of dealing with it. The only way to stop the collection activity is to pay the bill or go bankrupt. If you can pay the bills in full, do so as soon as possible.

If payment of your bills is not an option due to extreme financial hardship, you may wish to explore bankruptcy by consulting with a Trustee in your local yellow pages. Going bankrupt will most certainly deal with the debt but since it’s detrimental to your credit rating, it should only be used as a last resort. Also, a Trustee is a court appointed agent for your creditors so even though you pay them for their service, the Trustee is looking after your creditors’ best interests. Your debts are wiped out but so are most of your assets subject to certain limited exceptions and your credit report shows the effect for 7-10 years.

Debt settlement should be considered as an alternative to bankruptcy since it is quickly becoming one of the newest and best options in Canada to retire debt quickly and ethically. A debt settlement company will act as your agent, and negotiate a settlement with your creditors. Once the settlement is paid, the balance is written off and your credit report is updated to reflect that the debt is finalized. The time frame to settle debt can be anywhere from 1 month to 36 months depending on your ability. This is often the least expensive, least damaging to your credit and the fastest path to debt freedom.

Remember that bill collectors make a living off of trying to scare and intimidate people so they can earn a big commission cheque. Consider the source when they call and don’t let bill collectors push you around, you have rights and can fight back and win!

A good Medical Billing Service has the remarkable potential to increase your collection rates by forty percent or more. However, how do they do it? Good metrics are the key to effectiveness of a medical billing service. Like any high performing business, they measure their performance with dependable metrics.

Collecting medical bills is an onerous task. The billing rules are extremely complex, terminology difficult and the deadlines very strict. There is no single billing procedure that could be applied throughout the billing process. Additionally, the medical insurance companies are notorious for trying to avoid paying the bills. Due to such complexity, reliable metrics become even more important to optimize the medical bill collections

If you are considering hiring a medical billing service provider, carefully evaluate their performance measurement system, and the process used to respond to any payment issues or holdups that may arise for collecting the bills.

Following are some of the most important performance measurement metrics that an effective medical billing service should track and report to you.

Gross and Net Collection Ratio

Gross collection ratio is the amount paid to the practice divided by the total charges billed. This does not include any write-offs. This ratio depends on the practice and the payer mix. A higher payer mix consisting of Medicaid and Medicare may result in lower gross collection ratio. It is best to compare this ratio to practices that are similar to yours. Net collections is the ratio of payments to charges after the adjustments due to write offs. For a high performing service, this ratio is typically over 90%.

Days in Accounts Receivable

Time elapsed between billing and collection is an important metric to evaluate efficiency of a billing service. Number of days it takes to collect a bill depends on the medical specialties but a billing service can affect it by timely follow up with the payer and quick rectification of any issues that may arise.

Percent of Bills Past Due

It is important to track past due bills. Billing service should report this as number and percent of accounts that are 60, 90, 120 days past due. It should have effective analysis process to troubleshoot the reasons for accounts falling in past due status. A good billing service would constantly improve upon its processes to shrink the accounts getting past due.

Patient Liability

Percent of Patient Liability is the ratio of patient responsibility to total billed charges. This is roughly equal to the patient deductibles. This metric is important to track the effectiveness of the front office function since the co-pay is generally collected by the doctor’s office before the service is rendered.

First pass pay rate

This indicates the percentage of filed claims that are paid without any need of follow up. Obviously, higher the percentage, more efficient is the medical billing service. This metric should steadily show improvement. Any dip in first pass pay rate is a red flag and should be properly investigated.

Denial Rate

Denial rates tell you about the claims that required a follow up during a given period. Billing service should regularly monitor this metric and troubleshoot the causes of denial to keep the denial rate as low as possible.

Medical billing is just too complex, a convoluted process that makes it almost impossible to measure efficiency unless there are good tracking metrics in place. Additionally, it is important to respond quickly to any inefficiency or deterioration in performance. Therefore, in this digital age a monthly paper statement listing the performance metrics is not an acceptable means of reporting. An efficient medical billing service provides means to track these performance metrics via a web portal and promises continuous improvement in performance. Hire an effective and transparent billing service and you would definitely see an improvement in collections.

As more and more people decide to get Dry Loop accounts one of the biggest questions I get asked at my blog is “how do I pay my bill?” As some of you may know “DSL only” accounts (Dry Loop) are high speed internet accounts that don’t require you to also purchase the phone services. ATT has been offering the service for about a year now, and as a personal user, I have to say I’m very happy. It’s really one of the most economical and affordable ways to get high speed internet service without being bundled with a bunch of phone services or cable TV features I don’t need.

But the thing about Dry Loop accounts is that if you already have an ATT phone account once you make the switch you’re basically opening a brand new account-existing customer or not. So that means a) they do a brand new credit check on you and b) if you already had a login to pay your bills online it no longer works. It’s VERY important that you understand that you’re old login does not relate to your brand new “DSL only” account. When I first got the service I ended up getting months behind in my billing because I kept logging in and expecting to see a bill and one never showed up. But I WAS being billed.

So there are 2 ways you can pay your bill online. The first way involves not being “registered” but just inserting your personal data and paying on a month-to-month style payment. The second way is to actually register your account and be able to attach a bank account for funding, see past bills, and have a regular login/password like most people use today.

When you get your Dry Loop account you will no longer have a phone number. But they will give a 7 digit account number that LOOKS like a phone number. It will start with 081 and look like this; 081-XXX-XXXX. You can take that number and go to att.com/paybill and pay your bill in the month to month style payment. If you decide you want to have a regular online account you’ll need to go to this website. Once you get to that website. You’ll enter your account number, and your personal identification numbers and zip code. You will then be sent to a second page that will ask you if you want verification by a phone call (you’ll need to provide a phone number you would like to be called on since the 081 number isn’t a phone number) or a mailing address. ATT will then call or mail you a code, so that now you can complete the online registration.

One of the many services on offer by Discover is the online bill payment. No more having your payments getting delayed or lost through snail mail. Use the online Discover card bill payments service to pay your bills in time. You can pay your bills now no matter where you are. You can also avail this service to pay your bill on the last due date and your payment will be received right away – provided your payment is not later than 5 p.m. Eastern time. On top of this you get this service free of charge!

After over 100 years of practice, telephone companies still cannot seem to get it right. In a study of clients over a five-year period, TelCon Associates found that 77.4% were incorrectly charged on one or more of their telecom bills. The bulk of these errors were uncovered primarily for local and intralata services.

While the percentage of errors is high, billing errors usually account for only a small portion of total savings during telecommunications audits.

Nevertheless, it is a good idea to be familiar with the most common errors that will appear on your local telephone bills. Keep in mind that errors may take the form of “overbilling” and/or “underbilling”.

Routine examination of your local phone bills will, sooner or later, turn up the one or more of the following most common types of errors:

#1 – Intermittent Errors

Intermittent errors are just as the name implies – they appear on a non-regular basis. This type of error is usually associated with the “Other Charges and Credits” pages of the phone bill. Examples of intermittent errors may include:

Other charges and credits for installation or changes are often found to be incorrect, especially for services provided under many negotiated deals or contracts.

Incorrect applications for refunds or credit adjustments is another typical intermittent error. Surprisingly, you may find this error soon after your carrier representative has agreed to the refund or credit!

Charges for uncompleted calls are sometimes found on billings from two types of vendors-resellers using feature group A connections to carrier central offices, and vendors that are reselling service from a virtual private network.

Facility malfunctions can result in you being charged for lines that are not working resulting in higher charges for usage forced onto other lines or services.

#2 – Recurring Errors

Recurring errors are the result of incorrect information and data in the vendors’ customer service records. These types of errors can be very costly simply because they appear each and every month until they are corrected.

Examples may include: inventory discrepancies, contract discrepancies, differences in tariff or rating regarding grade of service, mileage charges, enhancements, etc.

Recurring errors are not as easily uncovered as are intermittent errors. This type of error can only be corrected through a thorough audit of customer service records. A routine examination of phone bills will not reveal all recurring errors.

#3 – Tax Errors

Tax errors are most commonly associated with exemptions or incorrect taxing districts. When facilities are taxed incorrectly, the associated usage charges may also be taxed incorrectly. Examples of tax errors may include:

-Taxes being collected after exemption has been filed (a copy of the applicable exemption certificate or earlier exempt billing will verify the overbilling)

-Exempt account without authorization

-Taxes applied for wrong jurisdiction

-Taxes applied despite statutes or rulings exempting them

#4 – Metering and Database Errors

These types of errors are commonly associated with local and long-distance calling charges. They can occur through metering malfunctions or clerical transcription errors. Examples include:

-Double metering (easy to identify since each call is shown twice and in complete detail)

-Charges for incomplete calls .

-Usage from a different subscriber (another easily identifiable error-charge for another individual’s line number will appear on carrier bill)

#5 – Telecom Agent Errors

Agent errors continue to be a problem as more and more agents are accepting either partial or end-to-end responsibility for service segments provided by vendors.

Agent misfeasance occurs when a supplier orders or assumes responsibility for service segments provided by several different carriers or vendors, then fails to exercise responsibility for those services. Examples may include:

-Local lines ordered and installed by equipment vendor or IXC. (In the event those lines are no longer needed, the agent is nowhere to be found to cancel the unused lines and services!)

-Excessive or sub-optimum facilities installed

-Promises of credits or changes that fail to materialize

Telecom billing errors will never disappear. However, even a little knowledge in what kinds of errors to look for can go a long way in reducing telecom expenses.

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