Top Tech Trends Impacting Debt Collection

Source: TSI, http://tsico.com

If your debt collection firm isn’t using analytics to predict consumer behavior you’re at risk of falling behind.

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It’s no longer surprising that digital technology has disrupted every industry, including debt collection. From new data-driven software to internet security and workflow automation, tomorrow’s debt collection firms will look nothing like the local Mom and Pop agencies still mired in workflows straight out of the 1990s.

This post looks at how tech is impacting the debt collection industry. Browser-based platforms and multichannel collections processes are enabling professional firms to contact debtors where they live — online.

Digital Debt Collection

Business Wire published a press release from Technavio recently citing their published report on some of the latest software trends impacting debt collection. The report suggests the following trends as drivers of new tech in debt collection:

• Increasing pressure for CFOs in every sector to improve their bottom line – including accounts receivable.
• A desire by most companies to reduce the amount they spend on debt collection, which is the impetus both for outsourcing the process and for debt recovery agencies to adopt new technology to cut costs.
• Consumer trends that show us fairly addicted to cell phone technology and the internet.
• Increasing regulatory requirements at the local, state and federal levels have created a need for software that automates the compliance process, which protects both the debt collection firm and their client.
• The worldwide proliferation of malware threatening client data in transit and at rest.
• The necessity of improving customer relationships even during debt collection.

These trends have spawned a variety of digital disruptors in the form of technology that has impacted what has been a fairly traditional industry. They include:

• The rise of browser-based platforms focused on omni-channel collection efforts that include debt collection by traditional means (letters and phone calls), and now, if opted in, email, as well as easy-to-use online portals for debt repayment. This allows a consistency of communication to consumers, a greater opportunity for automation, as well as customer personalization that allows debt collection agencies to reach consumers in their preferred channel and with preferred payment options.
• The introduction of sophisticated data analytics tools that allow debt collection firms to closely analyze consumer behavior and the market trends driving that behavior. These analytics can help debt collection firms cull out consumers that will be more likely to pay all or a portion of their debt.
• More stringent data security protocols and procedures to help keep consumer data safe from nefarious attacks.

Debt collection agencies must continue to embrace technology to stay competitive while leveraging data analytics to improve their efficiencies, stay compliant with applicable law, and protect critical client data.

To find out more about how TSI’s technology can impact your accounts receivable, contact me directly at david.wiener@cashflowstrategies.us or call me at 888-780-1333.

Is Your Collection Agency Putting Your Medical or Dental Practice at Risk?

 

The collection agency industry is highly regulated and there are numerous laws on the books designed to protect consumers, which make it more difficult to collect. While it costs agencies more to be legally compliant and hinders their collections efforts, not complying can lead to class action suits and sanctions against the agency (and possibly their clients) that are more costly in the long run if not fatal to the agency’s very existence. Lets examine how this affects your practice.

The Laws You Know

Most Practice Administrators are familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) of 1978 which creates a set of guidelines that collection agencies are required to follow as well as penalties for not adhering to the Act. Additionally, practices are familiar with HIPAA laws and the security requirements of Protected Health Information (PHI).

But Do You Know About These Laws?

Despite having been a law since 1991, most practices are not familiar with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)  which also impacts collections. Among other provisions of the TCPA (such as calls can only be made between 8am and 9pm), the TCPA prohibits the use of automated dialers to cell phones or leaving automated messages on cell phones. While auto-dialers represent a technological efficiency that allows a collection agency to make more frequent calls and collect more money, their use is not compliant with the TCPA when the phone number the patient has provided the practice with is a cell phone. In order to be TCPA compliant when calling a cell phone, it must be manually dialed. Even if a live collector will be connected with the consumer upon pick up, a cell phone can not be dialed using a computer.

Medical Collections Impact

A recent data analysis by Transworld Systems, a large national collection agency specializing in medical collections, revealed that 60% of the phone numbers that their medical practice clients are obtaining from patients are cell phones. In order to avoid fines of $1500 per incident and class action suits, Transworld Systems has enforced strict policies of identifying and separating land line numbers from cell phone numbers. Additional research is conducted to see if the patient also has a land line which can be put on an auto-dialer to obtain better contact rates.

What does all this mean for your practice?

Today with the ever-changing federal and state regulations, you need to ask more questions of your collections vendor to find out if they are compliant with all laws. Ensure your practice cannot be named as a co-defendant in a potential class action suit should your agency be accused of being non-compliant. It is important to have a Hold Harmless Agreement in your collection agency contract where the agency agrees to hold your practice free from responsibility for any liability or damage that might arise out of their collection activities. Ask questions first before you have to answer for shortcuts or missteps later that could result in hefty fines for lack of compliance. It is paramount to ensure your company of choice is an expert in their field who stays abreast of, and quickly adapts to, the seemingly endless stream of regulations designed to protect consumers rights, often at the expense of their creditors.

Here is a sample list of questions to ask your current agency and any potential collection agency you are considering working with:

1.    Is your company compliant with TCPA, HIPAA and familiar with state laws regarding collections?

This is not a yes/no question, they should be able to provide additional information including how often their collectors are re-tested for compliance and how their performance is monitored for compliance.

2.    Does your company perform background checks on collectors in required states?

3.    How are cell-phone calls handled?

If they dont maintain a separate policy for handling cell phone calls, that should be a red flag to you to find another vendor.

4.    Do you know what PHI is and what steps do you take to ensure its security during storage as well as communication with our practice?Ask how they receive data from their clients (do they accept secure electronic encrypted data or do they expect you to fax or mail patient files which are more easily compromised?) Do they provide you with a secure website to view collections status and if not, do they at least have the ability to encrypt emails when attaching a list of status updates which include PHI.

5.    Is your company licensed to collect in all states?

Even if your patients are primarily local to your office, sometimes they move out of state and your agency will have to be compliant with the laws that govern the patients new residence.

6.    Is your company bonded and insured?

Ask for copies of the documents proving bonding and insurance to make sure your money wont disappear if your agency goes out of business, either as a result of poor performance or as a result of a fatal class action suit.

Call me at 888-780-1333 for a 100% compliant option that will keep you and your practice safe during these times of changing and ever-increasing regulations.