These metrics can help identify unpaid accounts to increase cash flow and reduce the risk of debt. This metric can be used to review and create lists for your team to follow up.
Regularly reviewing the practice’s outstanding debt allows you to identify and monitor unpaid accounts and proactively measure increased cash flow while minimising the risk of debt accumulation.
Keeping debtors low not only helps with the cash flow but will also help show your Service Fee-paying Practitioners that the practice is working on minimising what is owed by patients or other account holders.
- Address DNA/cancellation/no-show fees: Filter the MBS item column to identify patients with outstanding DNA/cancellation/no-show fees. Check if they have upcoming appointments and ensure the account is settled or cleared before their visit, helping to reduce the debtor list for repeat DNA cases.
- Send bulk SMS reminders: Filter the list by patient account and export it with internal IDs to send bulk SMS reminders to all patients with outstanding debts.
To navigate to this cabinet, go to Clinic Insights > Today's clinic metrics > Outstanding debt.
Understanding the metric and key components
The Outstanding Debt metric focuses on unpaid private invoices, the number of patients with unpaid invoices, and the total count of unpaid invoices. By default, Medicare debt is excluded from this metric. However, you can enable its inclusion using the toggle available under the filters.
This metric shows you at a glance the outstanding debt based on:
- Debtors: This figure is the combined number of private payers with an outstanding invoice. The second number is the total number of invoices.
- Outstanding debt: This dollar amount shows the value of all unpaid private invoices.
- Unbatched invoices: This figure represents the number of eligible invoices that have not yet been batched to Medicare
TOP TIP! ○ The small circles beside each metric are clickable! This symbol means that you can click/tap on this metric in order to change the context of the charts on the current page.
Oustanding debt is then broken down in graphs via:
- Practitioner and age of debt - This graph represents the dollar value of all unpaid private invoices by the Practitioner. This can also include Medicare and DVA services, using the respective filters.
- Payer - This figure represents the proportion of total outstanding debt attributed to the different types of Payers. This can also include Medicare and DVA services using the respective filters.
- Age - This figure represents how long debts have been outstanding. This can also include Medicare and DVA services, using the respective filters.
At the bottom of the page you will find the detailed list of:
List of debtors: This list shows account holder, patient and invoice details of invoices having an unpaid service and which are not billed to Medicare. This can also include Medicare services using the respective filters. To action an item in this list, follow up with the Payer.
Use the filters on the page to filter down the data via:
- Practitioner - View the data and lists for each Practitioner
- Payer - View the data and lists for each Payer
- Invoice age - View the data and lists via invoice age group
Using the metric in your practice
Practice managers and receptionists can use this metric to:
1. Address DNA/Cancellation/No shows
Use your MBS item filter, in the column, to get a comprehensive list of your patients with outstanding debt for DNA/cancelled/no-show fees.
Utilising the 'Next appointment' column allows you to determine if a follow-up appointment is scheduled, enabling proactive communication regarding any outstanding debts either prior to the appointment or upon the patient's arrival at the practice. You can sort this column by ascending or descending by simply clicking on the Next appt text.
2. Send bulk SMS reminders
Filter by payer to patient accounts to see a full breakdown of all outstanding debt for your patient accounts. Export the data using the patient file number to send bulk SMS reminders to these patients.
Use the print preview button, or download button to distribute to team members in order to settle the outstanding debt.
