At the MGMA conference in San Diego, Tracy Spears led a session in which she emphasized the importance of collecting on past-due accounts earlier--both because accounts depreciate and get harder to collect, and because past-due bills can discourage the patient from going to the doctor to rack up further debts. She also suggested that having a defined collections policy is important because it will give the staff a clear course of action to follow and firm up due dates. Get more on her nine rules for effective collections in this piece. Article