Articles

Important Update: CFPB Advisory on Debt Collection Practices and Ensuring Compliance

Oct 28, 2024

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued an advisory opinion regarding 12 CFR Part 1006 – Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F). This advisory highlights the responsibility of debt collectors to comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and reinforces the prohibitions on:

  • False, deceptive, or misleading representations in connection with medical debt collections
  • Unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect medical debts
  • Processes that result in duplicate billing

Given these enhanced compliance expectations, it is critical that healthcare providers and outsourced revenue cycle management (RCM) partners—like Revenue Enterprises—adhere to these regulations to avoid potential liability stemming from inaccurate or invalid medical debts.

To ensure collection efforts are both accurate and effective with your RCM partners, it is significantly important that facilities:

  1. Provide the most current and accurate balance information for collections and patient statements to ensure that only valid debts are pursued and patients receive accurate communications.
  2. Before assigning accounts to your RCM partner, verify that insurance carriers have been properly billed and that their remittances and adjustments are accurately posted to patient account balances.
  3. Schedule regular delivery of inventory files to facilitate consistent reconciliation and ensure that RCM records align with your EHR system(s), eliminating discrepancies that could lead to compliance issues.

At Revenue Enterprises, we are deeply committed to compliance and consumer protection. As your trusted partner, we uphold these values in all our actions. We:

  • Prevent duplicate billing with automated processes to identify and eliminate duplicate accounts before billing.
  • Comply with all legal recovery regulations, ensuring legal fees are fair, customary, and disclosed to patients. We also confirm that client Consent Forms include language informing patients of their responsibility for legal fees incurred during collections.
  • Bill only for balances assigned by our clients, maintaining transparency and integrity at every step of the process.
  • Clearly communicate consumer rights through patient statements and our payment portal, including information about financial assistance programs and how patients can dispute balances.

Should you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Karie Bostwick

VP of People and Compliance

As VP of People and Compliance at Revenue Enterprises, Karie Bostwick oversees People functions including recruiting, training, onboarding, engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, she is responsible for compliance training, oversight and monitoring.

Karie has a long history of working in the revenue cycle support industry. Her skills span leadership, operations start up, policies and procedures development, operations workflow, budgeting and client management.

She is passionate about the experience of our people, patients and the Healthcare clients we serve and believes that a team of diverse, talented and motivated individuals working together toward a common goal can make a difference.

Robert Sterett

VP of Information Technology

As a transformational leader Robert Sterrett has leveraged his 20 years of experience to build effective service lines and exceptional teams. In his role as VP of Information Technology at Revenue Enterprises, Robert excels at taking a unique, balanced, and strategic approach to technology leadership with people first for the best possible outcome. Using his experience from engineering, project management and service line management he takes a multi-faceted approach to ensure the right people are in the correct position coupled with the best technology to meet or exceed all expectations from security to compliance and business continuity.

Robert’s leadership style lends itself to building long term relationships and has consistently been a relied upon strength in many organizations. Over Robert’s time as an IT operational and project leader, he has spent significant time in both hands-on technology facing roles and client centric management roles to bring the best solutions that strive to meet the business and client needs.

Focusing heavily on his personal development skills and opportunities, Robert continues to foster coaching and mentorship relationships everywhere in his life, and the lives around him.

Douglas Dunbar

VP of Sales & Marketing

As VP of Sales and Marketing for Revenue Enterprises, Douglas Dunbar leads with a passion for building strategic partnerships, nurturing relationships, and upholding customer service excellence. In his role, Doug focuses on marketing and brand strategy, sales team leadership, and working closely with members of the management team to best serve company goals.

Doug has over 28 years of National sales and marketing call/contact center leadership, with 10 years of service specifically at Revenue Enterprises. Currently, Doug serves as part of Wyoming HFMA Chapter leadership and has held various roles in Colorado HFMA Chapter leadership for over 9 years.

In his spare time, Doug is very family oriented. Additionally, he loves traveling, cycling, golfing, fishing, hunting, and boating.

Kris Brumley, MBA

SVP/COO

As SVP/COO of Revenue Enterprises, Kris Brumley is a collaborative partner within the executive team and a leader for operational functions across the organization. Kris productively shares vision, drives innovation, and supports those around her in a way that elevates them and fosters continuous improvement and results. She has helped create a supportive environment for clients resulting in 98% client retention and a 65% NPS score for all clients and 75% for top clients by revenue.

Kris possesses an MBA in data analytics and has twenty-five years of experience in the healthcare industry, with 19 specifically in revenue cycle. She brings a wealth of customer service experience to her role and has worn many hats at Revenue Enterprises including Director of Business Development, EBO Division Director, and VP of Client Experience Management.

In her personal life, Kris is as busy outside of work as inside. She values spending time with her family, and enjoys fishing, hiking, traveling and interior decorating and design.

Timothy (Tim) Brainerd

CEO

As CEO of Revenue Enterprises for almost 20 years, Tim Brainerd leads by example. He promotes a shared vision and stewards a culture of Integrity, Passion, and Respect. He has assembled and empowered high-performing talent and teams to support customers, facilitate strategic planning and manage the capital of the company. Under his leadership, Revenue Enterprises has doubled in size three times over the past fifteen years while maintaining a culture of caring and gratefulness.

Tim has close to four decades of revenue cycle experience, including nineteen years with RSI
Enterprises. He has been a past president of Colorado Chapter of the HFMA and a presenting speaker on the topic of Leadership. He is a fifteen-year member of Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize business leaders.

Raised in the Midwest, Tim values humble principles like being respectful, caring, passionate, self-reliant, and most importantly grateful. His most important lesson and the lesson he hopes to pass on in all relationships is living the Golden Rule–do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He is intentional in his choices and believes in making decisions, taking action, being accountable, and loving your neighbors.

Whenever possible, Tim spends his time with his wife of nearly forty years, his adult children, and his grandchildren. His hobbies include fishing, golfing, traveling as well as game nights and sharing great food with his family.