How healthcare organizations can stay compliant under Reg F in 2022
Reg F: What’s at stake, and how to stay compliant
The passing of Reg F completely reshaped the way that debt collection agencies are allowed to communicate with consumers. New guardrails and reporting laws around means of communication, opt-outs, and more require robust procedural changes for both healthcare organizations and their debt collection agencies.
Related: What healthcare organizations need to know about Reg F and No Surprises
These regulations can spell trouble for healthcare organizations that haven’t invested in billing procedures and IT infrastructures for collection. Without these measures, healthcare organizations will find themselves at risk for increased burnout, increased instances of consumer dispute cases, and loss of revenue.
What does Reg F say?
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) underpins Reg F. Because the FDCPA hadn’t been updated since 1977, it needed to be updated to reflect the varied ways that debt collectors are able to communicate with debtors. Now, guidelines around the use of text messages, voicemails, and emails mean that collectors have clear guidelines around how to communicate through new channels.
Another update to Reg F includes the necessity to disclose more information to assist consumers in recognizing the debt, a detailed breakdown of the components of the debt, and other details. This information must come from the creditors with the placement of an account or batch of accounts.
What Reg F means for healthcare organizations.
Before, debt collection largely fell on the collectors, and not the healthcare organizations. This all changes with the passing of Reg F. Reg F now requires healthcare organizations to be more involved in 3rd party debt collection because the collectors are now required to provide more robust and detailed information to the debtor at the outset of collections.
Healthcare organizations using a 3rd party debt collector have general oversight responsibilities to ensure that revenue collection services are compliant with the changes to Reg F.
If you’re interested in learning more about what the changes to Reg F mean for you and your healthcare organization, check out our live webinar. Our compliance experts have broken down what Reg F says, what’s at stake, and simple ways to add more compliance safeguards to your daily billing practices.
Watch the free on-demand webinar here!
Two tips for staying compliant under Reg F
1. Understand the heart of the changes.
Thoroughly understanding what these changes mean is critical to compliance. If you’ve read the regulations and are part of the 60% of providers that don’t feel confident in their understanding of these new rules, consider tuning into our free live webinar.
2. Choose your itemization carefully.
Five itemization dates are set out in Reg F. Using the “date of last statement” (instead of date of service) will minimize the number-crunching needed to state the current amount due.
Want to learn more tips, straight from compliance experts? Watch our free on-demand webinar.
