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Registered letters are a pain in the butt.
In the grand scheme of things, they’re a minor nuisance, albeit necessary. Documentation is everything is this job.
So here and there, I stop by the post office on the way home. It’s almost $7 a letter now, so maybe $28 a month, $336 a year. Not a huge sum.
But it’s annoying. It’s money that could be used for other expenses, and 80% of the time, the reason I have to do it is someone isn’t returning a call.
I suspect the scenario is similar in your practice. Patients are due for a follow-up MRI, MR angiography, labs, or whatever. So your staff calls them a few times. If they don’t return the call, you mail them letters. If they don’t respond, you send them registered letters. That way, even if they never respond, you can document that someone at that address got the letter.
Patients have several chances to answer the phone or call my office to schedule or refuse the test before I resort to the letter. But, for whatever reasons, sometimes they ignore them, leaving me with a trip to the post office and $7 down.
About one-third of the time we still never hear back, which is fine if that’s what they want. As long as I get the signed card, I don’t mind. Another third of the time they call to schedule, often wondering why I had to resort to a registered letter. “I got your call and other letter, so why did you send that?” And the others? They call us, usually to say they don’t want the test, or just angry that we sent them a registered letter, or (my favorite) to accuse us of harassing them. Because, you know, I enjoy making the extra trip and cost just to do that.
Unfortunately, the consequences of not doing this are (potentially) worse. In most cases, nothing would happen. But, sooner or later you risk having a medical disaster possibly occur because of whatever you were following. And then, correctly or not, they may blame you and call a lawyer. While it’s not guaranteed protection, it’s helpful to be able to prove, with a signed card, that they got your letter and chose to ignore it.
Is that worth the $7 and extra stop? Absolutely. But still, I wish people would be kind enough to just answer the phone or return a call. If they don’t want to do the study, I’m not offended. I just don’t like wasting time and money because someone won’t pick up a phone.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Registered letters are a pain in the butt.
In the grand scheme of things, they’re a minor nuisance, albeit necessary. Documentation is everything is this job.
So here and there, I stop by the post office on the way home. It’s almost $7 a letter now, so maybe $28 a month, $336 a year. Not a huge sum.
But it’s annoying. It’s money that could be used for other expenses, and 80% of the time, the reason I have to do it is someone isn’t returning a call.
I suspect the scenario is similar in your practice. Patients are due for a follow-up MRI, MR angiography, labs, or whatever. So your staff calls them a few times. If they don’t return the call, you mail them letters. If they don’t respond, you send them registered letters. That way, even if they never respond, you can document that someone at that address got the letter.
Patients have several chances to answer the phone or call my office to schedule or refuse the test before I resort to the letter. But, for whatever reasons, sometimes they ignore them, leaving me with a trip to the post office and $7 down.
About one-third of the time we still never hear back, which is fine if that’s what they want. As long as I get the signed card, I don’t mind. Another third of the time they call to schedule, often wondering why I had to resort to a registered letter. “I got your call and other letter, so why did you send that?” And the others? They call us, usually to say they don’t want the test, or just angry that we sent them a registered letter, or (my favorite) to accuse us of harassing them. Because, you know, I enjoy making the extra trip and cost just to do that.
Unfortunately, the consequences of not doing this are (potentially) worse. In most cases, nothing would happen. But, sooner or later you risk having a medical disaster possibly occur because of whatever you were following. And then, correctly or not, they may blame you and call a lawyer. While it’s not guaranteed protection, it’s helpful to be able to prove, with a signed card, that they got your letter and chose to ignore it.
Is that worth the $7 and extra stop? Absolutely. But still, I wish people would be kind enough to just answer the phone or return a call. If they don’t want to do the study, I’m not offended. I just don’t like wasting time and money because someone won’t pick up a phone.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Registered letters are a pain in the butt.
In the grand scheme of things, they’re a minor nuisance, albeit necessary. Documentation is everything is this job.
So here and there, I stop by the post office on the way home. It’s almost $7 a letter now, so maybe $28 a month, $336 a year. Not a huge sum.
But it’s annoying. It’s money that could be used for other expenses, and 80% of the time, the reason I have to do it is someone isn’t returning a call.
I suspect the scenario is similar in your practice. Patients are due for a follow-up MRI, MR angiography, labs, or whatever. So your staff calls them a few times. If they don’t return the call, you mail them letters. If they don’t respond, you send them registered letters. That way, even if they never respond, you can document that someone at that address got the letter.
Patients have several chances to answer the phone or call my office to schedule or refuse the test before I resort to the letter. But, for whatever reasons, sometimes they ignore them, leaving me with a trip to the post office and $7 down.
About one-third of the time we still never hear back, which is fine if that’s what they want. As long as I get the signed card, I don’t mind. Another third of the time they call to schedule, often wondering why I had to resort to a registered letter. “I got your call and other letter, so why did you send that?” And the others? They call us, usually to say they don’t want the test, or just angry that we sent them a registered letter, or (my favorite) to accuse us of harassing them. Because, you know, I enjoy making the extra trip and cost just to do that.
Unfortunately, the consequences of not doing this are (potentially) worse. In most cases, nothing would happen. But, sooner or later you risk having a medical disaster possibly occur because of whatever you were following. And then, correctly or not, they may blame you and call a lawyer. While it’s not guaranteed protection, it’s helpful to be able to prove, with a signed card, that they got your letter and chose to ignore it.
Is that worth the $7 and extra stop? Absolutely. But still, I wish people would be kind enough to just answer the phone or return a call. If they don’t want to do the study, I’m not offended. I just don’t like wasting time and money because someone won’t pick up a phone.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
