Webinar Series: Receivables, Credit Management & Collections for the Healthcare Practice | Assent Compliance (Pty) Ltd

Is your practice collecting what it earns?

Medical scheme benefits run out earlier every year, co-payments grow, and the self-payment gap keeps rising. Patient collections are now a major source of practice revenue — yet in most practices they are the least managed part of the business.

At the same time, healthcare debt is one of the most regulated forms of credit in South Africa. A practice that collects too softly bleeds cash. A practice that collects too hard risks POPIA complaints, HPCSA conduct enquiries, and claims that have quietly prescribed on its books.

This three-part webinar series (3 × 2 hours) combines two disciplines that are usually taught separately: the business of the revenue cycle (benchmarks, dashboards, patient-friendly persuasion) and the law of the medical account (National Credit Act, POPIA, Prescription Act, Medical Schemes Act, Debt Collectors Act and the HPCSA ethical rules). It was developed and refined in live seminars presented to South African healthcare practices and is suitable for all disciplines.

Who should attend?

  1. Practice managers and practice owners — benchmarks, dashboards, policy and the legal limits of fee recovery.
  2. Accounts and credit control staff — the full collection toolkit: statements, calls, letters, AODs and handover files.
  3. Reception and front-office staff — onboarding, financial consent, eligibility verification and the first payment conversation.
  4. Practitioners — what you may, and may not, do to recover your fees, ethically and lawfully.

All disciplines are welcome: GPs, specialists, emergency and acute-care practices, dentists, radiology and pathology, allied health, psychology and therapy practices. No prior legal knowledge is assumed.

Webinar Content

Session 1 · Week 1

The Revenue Cycle and the Rules of the Game

  1. The revenue cycle landscape
    1. The unique billing environment of the South African healthcare practice.
    2. Key performance drivers: medical scheme mix, practitioner productivity, clean data & coding accuracy, technology and practice management systems.
    3. Benchmarking your practice: net collections percentage, days in accounts receivable, and percentage of A/R older than 90 days — calculated on your own numbers.
    4. Leading financial indicators, reasons for low collections, and setting up the administrative dashboard.
  2. The legal and ethical foundation of the medical account
    1. The contract behind every account — and who the debtor really is: adults, minors, spouses, emergency patients, guarantors and sureties.
    2. HPCSA ethical rules on fees, statements and itemised accounts; informed financial consent (National Health Act section 6; CPA plain language and fair dealing).
    3. Emergency care: what the Constitution and the National Health Act require.
    4. When your account becomes an incidental credit agreement under the National Credit Act — and what follows.
    5. POPIA at the front desk: lawful basis, minimality, privacy notices and health information.
    6. Template walk-through: registration form, financial responsibility agreement, suretyship annexure and practice financial policy.
  3. Q&A
Session 2 · Week 2

Patient-Friendly Collections and the Medical Scheme Receivable

  1. Patient-friendly collections: understanding and persuasion
    1. Moving people to pay — why aggressive collection fails in healthcare.
    2. The patient's thinking process: the four quadrants (willing & able; willing but not able; able but not willing; neither).
    3. Designing a process that mirrors the patient's journey, and changing the way patients think about the medical account.
    4. Persuasion tools: persuasive questions, communication strategies, human performance principles, quality control and ethics.
    5. Medical scheme eligibility verification and pre-authorisation before service.
    6. Balancing the practice's caring mission with financial sustainability.
  2. Billing, medical schemes and credit control
    1. The compliant invoice and statement: VAT requirements, ICD-10 and tariff coding, itemised accounts and electronic documents.
    2. The scheme claim cycle: the 30-day payment obligation, submission windows and rejections rework.
    3. Prescribed Minimum Benefits payable in full; claw-backs and set-off — responding and disputing; selected Council for Medical Schemes rulings.
    4. Balance billing the member on a proper consent trail.
    5. Interest on overdue accounts: contractual vs mora interest, NCA limits and the in duplum rule.
    6. Internal controls and fraud red flags; handling queries, disputes and PAIA/POPIA access requests.
  3. Q&A
Session 3 · Week 3

The Collection Process, Enforcement and the End Game

  1. The collection cycle and its tools
    1. Establishing an effective collection cycle mapped to your age analysis.
    2. The toolkit: statements that prompt payment, telephone scripts and the promise-to-pay close, and the escalating letter set.
    3. Acknowledgments of debt and undertaking agreements — and how they interrupt prescription.
    4. Debit-order (DebiCheck) and EFT strategies for recurring payments.
    5. Conduct rules: no harassment, no disclosure to third parties, POPIA identity verification, and credit bureau listing done correctly.
    6. Handover: the Debt Collectors Act, attorneys and recoverable costs, POPIA operator agreements, and the handover file.
  2. The end game
    1. Prescription: the 3-year clock, interruption and suspension — and the prohibition on collecting prescribed debt.
    2. Legal remedies: letter of demand to judgment, section 65 enquiries, emoluments attachment orders, administration orders, collection costs and the Small Claims Court.
    3. Special debtors: deceased estates, insolvency and debt review, COIDA (injury on duty), Road Accident Fund matters and foreign patients.
    4. End of the road: write-off governance, selling debt, VAT bad-debt relief and income-tax deductions.
    5. Capstone: assembling your practice's Credit Management & Collections Policy.
  3. Q&A

Legislation and ethical guidance covered

The series translates the following into day-to-day procedures for your accounts team: the Health Professions Act and the HPCSA Ethical Rules of Conduct (with Guidance Booklets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 11); the National Health Act; the National Credit Act (incidental credit and prescribed debt); the Consumer Protection Act; POPIA and PAIA; the Medical Schemes Act and its Regulations (including PMBs); the Prescription Act; the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act; the Debt Collectors Act; the Magistrates' Courts Act and Small Claims Courts Act; the Administration of Estates Act and Insolvency Act; COIDA and the Road Accident Fund Act; the ECT Act; and the VAT Act and Income Tax Act (bad-debt relief).

The Logistics

  1. Webinars can be attended either online (live) or by obtaining recordings.
  2. The series consists of three sessions of two hours each, presented one week apart.
  3. When opting for recordings, follow the instructions in your registration confirmation email to request access. Recordings are available for a limited time only.
  4. Each session is accompanied by a comprehensive reference manual PLUS templates in MS Word format (see the full list alongside).
  5. Manuals are sent electronically in PDF format.
  6. All webinars are presented in English, and every session closes with a live Q&A opportunity.

When

SessionDateTime
Session 1Tuesday, 19 August 202612h00 – 14h00
Session 2Tuesday, 26 August 202612h00 – 14h00
Session 3Tuesday, 2 September 202612h00 – 14h00

What do you need?

  • A computer running either Windows or Mac OS X;
  • Internet access that is 1 Mbps or better (just about any fibre, LTE or ADSL link will be fine);
  • A microphone headset, no matter how affordable, will greatly enhance your experience.

Fees

OptionPer delegate
Full series — live online attendanceAll 3 sessions, manual & templates includedR 1,500.00
Full series — recordingsAll 3 sessions, manual & templates includedR 1,500.00
Single session — live online attendanceManual for that session includedR 750.00

All fees are VAT inclusive. A 10% discount applies to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th delegates from the same practice or firm. For five or more delegates, contact marais@assentcompliance.co.za for a group quote.

Presenter

This course was developed by adv. Frikkie Marais, advocate and principal of Assent Compliance (Pty) Ltd. The course is presented by adv. Marais, with 26 years of experience in healthcare compliance roles, including POPIA, PAIA and credit management. He develops POPIA compliance frameworks and trains practice teams across South Africa — from solo practices to specialist groups and healthcare organisations.

What are you waiting for?

Every day, your book ages another day. Secure your practice's places now — registration takes two minutes, and your confirmation email contains everything you need to join live or access the recordings.

Register Now

The series provides compliance training and general legal information, not legal advice on specific matters. Rates, tariffs and monetary limits referenced in the presentations are verified against current values before each presentation cycle.