Is your practice collecting what it earns?
Receivables, Credit Management and Collections for the Healthcare Practice. The business of the revenue cycle and the law of the medical account, taught together in one day.
Dates and venues
Pick the venue closest to you. Seating is limited in every town and is allocated in order of registration. Seminar 3 runs in each town on the day before or after; see the Seminar 3 page, so you can send your accounts team on one day and your front office on the other.
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Collect too softly and you bleed cash. Collect too hard and you invite complaints.
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.
Healthcare debt is also one of the most regulated forms of credit in South Africa. Get it wrong and the practice risks POPIA complaints, HPCSA conduct enquiries, and claims that have quietly prescribed on its books.
This seminar 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. It was developed and refined in live seminars presented to South African healthcare practices.
What you take home
Who should attend
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.
The programme
Three parts across the day. Open a part to see the full outline.
Part 1 · The Revenue Cycle and the Rules of the Game
- The unique billing environment of the South African healthcare practice.
- Key performance drivers: medical scheme mix, practitioner productivity, clean data and coding accuracy, technology and practice management systems.
- Benchmarking your practice: net collections percentage, days in accounts receivable, and percentage of A/R older than 90 days, calculated on your own numbers.
- Leading financial indicators, reasons for low collections, and setting up the administrative dashboard.
- The contract behind every account, and who the debtor really is: adults, minors, spouses, emergency patients, guarantors and sureties.
- HPCSA ethical rules on fees, statements and itemised accounts; informed financial consent (National Health Act section 6; CPA plain language and fair dealing).
- Emergency care: what the Constitution and the National Health Act require.
- When your account becomes an incidental credit agreement under the National Credit Act, and what follows.
- POPIA at the front desk: lawful basis, minimality, privacy notices and health information.
- Template walk-through: registration form, financial responsibility agreement, suretyship annexure and practice financial policy.
Part 2 · Patient-Friendly Collections and the Medical Scheme Receivable
- Moving people to pay: why aggressive collection fails in healthcare.
- The patient's thinking process: the four quadrants (willing and able; willing but not able; able but not willing; neither).
- Designing a process that mirrors the patient's journey, and changing the way patients think about the medical account.
- Persuasion tools: persuasive questions, communication strategies, human performance principles, quality control and ethics.
- Medical scheme eligibility verification and pre-authorisation before service.
- Balancing the practice's caring mission with financial sustainability.
- The compliant invoice and statement: VAT requirements, ICD-10 and tariff coding, itemised accounts and electronic documents.
- The scheme claim cycle: the 30-day payment obligation, submission windows and rejections rework.
- Prescribed Minimum Benefits payable in full; claw-backs and set-off; selected Council for Medical Schemes rulings.
- Balance billing the member on a proper consent trail.
- Interest on overdue accounts: contractual vs mora interest, NCA limits and the in duplum rule.
- Internal controls and fraud red flags; handling queries, disputes and PAIA/POPIA access requests.
Part 3 · The Collection Process, Enforcement and the End Game
- Establishing an effective collection cycle mapped to your age analysis.
- The toolkit: statements that prompt payment, telephone scripts and the promise-to-pay close, and the escalating letter set.
- Acknowledgments of debt and undertaking agreements, and how they interrupt prescription.
- Debit-order (DebiCheck) and EFT strategies for recurring payments.
- Conduct rules: no harassment, no disclosure to third parties, POPIA identity verification, and credit bureau listing done correctly.
- Handover: the Debt Collectors Act, attorneys and recoverable costs, POPIA operator agreements, and the handover file.
- Prescription: the 3-year clock, interruption and suspension, and the prohibition on collecting prescribed debt.
- Legal remedies: letter of demand to judgment, section 65 enquiries, emoluments attachment orders, administration orders, collection costs and the Small Claims Court.
- Special debtors: deceased estates, insolvency and debt review, COIDA, Road Accident Fund matters and foreign patients.
- End of the road: write-off governance, selling debt, VAT bad-debt relief and income-tax deductions.
- Capstone: assembling your practice's Credit Management and Collections Policy.
Legislation and ethical guidance covered
The seminar 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).
Adv. Frikkie Marais
Advocate and principal of Assent Compliance (Pty) Ltd, with 26 years of experience in healthcare compliance roles, including POPIA, PAIA and credit management. He developed this course and presents it himself.
He develops POPIA compliance frameworks and trains practice teams across South Africa, from solo practices to specialist groups and healthcare organisations.
In-house training
Groups of six or more can have this seminar presented on site at a fixed discounted tariff. Programmes can be adapted to your organisation's training needs.
Send us the seminar name, the number of delegates and the address where training will take place.
Request a quotationQuestions before you book
How do I pay?
Register online and you receive a pro-forma invoice by e-mail immediately, with our EFT banking details and your payment reference. Seats are limited and allocated on a first-paid basis: your seats are confirmed once payment reflects, and a tax invoice follows.
Does the seminar carry CPD points?
Yes. The seminar carries 6 Ethical CPD points.
Do I need any legal background?
No. No prior legal knowledge is assumed, and the day is suitable for all disciplines.
How is my personal information used?
Every day, your book ages another day.
Secure your practice's places now. Registration takes two minutes.
Choose your venue and registerPrefer to talk to us? marais@assentcompliance.co.za · 061 515 5194