Health Care Changes Affect Debt Collection
Some federal changes to health care regulations are affecting several industries, including, of course, health care providers. But the agencies most affected aren’t providers — it’s their partners, such as collection agencies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month released what’s called the omnibus regulations package, which contains a slew of changes in the way healthcare information is handled. The changes could cost more than $225 million to implement, according to DHHS. Business associates will now be “directly liable for compliance,” according to HHS. The federal agency estimates that up to 400,000 business associates will be required to ensure they have achieved security rule compliance.
Overall, it’s hard to say how these changes may affect your business and ours. Still, we know our main challenge will be the extra cost and time required to achieve these new compliance requirements. Some estimate that collection partners might be required to spend as much as $113 million to comply with these new regulations.
Compliance has always been a top priority here at PRC (Revco Solutions), where we maintain an infrastructure dedicated to continuing education for our staff. While we don’t know yet how it will impact contingency fees in our industry to meet these new regulations, we will remain committed to serving our clients by being the best in our field.
