California Hospital Renews Contract With Collection Agency For Outperforming And No Complaints

The County Board of Supervisors in Riverside, California is renewing their contract with Delaware-based collection agency Hospital Billing & Collection Services (HBCS). Under the new contract, HBCS will continue to provide services for the Riverside University Medical Center (RUMC) in Moreno Valley.

HBCS first signed to work with RUMC in November 2015, under direction from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to concentrate on collecting from individuals owing $5,000 or less and older “legacy” accounts. The Banning Patch reports that HBCS collected $7.8 million in the past year, almost double the $4 million expected by the county. This period of success for RUMC comes after a taxpayer-funded reorganization following years of the hospital having multimillion-dollar deficits.

Officials at RUMC note in particular that HBCS does business the right way, having not been the subject of a single complaint during the course of their work with the hospital. Given their track record thus far, HBCS will be handling more of RUMC’s accounts under the new contract.

According to the hospital, collections could potentially total over $33 million between now and July 2017. HBCS is estimating that with their collection fee of 6%, they could receive over $2 million from the county over that time period.