Know Who Your Patient Is

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

Whether you're an insured practice or cash practice, there are certain things you have to do to ensure you have the right patient sitting in front of you. Let me give you an example. When I was in practice, I practiced as a chiropractor. I had a young lady come in. Her name was Trish, and we treated her for a long time, about six months, and she eventually went away. Two years later, she called back in. She said, "This is Trish Brown." I said, "Okay, good." I'm just making up the last name. She said, "Trish Brown." I said, "Okay, good." We said, "Why don't you come on back in, you were here about two years ago." She said, "No, I never been in before." We said, "Is your address this and that?"

We gave her the address. She said, "Yes." I said, "You've been in before. You were in about two years ago." She said, "No, I had never been in before." We made her appointment as a new patient. When she came through the door, she said, "I'm Trish." We said "Certainly, you remember being in here before, now that you're here." She said, "No," She says, "Oh, I'll tell you what that is. I have a half-sister and she doesn't have health insurance, so her mom tells her to use my name, and then she gets covered." Whoa, the red lights went off. What are we going to do now? That's insurance fraud. We called our association and said, "What do you want us to do?" They said, "Fortunately, and unfortunately, but fortunately, for her, the statute of limitations had run out, and there's nothing to do."

Here's what I suggest you do. To make sure you have who you really think you have, always get a copy of their insurance card if you take insurance and of their driver's license. That way, you'll know you'll be covered and talking to the right person. Now, that's about it for today. Except I want to remind you of the podcast that we have. We have it every week. It's not particular to therapists, it just helps people grow. It talks about how to improve your life and your lifestyle. We have a lot of fun. You can come to our website at therapistconsultants.com and watch it, or you can go to anywhere you watch podcasts and you'll find it under my name, David Kats, K-A-T-S. I think you'll find you like it. I think you'll direct your patients to it, and I think they'll like it too. We hope to see you at the podcast too.

This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.