Researching a company before conducting any business with them is commonplace these days, and a big percentage of that research often involves checking online reviews. As it happens, people are inclined to trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from their own friends. Reading reviews from customers and the responses from the business can be a good first impression. But what about businesses who run into compliance issues if they reply to online reviews? It’s more common that you might think. Here’s the problem with Google reviews if you’re a medical collection agency.

Staying Silent to Stay Compliant

Industry regulations mean medical collection agencies cannot be deceptive in their communication with consumers and must also provide appropriate disclosures. What’s more, a collection agency of any kind cannot reveal the existence of a debt to any third party. No matter what kind of review is left online — positive or negative — responding presents a compliance issue to the collection agency.

It’s also worth remembering that many of the reviews left for a medical collection agency tend to be from consumers who are unhappy about being sent to collections in the first place. Unfortunately, people are simply more likely to leave negative reviews than positive ones, and generally, we expect those companies to respond to those reviews. While collection agencies in general, and Hospital Collection Services specifically, would make a point of responding directly to all online reviews if we could, that’s simply not the case.

If your medical practice is considering a medical collection agency to recover money owed for services rendered, keep this in mind as you browse your options. Negative online reviews are unfortunately fairly standard for collection agencies, and the lack of response from the agency isn’t carelessness or disinterest. To stay compliant, collection agencies simply cannot respond to online reviews publicly.

Your best bet for finding a professional, experienced medical collection agency is to contact them directly. In Reno and Sparks, the team at Hospital Collection Services is here to answer all of your questions — contact us today.