Your Positive Collection Partner

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1 Your Positive Collection Partner Welcome to Express Recovery Services! We are so excited that you have decided to partner with us in the recovery of your past due receivables. This welcome packet will give you some answers to frequently asked questions, as well as some helpful information that can aid you in the gathering of information and recovery of money before your account ever reaches our office. At Express Recovery we like to view our relationship as a partnership. Both of us working together to become better. There are many things you can do that will increase your recovery rates once the account has to be turned to collections. We offer free seminars that are designed to help your staff feel more comfortable with the collection process as well as understanding the integral role they play in determining the future collectability of your accounts. Also included in your packet is a contact list for Express Recovery. Our office is dedicated to providing the best service available to our clients while maintaining high standards for the treatment of your customers. Our employees are all trained in Federal law as well as collection techniques and Express Recovery certifies all of our employees as Professional Collection Specialists through ACA International, The Association for Credit and Collection Professionals. We believe it is important for everyone in our office to understand the laws and the collection industry, whether they are answering phones at the reception desk or calling your customer collecting debts. We record our phone calls at Express Recovery and managers regularly monitor both live and recorded calls. We provide ongoing training for our experienced collection staff in order to maintain the most productive, ethical and customer service oriented workforce available in the

2 industry. All employees have signed the Collector Pledge which can be found in your packet. We believe treating your customers with dignity and respect is non negotiable. Please take a moment to fill out our New Client Contact information sheet by clicking here. This will help us to better understand your business and provide you the best possible service. Once again, welcome to Express Recovery Services. We are pleased to have you as a valuable client. Sincerely, The Express Recovery Services Team

3 Your Positive Collection Partner Express Recovery Secure We utilize Microsoft as our encryption provider at Express Recovery Services. When you receive an encrypted message from ERS, you will see an something similar to the following: Click on Read the message and your web browser will open a page with a link to either sign in with a Google or Microsoft Account, or use a one-time passcode to read the .

4 Your Positive Collection Partner If you sign in, you will be redirected to the encrypted message and be able to respond from there. If you would rather not sign-in or create a Microsoft account to read the message, you can choose to sign in with a one-time passcode. You will receive a second from Microsoft Office 365. This message will contain the passcode. Copy and paste or type the code in the field shown and click continue.

5 Your Positive Collection Partner You can now view the secure message. From here, you can reply to the message and an encrypted reply will go back to the original sender. If you have any questions, please contact client services at or

6 ERS Contact List & Departments Department Name Title Phone Client Services Client Services Debbie Sainsbury Client Care Client Services Kaysie Vincent Client Care Client Services Tasha Wheelhouse Client Care Administration April McCloud Director of Administration Electronic Paula Wilson Electronic Media Placements Manager Collections Hyrum Briggs Manager Collections Lilly Jobrack Trainer Collections Lori DeWolfe Trainer Collections Denise Maw Trainer Collections Jessica Archuleta Team Lead Collections Jordan Davis Team Lead Operations/IT Michelle Camp Chief Operating Officer Marketing Dayer Worrall Vice President Operations Dan Rich Chief Executive Officer Attorney s Office Rebekah Rich Managing Paralegal rbriggs@edwinparrylaw.com Main office: (801) or toll free at (800) Fax: (801)

7 COLLECTOR S PLEDGE I believe every person has worth as an individual. I believe every person should be treated with dignity and respect. I will make it my responsibility to help consumers find ways to pay their just debts. I will be professional and ethical. I will commit to honoring this pledge. All employees at ERS sign and abide by The Collector s Pledge

8 Collection FAQ If I have to cancel an account, will you bill me? Most times if an account needs to be cancelled, you will not be billed. There are circumstances, however when you may be billed for cancelling an account. If you want to cancel the account to make a payment arrangement with the customer, or you receive payment in full, most times this happens because of actions we have taken on the account and in those situations you may be billed our commission. You will never be billed for insurance adjustments, bankrupt accounts or things of that nature. You may be billed for attorney fees and court costs if you withdraw an account where legal action has already been initiated. What if the customer pays my office? If the customer pays you contact our office immediately (before cashing the check) to inform us of the payment. In most cases you will be fine to accept the payment. In some instances customers will try to pay you and obtain a receipt showing an account is paid in full in order to try to get out of paying additional legal fees which may have been incurred. What if I receive a bankruptcy notice? If you receive a bankruptcy notice, contact our office with the bankruptcy information or fax it to us. Part of our service includes filing a proof of claim on chapter 13 bankruptcy free of charge and following up with the bankruptcy Court until the case is discharged. What if the customer calls and wants to pay me directly? In most cases you should refer the customer to our office. There may be fees or situations taking place on the account that you are not aware of. We would never advise you to turn away money so if someone is in your office and wants to pay you, take the money. Make sure you do not give them a receipt that says the debt is paid in full or represent to them that the debt is paid in full and always contact us right away to report the payment. What if the customer calls and tells me they don t want to deal with Express Recovery? Many times you ll find that the customer feels that they can go back to the original creditor and obtain a smaller payment arrangement or more time to pay the debt. Once the bill has been sent to collections, please refer the customer to our office to make arrangements on the account. Once the account is in collections, how much information should I give the customer when they call me? If a customer contacts you after they have been assigned to our office for collection, refer them to our office. It is common for customers to try to go back to the original creditor in an effort to avoid dealing with the agency.

9 If a customer says that a collection representative treated them badly, is there any way to verify that? Our calls are monitored and recorded. In many cases we will be able to you the phone call. If there are privacy or HIPAA issues, we may not be able to provide the recording to you, however, a manager will review the call and give you a report regarding the actions of the representative. Do I need to notify my customers that an account is being turned to collections? It is in your best interest to make a final demand to your customer. We offer stickers that you can place on your final notice letting the customer know that they will be assigned to Express Recovery if they fail to pay. Contact client services if you are interested in obtaining these stickers. What s the easiest way for me to send information to your office? We accept accounts in electronic format (see the How to send electronically to ERS section). Electronic accounts are entered within 24 business hours of our receiving them. You can up load accounts to our secure ClientAccessWeb site or to a secure ftp site. If someone is paying monthly payments is their credit still affected? Yes, if we arrange for a payment plan that extends beyond the credit grace period then the account will affect their credit. The only way to avoid a negative credit report is to pay the balance in full before the end of the grace period. Am I allowed to add a collection fee on to the account in order to recover more of the money owed to me? Collection fees can typically be added if State law does not prohibit it and if you have a contract signed by the customer agreeing to pay collection fees. The law in Utah states that you can add the same amount you are charged by the collection agency, not to exceed 40%. You must have a contract signed by the customer agreeing to those terms (see sample language for terms and conditions) Do you provide me with any tools or supplies to help in my collection efforts? Our office is able to provide you with free training seminars to help your recovery efforts in house. We also provide you with pre-paid envelopes, statement stickers and a variety of other items to help you increase your recovery in house. What about offering my customers settlements on their balance? Settlement authority can be a great tool. We have many clients who will authorize us to waive a certain percentage of their debt in order to resolve the account. If you would like to use that option, contact our office. Many other clients offer special discounts for a specified time frame

10 throughout the year. Many customers will work harder to come up with the entire balance if they can obtain a reduced amount. What happens if someone disputes that they owe the balance? There are several Federal laws that govern the way we handle disputes. You may receive faxed verification requests when we get disputes in our office. These requests ask you to verify the account information then sign and return them to our office. It is important that these requests are handled quickly, as we are unable to continue collection efforts until we have received that form back and verified the debt.

11 The Addition of Collection Fees There is much confusion related to the addition of collection fees. Below are some frequently asked questions to clear up the confusion. If you ever have any questions, please contact your account representative or our client care team. Collection fees are acceptable to add in MOST States* as long as your contract with your customer specifically allows for the addition of collection fees in the event of default. Utah limits the fee you can add and requires that you add only what you are charged by your agency. Case history in most other States seems to mirror the Utah law and prohibit adding more than you are actually charged. Collection fees should be added by the creditor prior to placement with the agency. The entire amount placed is considered your principle balance. This means you will be charged commission on the entire amount placed. For example, if you have a debt that is $ and your agency fee is 25%, you would assign the debt for $ Your agency will charge you the 25% on the entire $125.00, meaning that you will NOT get back 100% of your original debt amount. You would actually get back $ There has been confusion before with creditors having the understanding that the agency collects the entire principle amount and remits it to the client while then retaining 100% of the collection fee. This is not the case, the agency charges commission on the entire amount placed. In some cases when an account is taken to Court judges will refuse to award collection fees.

12 REASONS A SIGNED CONTRACT IS IMPORTANT There is less of a chance that the person will try to get out of the bill when we can produce a contract with their signature agreeing to pay. A person clearly accepts responsibility to pay the account when they sign that agreement. It lessens the customer s most common argument, that 3 rd parties are responsible for the bill, when clauses to that effect are put in a contract. Having an agreement with a clause for attorney fees means that we are able to sue your account to recover your money due and collect the attorney fees from the guarantor. If there is no signed agreement on file, we have to pay the attorney fees. This means that fewer accounts are sued for clients that have no contracts. When we are unable to recover our attorney fees we require a higher balance in order to initiate a lawsuit, because we have to pay attorney fees, so we need to be able to recover a higher amount on our contingency fee to cover our cost of a lawsuit. It is much easier to prove a case in Court when the case is based on a contract signed, rather than just services rendered with no agreement. Cases will go to trial much less often when there is a contract in place. In an industry where you deal with many 3 rd parties to obtain payment (insurance, employers, etc.) it is extremely important that you lay out the customer s financial obligation for the bill in black and white. That way they understand exactly what you expect of them. We have found that we have a much higher recovery rate for clients with good patient questionnaires and solid contracts. We have a lower rate of disputed accounts and a much higher rate of voluntary pays. We believe that signed financial agreements play a significant part in determining our effectiveness as a collection agency. If there is a signed contract agreeing to it, you are able to add collection fees to your accounts to recover all or part of the money you have to pay a 3 rd party collection agency to recover your debt.

13 Sample Terms & Conditions The language listed below is suggested verbiage to include on contracts with your customers. This language will make recovery of your account easier if Court action is needed, and will ensure that you are able to recover your costs of collection. According to Utah law you can add the exact same percentage that you are charged by Express Recovery to collect the debt, up to 40% per Utah Law (other State laws may vary). TERMS AND CONDITIONS (example) All delinquent accounts will be charged and interest rate of 1.5% per month (18% per annum). In the event any balance is not paid as agreed, the undersigned agrees to pay a collection fee and all costs of collection. In the event of a lawsuit to collect the unpaid balance, the undersigned further agrees to pay court costs and reasonable attorney fees. You agree, in order for us to service our account or to collect any amounts you may owe, we may contact you by telephone at any telephone number associated with your account, including wireless telephone numbers, which could result in charges to you. We may also contact you by sending text messages or s, using any address you provide to us. Methods of contact may include using pre-recorded/artificial voice messages and/or use of an automatic dialing device, as applicable. I/We have read this disclosure and agree to terms listed above.

14 What information is needed to collect my accounts?... In order for Express Recovery Services to do a terrific job in recovering your past due debt, there are certain pieces of information that it is essential that we obtain. In many cases we can recover the money without all of this information, however, when we have this information in our files, the chances of recovering your money are increased greatly. Below is a list of essential pieces of information and why it is important in the debt collection process. Please provide this information to us if at all possible. If you have any questions, please contact your account representative or our client services department. Correct Address: Of course an address is very important to the collection process. In order to insure that you provide us with a correct address, make sure that any time you talk to your customer you update their address. Phone number: A phone number is the first place we start when trying to collect your account. Without a phone number your account needs to go to our skiptracing department to try to obtain a phone number. This delays the collection efforts and any time lost on collections reduces the chance of collecting your account. It is very important that every contact you have with your customer, you verify their address and phone number. In the event of non payment to your office, this will give you the best possible chance at recovery. Employment information: Employment names and phone numbers are the best way to contact customers. Many times, even if a person has moved and/or disconnected their phone, we are still able to reach them at their place of employment. Employment information is essential if we need to obtain a judgment in order to secure payment. If a customer won t pay voluntarily and we have to use to Court to enforce payment, we need to have a way to collect the money once judgement is rendered. A wage garnishment is the most effective way to do this. Social Security Number: In the event that we need to skiptrace your customer, it is essential that we have a social security number on file. This helps us to insure that the account is properly reported on their credit and also helps us verify that we have contacted the correct person. In many cases we are unable to obtain current information on the customer without using a social security number as an identifier. If the person has a common name, without a social security number, we run the risk of the account not being reported on their credit. Date of birth: Date of birth is very important when trying to verify that we are collecting from the correct person. In many cases we have fathers, sons and grandsons with the same name.

15 There are also instances of common names and dates of birth are essential in the verification and collection of debts. Reference or emergency contact: When skiptracing a customer, the most important thing we can have is a reference. Generally this is a nearest living relative or emergency contact person. When your customer has moved and left no forwarding address, we can usually obtain new information or get a message to your customer through this person. Recovery rates increase substantially on skipped accounts when reference information is provided. Last charge date (last service date): We are required by the credit bureau s to report the last time there was a charge made by the customer. If we do not have that information the credit bureau won t put the account on the persons credit. The last charge date must be the last date that services were performed or a charge was made, and cannot be an interest or finance charge date. Generally we obtain this date from the itemization when it is provided. As you can see, there are many ways that you can help to increase your recovery rate. When you are assigning accounts to our office, please make sure to provide the information listed above. If you would like more information, we would be more than happy to schedule a training seminar with your staff to help them understand what information is needed, and why. These seminars are provided for our clients, free of charge, in order to provide your employees with the necessary tools to increase your recovery and maintain a lasting profitable relationship for both of us. To schedule a seminar, please contact your account representative.

16 What do we need when reporting payments, cancellations and holds and why do we need it? We request the following information when you are reporting a payment. We have listed a brief explanation of the reason we request this information. 1. Guarantor Name 2. Your Account Number (to verify correct posting) 3. The amount paid 4. Who was this paid by insurance or guarantor (this helps us when discussing with the patients so we know where the payment came from) 5. Is there a write off, if so how much? This insures that we do an adjustment to the account for the write off amount instead of posting a payment and billing a commission on that amount. For example if you have a $ account and you receive $ in insurance payments and the remaining $ is a write off, if we received an saying this account is paid in full we would write up a direct payment for $ and bill you for commission on an amount you never received payment on. 6. Payment Date-This insures that if we ever need to match up accounting down the road we have the same payment dates on file as you do so it makes bookkeeping much easier and cleaner. It is also less confusing for the patient if they were to receive a payment history from you and from us. 7. Balance owing-this helps us to check to make sure that we are still collecting on the correct amount. Cancel or Hold 1. Guarantor Name 2. Your Account Number 3. Cancel or Hold 4. Length of hold if applicable 5. Reason for hold (if we receive a call from the patient we can inform them you are holding to rebill insurance or check your records, etc.) 6. Are we holding the entire account or a portion? If you are rebilling an $80.00 date of service and the entire balance is $ it helps us to know how much is on hold so we can continue collections on the remaining amount.

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18 How to send electronic files to Express Recovery Services Express Recovery Services accepts standard electronic file transfers in comma or tab delimited text files or a Microsoft Excel file format. We need to insure that each account is transferred as one line of information only. ERS can set you up a secure ftp site or you can upload them to our secure Client View portal. Contact us if you would like to see samples of the various files along with suggested fields to include for various types of accounts. We have included example file layouts along with a couple examples of what actual files may look like in each format. Your first assignment will go to mcamp@expressrecovery.com. Subsequent placements can be sent to epd@expressrecovery.com or you can upload them to our secure website at

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