1 BILLING SERVICES (medical only)

Broadly speaking the billing service entails the performance of all functions relative to the invoicing and processing of claims. Duvesco also liaises with medical insurers and patients where necessary to ensure that debtor days are kept to a minimum. A high rate of efficiency is maintained due to the simplification and distribution of repetitive tasks in the processing centre.

2 CREDIT MANAGEMENT (medical only)

Clients may choose this service if they wish to do the billing component themselves, leaving the actual collections of funds from medical insurers and patients to Duvesco. The credit management service is a very popular service because it allows the practice to focus on the running of the practice without getting involved in the arduous and time consuming task of dealing with debtors and medical funds.

3 CASH FLOW (medical only)

The standard agreement describes this service as a "guarantee of payment" however it is also informally known as the "cash flow option". In essence Duvesco bridges the outstanding debtors at the end of every month irrespective of whether payment was received. For example, if at the end of month one, the turnover was R500 000 and the payments received amounted to R300 000, Duvesco will pay R200 000 to the practice in the following month and proceed to collect the outstanding R200 000 from the debtors or medical insurers.

There is a recourse for bad debs, which allows Duvesco to deduct bad debts from the following payout. Debts are deemed to have become bad after 120 days or the performance of certain actions, whichever occurs first.

The result is that Duvesco carries the book for 120 days and, although it occurs rarely, deducts the bad debts from the payout in the next accounting cycle.

4 DEBT GUARANTEE (medical only)

This option allows the practice to have peace of mind about bad debts. Duvesco guarantees the turnover of the practice and takes a cession of the irrecoverable debts without recourse. In other words, Duvesco pays out the turnover and takes responsibility for the bad debts by taking a cession of the claims and collecting at its own risk.

5 COLLECTIONS

The collections department consists of an in-house call centre and pre-legal department. To avoid unnecessary legal costs all debtors are processed through a soft process, which is gradually toughened until handed over to the legal department. The collections service consists of a number of sub-services such as data validation, scoring, call recordings, tracing, debit order facilities, credit card payments, web reports and on-line tracking (for clients).

One aspect should be understood. Collections are not done on the basis that the client assumes any risk or legal costs. The principle applied here is "no success no fee". The fee due to Duvesco is deducted from receipts from the debtors.

6 LITIGATION

When all avenues have been exhausted, and provided a matter can be pursued profitably, it is handed to the legal department. The legal department may issue a summons or persuade the debtor to consent to judgement and generally enforces judgements through emolument attachment orders. Duvesco does not outsource matters to attorneys, as most companies do, it performs those functions in-house.