Marla Merritt is the director of marketing for OrthoBanc LLC. She has 19 years of experience in credit reporting and payment management.

OP: What type of service does OrthoBanc provide?

Merritt: OrthoBanc provides risk analysis and payment management. OrthoBanc’s management services handle all aspects of your monthly payments. Patient payments are electronically drafted from the patient’s checking, savings, or credit card account. OrthoBanc also handles all patient contact regarding failed payments, expired credit cards, balance inquiries, and special circumstances. OrthoBanc’s services are integrated with practice-management software companies that make it easy to set up accounts and post monthly payments. (OrthoBanc is currently integrated with Advanced Ortho Systems, Dolphin Management, IMS, Oasys, Ortho II, and topsXtreme.) OrthoBanc also offers online single payments through TeleVox’s T.LINK.

OP: What types of solutions does OrthoBanc provide for risk assessment?

Merritt: OrthoBanc can determine the financial risk of your patients with our instant credit analysis. The analysis is returned in seconds and includes a letter-grade risk indicator, along with a payment plan recommendation.

OP: How does OrthoBanc simplify the payment-acceptance process?

Merritt: Many orthodontic practices still print coupon books and mail monthly statements. Both of these options are dependent on the responsible party who needs to remember to mail the payment. Often, medical bills are a low priority and are not mailed on time. With OrthoBanc, payments are scheduled for drafting on the agreed-upon date. Payments process automatically every month.

OP: What types of features make OrthoBanc different from other Web-based services on the market?

Merritt: OrthoBanc completely manages all aspects of the monthly payments. We eliminate the most unpleasant task of contacting patients about missed payments. This means the staff’s time is freed up to handle their most important responsibility: providing patient care.

OP: Are there monthly fees to use the system?

Merritt: OrthoBanc has no setup fees or monthly minimums. You only pay for the services that you choose to use.