MSB Blog

Debt Collection Insights from 55 Years in the Business

We started Midwest Service Bureau in 1970 with two people and a phone. Fifty-five years later, we've collected on millions of accounts across healthcare, commercial, municipal, and education sectors. This blog is where we share what we've learned — not theory, but practical knowledge from decades of actually doing this work.

Our team writes about the topics that matter most to the organizations we serve: how to improve self-pay recovery rates, what the latest CFPB and HIPAA regulations actually mean for your billing department, when to bring in an outside collection partner versus handling accounts internally, and how to protect patient and customer relationships throughout the collection process. We cover healthcare revenue cycle management in depth because that's where most of our clients operate, but you'll also find guides on commercial B2B recovery, municipal utility collections, education debt, and state-specific compliance requirements.

Every article is written or reviewed by people who work in collections every day — not a content marketing team. When we say something works, it's because we've tested it across thousands of accounts. When we flag a compliance risk, it's because we've seen organizations get burned by it. We aim to be the resource we wish existed when we were figuring this industry out ourselves.

Browse by category below, or start with our most popular articles on HIPAA-compliant collections, medical debt best practices, or choosing a collection agency.