Patient debt management and student academic progress.

A survey of the patient debt management policies of all U.S.-accredited dental and dental hygiene educational programs was taken to assess institutional patient debt management procedures and their relationship to student academic progress. The policies were evaluated to determine the level of compliance with existing standards and to analyze them in light of their legal implications relative to student rights. The results illustrated a vast breadth of policies for both dental and dental hygiene programs, ranging from no relationship between debt management and student progress, to an unspecified relationship, to a formal relationship whereby academic progress is conditional on collection of patient fees. The question of the legal validity of conditioning academic progress on third party payments for services was then examined. It is the opinion of the authors that the translation of a student's successful performance in a clinic setting to an academic failure or incomplete based on a patient's failure to pay for services is likely not legally defendable. Thus, it is essential that policies on fee collection and patient debt management not be tied to issues of student academic progress.