We have a new billing company that is refusing to call patients regarding payment, etc. because they said it is a HIPAA violation. I have never heard this before.

With our old billing company, they were an employee of ours, and therefore a 'business associate' and they were legally able to call patients regarding billing items.

Is it true that our billing company can't call patients to get payment? Isn't that a reason why we hired a billing company?

It may be that the billing company does not have proper internal controls in place to allow them to access patient information. In other words - their employees need to be trained in HIPAA, and they need to have controls for records such as their email system and record keeping to ensure that records are properly safeguarded per HIPAA requirements. If they do not have these controls documented, they should not handle patient information. I assume you work for a health care provider - obviously in choosing a billing agent you need to ensure that they are compliant with HIPAA regulations.