Hollis Cobb Manager, Leonard Bailey, was the very first employee hired by Mr. Hollis Cobb in 1977, and he remains a vital part of the management team today. Leonard is an Atlanta Native, born at Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital, now Emory University Midtown, and a current Hollis Cobb client. He grew up in the area of Atlanta once known as Cabbagetown and attended Stone Mountain High School. He was awarded a football scholarship to Clark University in Atlanta where he later graduated with a degree in Business Administration. Shortly after graduation, Leonard landed his first job as a collector at another agency, and that is where he met Hollis Cobb.
In April of 1977, Mr. Cobb started his own agency in Atlanta, and in May 1977 he recruited Leonard. Mr. Cobb handled the sales responsibilities at Hollis Cobb Associates, and Leonard collected the money. The first office was located in a building in downtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street. The company also had a full time typist and bookkeeper. Mr. Cobb formed his company to focus on healthcare accounts, because he saw a need for those kinds of accounts to be handled differently and with more care and compassion than returned check or defaulted loan accounts. He had a vision for a unique kind of collection agency to service the healthcare community.
Leonard recalled that there was no automation of any kind in the early days of Hollis Cobb; therefore the typist manually typed all patient letters, turning out 300 – 400 every day. He went on to stress that in 1977 there were no computers, no dialers, no scoring and no electronic transfer of files. The phones were dialed manually by collectors who also worked accounts out of color coded file boxes. Leonard explained that Red accounts were newly listed, White accounts were on hold, Yellow accounts were promises to pay, and Green accounts were monthly payers. Each patient payment was posted on the appropriate card.
Over the last four decades, Leonard has performed almost every job at Hollis Cobb including collection manager, insurance director and reconciliation manager. He saw the passage and implementation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 1982, which he said was necessary and good for the industry. Mr. Cobb was active in the Georgia Collectors’ Association and encouraged Leonard to get involved too, which he did, going on to serve as the organization’s president during the 2005-2006 year.
One of the biggest changes Leonard said he has seen at Hollis Cobb and in the industry is the impact of technology. The purchase of the first computer system at Hollis Cobb brought huge improvements in efficiency, accuracy and speed of collections, Leonard said. He recalled that the first computer had large tapes that had to be backed up every night. By then Mr. Cobb’s son, Alan, was working at Hollis Cobb, and Alan and Leonard took turns staying late in the evening to run the back-up tapes, which they would then take to be stored offsite for protection of the data.
Leonard remembered Mr. Cobb fondly stating that Hollis Cobb took great pride in his work, believed in a personal approach when working with clients and set high standards for his staff. Integrity, ethics, professionalism and service were important attributes that he stressed to the staff working with both patients and clients. “He never met a stranger,” Leonard said of Mr. Cobb adding that he was very active in the community, the Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA and his church. Mr. Cobb was instrumental in the construction of Northside Hospital, which turned out to be his first client and is still a valued client today.
Although Leonard grew up in Atlanta attending Georgia Tech games, he came to be a big University of Georgia Bulldog fan, as is evident by the red and black bulldog décor all over his office. Outside of work, Leonard enjoys spending time with his four sons and five grandchildren. The leadership at Hollis Cobb values Leonard’s loyal service for the last 40 years, and younger staff have benefited from his diverse experience while enjoying his colorful stories of days gone by.
