Ah yes... I forgot about the "option" to send a read receipt in outlook. I don't know the program well enough but there might be an email program that would send it automatically. I use myspace, for example (though of course not appropriate for this) but it will tell you if the message was read and when.
My husband and I usually don't have any luck with certified mail because she won't pick it up, and they always get returned to us. Unfortunately that works fine with notices (like when we moved) because it shows where it was sent to her address and then returned, but with medical bills... not so much.
-------------------- "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."