Howard Speaks By: Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD
Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

Howard Farran, DDS,
MBA, MAGD
Publisher,
Dentaltown Magazine

Take a poll in your office and find out what is the least favorite task your office staff does. For assistants, it might be taking impressions for study models, pouring up models in the lab or cleaning the traps. Yuck! Hygienists’ answers may vary from cleaning dentures to printing recall postcards. But for the front office, the answer is most likely making collection calls. Let’s face it, picking up the phone and asking people to pay their bills is no fun, not to mention extremely time consuming. However, that begs the question, “did they agree to pay?” Did they read and sign your financial form agreeing that they are financially responsible for any remaining balance?

Using financial arrangements to help ensure your patients are in agreement to pay may not eliminate all collection calls, but it will certainly cut down on the amount of calls your front office will have to make. Of course there will always be the patient who signs the agreement, has the treatment performed and does not follow through with the payment. We have collection agencies for those individuals!

At Today’s Dental we use two financial forms, one the patient signs when joining the practice explaining their financial/insurance responsibilities and our office policies. The second form is used when financial arrangements are discussed with patients prior to starting treatment. This provides our payment options in writing for the patient to review during the financial consultation. The first form, Today’s Dental Insurance and Financial Policy, details the patient’s financial responsibility to avoid future collection issues. We have found informing our patients of our policies, and educating them on how insurance works minimizes problems down the road. You can never explain enough to a patient that insurance benefits are only an estimate! This form will be a benefit to you if your treatment plans do not have an insurance disclaimer. Here is a link to the insurance and financial policy form: www.dentaltown.com/downloads/insfinancialpolicy.doc.

The second form, Today’s Dental Financial Policy, outlines five different payment options for our patients. Giving your patients options enables the dentistry to be done and allows you to get paid for it! The first two options are cash discounts for treatment that are paid in full at the time of service and for co-pays which are paid at the time of service. This has been proven to be a win-win situation! Patients are always happy to receive a discount and the practice won’t have to wait for its insurance payment, nor do they have to pay the credit card company.

Another option is the two-payment plan. This works very well for your crown and bridge appointments as well as any of your procedures that require multiple appointments. The purpose, of course, is to cover your lab cost in the first payment and collect the balance at delivery. Don’t be afraid to collect the second payment up front before the appointment if you feel there may be any issues at checkout. You can certainly re-schedule the appointment if the patient is not willing to pay the day of the appointment at check-in.

The credit card option allows three equal installment payments and should only be used with a signed credit card authorization form. Here is the link to an example of our credit card authorization form: www.dentaltown.com/downloads/ccauth.doc. Your front-office staff can set up monthly reminders in your practice management software at the beginning of the month or whatever day the patient requests to run the credit card payment. Use this option with established patients only because you run a risk of having the treatment completed with an outstanding balance.

Term loan is listed at the end of the options, but it is actually the most valuable of all. We use CareCredit for our outside financing and our office is very pleased with it. The approval process is quick and easy for the patients in the office and can also be done in the privacy of the patient’s home. By getting approval in the office we are able to start treatment for the patient on the same day. The average time for approval in the office has been about 10 minutes. If your office is not using CareCredit I encourage you to contact them for information; you can visit www.carecredit.com or you can call them at 800-859-9975. Here is a link to our financial policy form: www.dentaltown.com/downloads/financialpolicy.doc.

Financial forms are only worth the paper they are written on if they are not enforced at your front desk. It is also essential to have the right staff member with the proper personality at the check-in and check-out positions. It should be someone who is comfortable discussing finances, explaining your office’s financial policies, obtaining the patient’s signatures and most importantly, asking for money!

In most cases, selling and doing the dentistry is the easy part in comparison to collecting at the end of each appointment. If you don’t enforce collection at the time of service, your staff will end up doing its least favorite task, collection calls. At Today’s Dental our goal is to have minimal statements go out each month as well as less than one month’s production in total accounts receivable. This equates to a healthy bottom line, positive cash flow and a happy staff!