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

The leaves are turning, snow is falling somewhere, and we are counting the days until Thanksgiving and Christmas!! We are now in the fourth and last quarter of 2004. What does that mean to your dental practice? It means you have to get busy and correspond with all of your patients who have unused insurance benefits and still need optimum oral treatment. This should not be a painful process for you or your staff!! Listed below are the steps to complete this project and a sample of our letter we send to our patients at Today’s Dental in Phoenix, Arizona.

Be sure to utilize your practice management software. We use Kodak’s SoftDent to generate a merge file containing all patients who have unused insurance benefits which they will lose at the end of the year, and have existing, NOT scheduled treatment plans. Contact your software support for instructions on generating a merge file if you need help with this. Next, create the letter for your patients. Figure 1 is a sample of the letter we use.

Notice how we offer a 10% discount off of the patient portion if this letter is mentioned. This is also a great opportunity to enclose any other marketing pieces you are currently using, such as bleaching discount coupons.

Once you have generated your merge file and your letter, using your practice management software, merge the file of patient names to your letter. If you do not have the merge feature, there are two options to still achieve this goal!! First, print a list instead of a merge file of all patients needing to be contacted. Next, create your letter and manually enter the patient’s information. This will be more time consuming, but in my opinion, worth the effort.

You can also create the letter as a form letter to your patients, but you are losing the “personal touch”. If you choose not to send a letter, use your list and call your patients in an attempt to get them scheduled. Whichever option you choose to communicate with your patients, it will be worth the effort. Get started now!!! Humans LOVE to procrastinate. Act on this information today so this December will be a busy and productive month for you and your patients.

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Do you remember what it was like before Dentaltown.com? If you had a difficult patient and everything went wrong, where did you turn? If it was late at night and some dental thing was bothering you, where did you turn? If your office was driving you crazy, who would truly understand your dilemma? When you wanted the low down on that new product from Acme Dental who could you ask that would tell you the truth and wasn’t incentivized? No one who loves you––your mom, dad, spouse, sister, brother and cousin––can help you with a dental question.

Then out of nowhere came www.Dentaltown.com. It is like a huge AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting for dentists. Just like AA it doesn’t cost anything to go. Just like AA your sponsor is sharing and helping for free because they truly care. Just like AA if you share something really bad and stupid; at least one person in the room has been there and done that too.

Has not www.Dentaltown.com truly helped you? Has it not truly increased your level of patient care? Has it not truly increased your motivation and enthusiasm for dentistry? Wouldn’t you like your hygienist to feel the same way? Then turn them on to Hygienetown.com. This is going to put thousands of hygiene departments on steroids! This will be the least expensive and most effective educational and motivational course you have ever given your hygienist and it’s FREE!!! We have had so many requests from hygienists wanting their very own community we had to deliver! Have your hygienist register at Hygienetown.com today!