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Strategies to Recover Lost Revenue from 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses throughout 2020 and, unfortunately, most are still struggling with financial loss now in 2021. Business closures, drastic decreases in clientele, and staff layoffs are just a few of the changes that affected dental practices across the United States and the world.

Now that it has been deemed safe by the Centers on Disease Control to reopen your dental practice, how can you recover the financial losses from 2020? Here, we will discuss ways to start recovering lost revenue, including the following:

  • increasing patient flow
  • increasing financial flexibility for patients
  • evaluating collections processes.

Increase Patient Flow

During the pandemic, most dental practices closed for routine appointments and only scheduled emergent appointments to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections. In 2019, only 64.9% of adults reported seeing a dentist in the last 12 months. In the year 2020, it is expected that the percentage of dental visits was significantly lower due to financial hardship and dental practice closures.

As the first step to increasing patient flow, make personal phone calls to each client on your established patient list and help your patients schedule routine appointments for themselves and their families. Perhaps you could offer a special on certain cosmetic treatment appointments, such as teeth whitening.

Some patients may be concerned about financial obligations, so discuss your various financial payment plan options during the call. Again, this is a good opportunity to offer an ongoing special for popular cosmetic treatments. Once patients are in for their appointment, be sure to schedule all follow-up appointments before they leave to ensure continuous patient flow.

Offer Flexible Financial Options

Due to financial hardships, many patients may not wish to seek routine dental care or treatment for problems due to being unable to pay for treatments at the time of service. There are many options for payment assistance that you can consider using and sharing with your patients; some that you may not have previously offered pre-pandemic.

One option is interest-free financing. Many offices offer patients third-party lenders to collect payment. The issue with these lenders is patients may be denied due to credit. What some people do not know is that dental practices can offer financing themselves. This is beneficial because the cost of service is the same, but patients will like the idea that they won’t be charged extra for payment plans.

Another option is payment plans for patients who have lost dental benefits or are unemployed. Patients could pay 50% of charges at the time of service and agree to payments for the remaining balance. This is beneficial to both the practice and the patient, as the practice still receives a large payment at the time of service, and the patient can have the flexibility of monthly payments for the remaining balance.

Don’t overlook the convenience of credit cards for payment. Many patients will readily place charges not covered by their insurance, and especially some emergency treatments, on a credit card. Make sure you share which credit cards you offer, including specialty medical and dental cards.

Evaluate for Collections Opportunities

Most patients should pay for treatment and services at the time of their appointment. However, those with payment plan agreements may fall behind due to unfortunate circumstances. One way to help with payment collections is to call patients that are late on payments to offer to take payment over the phone.

When calling patients to collect a payment, ensure you are following proper procedure. Patients should have provided prior written consent to receiving phone calls or text messages from your dental practice. If patients are unable to make a payment when called, you can offer one of your financial arrangement options. Either method gives your practice an opportunity to collect payments. And the patient can continue to receive services from your practice when needed, without facing more financial hardship.

Recovery Plan

The American Dental Association recently released a strategic recovery plan for dental practices recovering lost revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan suggests setting goals in four main areas for ideal revenue recovery. The four sections are practice, staff, patients, and financials. Examples of financial goals listed include expanded practice hours, cross-training team members, cash saving, and streamlining processes.

Most dental offices are open during weekdays. Consider offering appointments on weekends or late appointments on weekdays to service patients who have started back to work. Cross-training team members and streamlining office processes can save time and money by being more efficient. Finally, evaluating your cash flow to look for ways to save money is an easy method to save money for emergencies. Selecting specific recovery plan goals and planning accordingly for improvement will help ensure success in revenue recovery.

Seeking assistance from a professional agency like PPO Negotiation Solutions to perform a revenue assessment on your dental practice can be a great option for recovering lost revenue fast. PPO Negotiation Solutions starts by analyzing your practice’s payor mix index, reviewing PPO schedules and negotiating PPO fees. The company will ensure credentialing of all providers and monitor the implementation of their established game plan to increase your practice’s revenue. They will also provide education to staff on the best way to reduce costs and renew processes to save money. Give them a call today and get back on track in 2021.

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How to Make UCR Work for Your Practice

How your dental practice gets paid is of supreme importance. There are numerous elements that surround the entire area of accounts receivables, and it literally “pays” be know how these aspects factor into your overall income strategy. A working knowledge of UCR can actually benefit your dental practice and help you avoid financial losses.

First, let us define what UCR is as it pertains to dentistry. The acronym stands for usual, customary and reasonable. However, to many dentistry practices, it seems rather unreasonable and not at all fair. Basically, the term UCR applies to the fees and reimbursements that insurance companies pay to dentistry offices for services. It has been adopted by dentistry and can be found on EOB (Explanation of Benefits) forms that offices use to request reimbursement from insurance plans. Since the reimbursement amounts can often seem unfair, here are some ways to make UCR work for your practice and avoid taking a financial loss.

Understanding UCR

UCR is not actually a number; instead, it is a range of numbers based on percentages. Insurance companies will pay out a certain percentage based on the cost of a dental procedure. Even though it is based on percentages, there is also a cap on how much the company will pay for each procedure and insurance will pay out whichever cost is less. Zip code and percentage plays a large factor in determining UCR at insurance companies. Geographical area has some weigh-in on the amount that insurance will pay. Let us look at an example.

In your geographical area, let us assume that the majority of dentists chart $200 for a crown; so, the insurance company would set the fee at $200. Let us say that your office charges $150 for crowns. A patient’s insurance plan pays 50% toward the charge, which is $75, leaving a $75 remaining balance. In another scenario, let us say your office charges more than the average $200; say you charge $300. Insurance would still pay 50%, or $150 and there would be a $150 balance remaining.

How UCR Affects Your Practice

Dentist offices may be forced to lower charges for services in their area to retain clients. However, lowering charges for services too much can result in a financial loss to the business. Knowing UCR levels could mean increased revenue for your business.

An article details a hypothetical scenario about an average dentist office’s profit: “…dental practice grossing $400,000 per year. The average overhead in a $400,000 practice is 70 percent. If our hypothetical office is open 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, then the dentist works 2,000 hours per year. The office overhead is $280,000. Total overhead ($280,000) divided by 2,000 hours gives us an hourly overhead of $140. That is the fixed overhead before the doctor is paid a single penny.

Now say a patient were to come in needing a prophylactic cleaning and claimed it to be covered at 100%.” …the office submits the claim form. The fee for the cleaning was $85, the overhead cost was $140, and the doctor`s/hygienist`s salary must be added to that. The office just lost $55, plus the salary of the doctor/hygienist.”

In another explanation of the effects on patients and business, it is stated, “In situations where a single company serves one geographical area, their usual, customary and reasonable fee schedule affects the prices of dental services in the area. Where a dentist charges more than the set usual, customary and reasonable fees, they have no option but to lower their fees in line with the average charges in the area. Consequently, when a dentist realizes that they charge less than what is set in their area of practice, the chances are that they will raise their fees.”

How to Make UCR Work for You

One item on your agenda should be analyzing your fees. By assuming that you will only be reimbursed 70%, for example, you could be losing money. Different plans could be paying 80% or even 90% but could be reimbursing you less money because you are charging less for your services. Routinely monitor your EOBs (explanation of benefits) and find out which plans cover at what percentages.

Pre-certification and pre-authorization are easy steps to take to ensure maximum benefits. Pre-certification verifies that a patient is active with an insurance plan. Pre-authorization involves submitting a request for treatment to insurance for payment. Some insurance companies require this for payment! Verifying benefits can be combined with the pre-authorization process. You want to be sure that the procedure you are requesting to be performed is covered under the patient’s insurance plan.

So how can companies like PPO Negotiation Solutions help your business? PPO Negotiation Solutions has an eight-step process to save you money and increase your revenue. Part of that process is to evaluate your current UCR and PPO fee schedules in comparison with other dental practices in your area. Also work on PPO fee negotiations, provider credentialing, and staff education. Let the experts educate you and set you on the path to success. Call or click today!

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Find Your Practice’s Blind Spots to Increase Your Revenues

One of the best things you could do for your dental practice is taking the time to adequately assess your strengths and weaknesses. It can be tempting to focus only on what you are doing well and on what is working, but the reality is that seeking out blind spots and then working to resolve them can do even more to save you money and to provide increased workflow efficiencies that net you more income per month.

What is a blind spot? Is it simply something that is neglected or that someone has not paid attention to in quite some time?  The short answer is yes, blind spots are often areas that have been forgotten or ignored and are thus not operating at their maximum efficiency. In order to remedy blind spots, however, you must first figure out how to examine something you currently have no idea you are overlooking. While some blind spots are obvious, others will require intentional, disciplined seeking to uncover fully.

Engaging in comprehensive practice analysis can reveal many areas that could either be managed more carefully to eliminate wasted time, or that could be leveraged in a new or better way to net more income from each visit. In this article, we examine the following three common areas that practices can improve to increase revenues:

  • New patient call conversions
  • Individual patient visits
  • Hourly income rates

With an honest and comprehensive examination of business operations, any practice is sure to find some area of focus wherein they can improve and grow.

Increase Revenue Through New Patient Call Conversions

New patients are a vital part of a successful business, and it is up each practice to ensure that they take the necessary steps to continually grow their clientele. However, this is where we find the first blind spot in many businesses.

New patient calls are an important opportunity for practices to ensure that potential new patients become long-time patients. However, many practices find that their new patient call conversion rates are much lower than what is desired in a successful business.

Trips to the dentist can be a nerve-wracking experience for many, so a good relationship between staff and patients is important to keep them coming back to your office. Successful new patient call will not only lay the foundation for such a happy and trusting relationship, but it will continue to move the process forward by scheduling an appointment for an in-person visit.

The ideal new patient call conversion rate of a successful practice is at least 90%, meaning that at least 90% of all new patient callers become returning patients. However, this is an area of the business that is often not monitored and may be a major blind spot that is holding back the potential revenue of a practice.

Conversion rates are often low because staff is not properly trained in how to speak with potential new patients or on what steps to take to get an appointment scheduled. Recorded new patient calls are a great tool to help train staff on what and what not to say and do for a successful call and, in turn, an increased conversion rate.

Increase Revenue By Increasing Production Per Visit

Each individual patient visit has the potential for an increase in the practice’s production. Whether it comes at that particular visit or from one yet to be scheduled, certain steps can be taken during each individual patient’s visit to ensure that the office is not missing out on any potential revenue. Ensuring that all proper steps are taken at each visit is, however, is a common blind spot of many practices.

Each patient visit includes a series of steps for staff to conduct. From validating patient information to performing all necessary operations and scheduling follow-up appointments, each part of a visit has the potential for revenue for the business. Practices could be missing out on their full per-visit potential if staff misses any part of a visit, some common examples including the following:

  • Failure to update incorrect patient information
  • Not scheduling the patient’s next appointment
  • A miscalculation of or failure to charge the proper fees

An increased rate of revenue per visit is often improved through training and organization. Clearly defined procedures and a well-versed staff are a practice’s best chance of making the maximum revenue potential per patient visit.

Increase Revenue By Increasing Production Per Hour

The rate of production per hour is how most practices determine how well they are doing financially. However, when the numbers aren’t where they should be, it is often also a blind spot and is frequently forgotten when companies try to figure out how to improve.

One of the most common blind spots when it comes to the hourly rate of production in an office lies in the individual production rates of doctors and hygienists. While a hygienist can see an average of 7 to 8 patients per 8 hour shift, doctors average 0.5-1.5 patients per hygiene visit, depending on the practice. If the average of an office is lower than this or if there are regularly gaps in the schedules of either doctors or hygienists, then the office is likely not living up to it’s hourly potential. A common strategy to avoiding such gaps throughout the day is to over-schedule appointments. Statistics show that patients will inevitably either cancel or skip appointments, so over-scheduling ensures that there are no gaps in the daily schedule of an office.

The hourly rate of production can also by affected by a number of other factors, including the following:

  • A variance in calendar days per month
  • Over or under-scheduling staff
  • A variance in the number of patient cancellations

The net hourly revenue of a practice is what remains after all hourly costs are deducted. With this blind spot uncovered, increasing your hourly production rate is as simple as finding where costs are high and where profit is lacking.

In Summary

The blind spots of a practice often lie in the fine details of the operation, but they can also have a significant impact on the overall revenue of the business. Examining the above three common blind spots can help your practice find what isn’t working so that you can increase your revenue and operate at full potential.

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