Now more than ever businesses everywhere are struggling to stay afloat, let alone show a profit. Dentistry is no exception. In fact, statistics have shown that dentists are among the last to be paid by consumers, right above the veterinarian.
A study by the Independent Business Association indicates that the chances of getting paid by a debtor decrease from 95% at day 1, to less than 5% at day 270. This is just one more reason for having well orchestrated financial guidelines in place as well as making sure employees are exceptionally well trained and empowered to motivate patients to pay on time.
Sometimes this can be very challenging, and unless your staff is fully prepared and possess excellent verbal skills the results may not always be win-win. Furthermore, when things aren't handled properly, you may not only lose dollars, but patients and their future referrals to your practice as well.
Basically there are good reasons why patients refuse to pay or falter on their financial commitments. Listed below are what we will refer to as the "dirty dozen" pitfalls to a healthy accounts receivable.
*Hiring the wrong people for key positions
*Lack of proper training of staff
*Lack of structured financial guidelines
*Lack of support of Doctor and Team to uphold practice financial policy
*Patient doesn't accept responsibility for fees, but thinks their insurance company is responsible to pay.
*Patient not quoted properly prior to treatment
*Insurance benefits not properly confirmed prior to rendering care
*Insurance benefits not accurately estimated
*No valid financial agreement in place prior to treatment being performed
*Insurance not properly submitted
*Ineffective claims reconciliation and follow up
*Ill timed notification to patient when insurance challenges do arise
We can help you overcome your collection challenges with our "Dental Collections Success: How to Collect 100% of the Dollars You Produce". The underlying theme of this course is cause and effect. It will focus on basic principles, when learned and put into practice will eliminate the need for past due accounts.
There really is no magic involved, just pure and simple common sense. In addition to learning how to establish an effective accounts receivable management system, course participants will learn the proper, legal protocol for handling any balances currently showing as past due in the practice receivables files.
Author Resource:-
Cathy Warschaw, Director
Warschaw Learning Institute & Dental Management Club
http://www.WarschawLearningInstitute.com
888-822-0917
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