Seek First to Understand Your Patient, Then to be Understood and Experience Huge Increases in Patient Acceptance Within Your Dental Office
Darren Kaberna
Prosper in the face of any challenge by getting focused on what you want in life and business!
Darren Kaberna
As someone who has spent a great deal of time studying human interaction and human behavior, Darren finds the methods most dental offices employ when dealing with their patients to be fascinating. Sadly, most don't put enough thought into how they communicate, market to and present treatment to their patients. Darren teaches that by teaching dental offices how consumers think is not only eye opening, but has a profound impact on the performance of the dental business. Connect with Darren on Google + Read more about Darren here.
Seek First to Understand Your Patient, Then to be Understood and Experience Huge Increases in Patient Acceptance Within Your Dental Office
Oct 1, 2012
Think Win Win in the dental practice
Normally one would do this topic with the interaction with the client. Dentists and their teams have this skill nailed when it comes to the patient.
However, when it comes to the Team, there is often room for improvement.
We need to focus on Win Win vs Win Lose interactions.
Put First Things First within your dental office to experience explosive growth!!
When we did Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, we ask you as a team to brainstorm the areas of greatest need for improvement within the practice. Now we are going to be precise about what to do with that list
1. Let's prioritize things that are just plain urgent to be improved
Are we lacking in OSHA for example - can't let stuff like this go
2. Next we want to look for areas that will have the greatest impact on the practice
Do we have a AR problem?
Do we have outstanding insurance that is aging significantly?
When was the last time you ran these 2 reports. Often I find practices haven't run the outstanding insurance report. The results might shock you!!
Do we have an acceptance problem
Keeping the hygiene schedule full problem
3. Lastly, we want to work on activities the will provide long-term sustained growth and development for the business. When was the last time you took a clinical course in esthetics? Had lunch with someone that could refer YOU patients? How about networked outside dentistry? These activities take longer to see results, but if done consistently will prevent a yoyo business cycle.
These are the top issues that with improvement can very quickly turn a practice around. Let's examine the solutions to a few.
Outstanding Insurance
I read a stat once that about 20% of insurance claims submitted are rejected (I couldn't find the source to reference it here). Most often for simple reasons. If you aren't checking the outstanding insurance report frequently, it could be costing you a fortune. I had a doctor call me once after we had this discussion and he had $80K 120 days out with insurance. Simple easy fixes usually. http://whymde.com/ phone: 866.633.1090 if you need help with correct estimating.
Survey results from the AADOM regarding the time spent resolving rejected claims.
"Some indicated they spent as much
as 40 hours per week, depending on the
size of the practice and number of patients
served. Forty-eight percent of AADOM survey
respondents report an average of five to 25
rejected claims per month, and one-quarter
of practices wait 14 to 21 days for claim
payment. Another 22 percent wait for up
to 30 days for payment."
AR Problems
One of the easiest way to solve this is to offer "for the convenience of the patient" to take their payment while they are waiting in the chair. Assuming you have accurate insurance estimating in place, if you offer to take their credit card while waiting for the doctor to do a hygiene check, you will save them time in the check out process. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Extra tip, this is a good time to schedule their next appt as well.
Acceptance Issues
How can you get patience emotionally engaged with dentistry? Most doctors present treatment clinically and logically, consumers on the other hand don't make logical decisions. Who would have a tattoo if they did? We don't want to spend much time on the process. Some will want to know the details, most don't care. What we need to present are the outcomes:
Your tooth/teeth will be restored to ideal
The restoration will last a long time
It will feel great
It will look great
You won't be in pain
You won't have to deal with this again
It will look better than what you currently have
Your jaw won't hurt any longer
Obviously this list could keep going and vary on the procedure. Bottom line, what is the emotion that got them into the office in the first place? Were they in pain, desiring a better looking smile, wanting to be metal free? We need to take that emotion and discuss the benefits of it. I would address the overall health benefits of it as well. What will it do the the entire body as well as the oral cavity?
I think too often we pass right by Vanity. People wouldn't get tattoos, breast augmentations, liposuction, botox if there wasn't some vanity issue. Let's help them improve their appearance.
A smile will do more for ones self esteem than would Botox or any of the others mentioned.
Log into the show to catch all of the details. I've already gotten feedback from offices that watched it live and found much of this to be true.
What do you want to see us do the upcoming shows on?
Like us on Facebook for more regular thoughts and inspirations. www.facebook.com/acceleratemypractice
Have a fantastic week!
Put First Things First within your dental office to experience explosive growth!!
When we did Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, we ask you as a team to brainstorm the areas of greatest need for improvement within the practice. Now we are going to be precise about what to do with that list
1. Let's prioritize things that are just plain urgent to be improved
Are we lacking in OSHA for example - can't let stuff like this go
2. Next we want to look for areas that will have the greatest impact on the practice
Do we have a AR problem?
Do we have outstanding insurance that is aging significantly?
When was the last time you ran these 2 reports. Often I find practices haven't run the outstanding insurance report. The results might shock you!!
Do we have an acceptance problem
Keeping the hygiene schedule full problem
3. Lastly, we want to work on activities the will provide long-term sustained growth and development for the business. When was the last time you took a clinical course in esthetics? Had lunch with an orthodontist that could refer YOU patients? How about networked outside dentistry? These activities take longer to see results, but if done consistently will prevent a yoyo business cycle.
These are the top issues that with improvement can very quickly turn a practice around. Let's examine the solutions to a few.
Outstanding Insurance
I read a stat once that about 20% of insurance claims submitted are rejected (I couldn't find the source to reference it here). Most often for simple reasons. If you aren't checking the outstanding insurance report frequently, it could be costing you a fortune. I had a doctor call me once after we had this discussion and he had $80K 120 days out with insurance. Simple easy fixes usually. http://whymde.com/ phone: 866.633.1090 if you need help with correct estimating.
Survey results from the AADOM regarding the time spent resolving rejected claims.
"Some indicated they spent as much
as 40 hours per week, depending on the
size of the practice and number of patients
served. Forty-eight percent of AADOM survey
respondents report an average of five to 25
rejected claims per month, and one-quarter
of practices wait 14 to 21 days for claim
payment. Another 22 percent wait for up
to 30 days for payment."
AR Problems
One of the easiest way to solve this is to offer "for the convenience of the patient" to take their payment while they are waiting in the chair. Assuming you have accurate insurance estimating in place, if you offer to take their credit card while waiting for the doctor to do a hygiene check, you will save them time in the check out process. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Extra tip, this is a good time to schedule their next appt as well.
Acceptance Issues
How can you get patience emotionally engaged with dentistry? Most doctors present treatment clinically and logically, consumers on the other hand don't make logical decisions. Who would have a tattoo if they did? We don't want to spend much time on the process. Some will want to know the details, most don't care. What we need to present are the outcomes:
Your tooth/teeth will be restored to ideal
The restoration will last a long time
It will feel great
It will look great
You won't be in pain
You won't have to deal with this again
It will look better than what you currently have
Your jaw won't hurt any longer
Obviously this list could keep going and vary on the procedure. Bottom line, what is the emotion that got them into the office in the first place? Were they in pain, desiring a better looking smile, wanting to be metal free? We need to take that emotion and discuss the benefits of it. I would address the overall health benefits of it as well. What will it do the the entire body as well as the oral cavity?
I think too often we pass right by Vanity. People wouldn't get tattoos, breast augmentations, liposuction, botox if there wasn't some vanity issue. Let's help them improve their appearance.
A smile will do more for ones self esteem than would Botox or any of the others mentioned.
Log into the show to catch all of the details. I've already gotten feedback from offices that watched it live and found much of this to be true.
What do you want to see us do the upcoming shows on?
Like us on Facebook for more regular thoughts and inspirations. www.facebook.com/acceleratemypractice
Have a fantastic week!
