On average, Americans spend about $111 billion on dental care each year. Most people view caring for their teeth as a top priority. If you are a dentist, the main goal you should have is growing your practice and getting as many patients as possible.
As your dental practice starts to grow, you will need to focus on keeping the financial side of your business on track. The biggest problem most dentists face is getting their patients to pay on time. While this can be stressful, there are some things you can do to address this problem.
Read below to find out more about how to get your patients to pay on time.
Hiring a Dental Billing Company is Beneficial
Having a knowledgeable and experienced front office staff is essential for any successful dental practice. In order to keep this staff productive and efficient, you will have to outsource billing to a professional. A dental billing service can handle all of the work involved in creating and sending out the bills for patients.
This means your front office staff will have more time to interact with patients. When patients call in with questions about their bills or the options they have to pay it, your staff will have the time to talk to them and work out a solution. If your staff is having to handle every facet of billing and customer payment, it is only a matter of time until problems start to occur.
Provide Your Patients With Options
Adequately communicating with your patients is a key component of a successful practice. One of the biggest problems you will face when taking on new patients is creating a dialogue about how they plan to pay for their dental treatments. Instead of immediately asking this question of a new patient, you need to find out more about their dental issues.
With this knowledge, you can ease into a conversation about the payment options your practice offers. Instead of only providing a pay all at once option, you need to offer an installment plan. With an installment plan, you can break up a dental bill into affordable monthly payments. The easier you make it for your patients to pay their bill, the fewer missed payments you will have to ultimately worry about.
Be Transparent With Your Prices
The last thing you want is for patients to feel like they are being bamboozled once they receive a bill from your dental office. Instead of making the cost of a dental bill a well-guarded secret, you should work on increasing transparency.
Providing new patients with a price sheet is a good idea. By doing this, you can remove all of the mystery from the dental billing process. The time and effort invested in creating this pricing sheet will definitely be worth it in the long run.
Finding the Right Dental Billing Company
Are you looking for professional dental billing help? If so, the team at DDS is here to assist you with this difficult task. Contact us now for more information on the billing services we offer.
