Effective dental teams that keep their outstanding accounts under control are diligent at collecting at the time of service. While this may sound like common sense, the priority of collecting at the time of service is sometimes lost when front office teams are overwhelmed or there is a breakdown in teamwork.
Let’s first consider new patients. Before new patients arrive, high performing dental teams already have new patient insurance information, making it easy to give financial estimates when new patients have treatment. In order to get insurance information ahead of time, your team needs to first collect this information during the new patient call and then make it a priority to gather insurance information before the new patient visit.
If your team is instead scrambling to gather appropriate information for new patients, consider how you can make this process more effective. Work with your team to make sure they are prioritizing time correctly, or if you are short staffed, help the front office team maximize the time they have for preparing for new patients.
Next, does your front office team consistently provide estimates for treatment costs? If you want to collect from patients at the time of service, you need to make sure patients are informed about their out-of-pocket costs. Just like with new patients, your front team needs accurate insurance information to give accurate cost estimates. In addition, it takes teamwork between front office and clinical teams to ensure treatment plans are accurate and that everything flows smoothly when patients reach the front.
Collecting at the time of service is an important attribute of a high-performing practice. Please consider how your team can do an even better job of maximizing over-the-counter collections.