It’s probably safe to say that no matter what you do before 2020 ends, it’s going to be a whole lot better than the way the year started. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the remaining time and get processes in place that will help your dental practice thrive in the new year, even if your office isn’t pack to its pre-COVID production rates yet.
Below, we’ll go over some things you can be doing to boost production and profit right now, so you start 2021 off on the right foot.
1. Look for Ways to Automate
Automating repetitive tasks helps ensure you’re maximizing your budget, avoiding manual errors, and are free to focus on direct patient care. Make this your first step when you’re looking for ways to boost production, as you’ll get even better results from your efforts by incorporating automation.
You can automate in a huge way by leveraging Practice-Web’s native features and Smart Tools. A few examples are highlighted below.
Native Practice-Web Automations
- Auto Notes– Automates notes you routinely type by creating templates with prompts that allow you to select the correct information from a list quickly. You can literally create Auto Notes for every procedure you perform and customize them to fit your office.
- Quick Notes– Automates repetitive notes you don’t typically need to customize and allows you to enter them using your own shortcodes.
- Custom Automations– Automate countless processes to suit your needs. Practice-Web’s native Automations tool lets you select from eight different Triggers and more than a dozen Actions. For example, you can have the system automatically send a patient a letter if they miss their appointment or send a letter to a referral source to thank them. You can also create pop-up warnings for specific allergies or conditions or set Practice-Web to generate post-op instructions for a patient when an extraction procedure is completed in the system. If you’re on a Practice-Web Support subscription, our team is happy to help you set up the automations of your choosing at no charge. Visit our technical support page for contact details.
Smart Tool Automations
- pwConnect– Automates reminders and marks down confirmations in appointments for you.
- iPad Registrations and Forms– Automates the check-in process and patient paperwork, plus relieves the office of scanning insurance cards and taking patient headshots.
- Smart Caller ID– Automates data retrieval by creating a pop-up with recall, upcoming appointments, and balance info when someone phones your office. It’ll even check insurance benefits in real time and present them to you, so you always have the latest info.
- Online Scheduling– Empowers your patients to self-appoint with links you send out via email and text message or through links you include on your website, Facebook, Yelp, Google, and other social profiles.
- Pay-by-Text– Allows your office to send payment links to patients by text message. When the balance is paid, their Account is automatically updated with the information.
- eClaims and Eligibility Check– Automates insurance verifications and benefits checks, allows you to submit pre-auths and claims electronically (with attachments!), and lets you manage electronic EOBs, so the entire insurance payment process can be handled digitally. There are no paper claims, EOBs or checks to process in most cases!
2. Remind Patients to Use Their Insurance Benefits Before the Year Ends
If you haven’t done so already (and maybe even if you already have), send reminders to your patients to use their insurance benefits before the calendar year ends. This is a super easy sell because it’s more on the customer service side of things than true sales—most of your patients won’t want to see their benefits go to waste, especially if they have large treatment plans.
In our recent webinar, we demonstrate how you can notify everyone in a matter of minutes using Practice-Web and Practice-Web Smart Tools like pwConnect and Online Scheduling. Watch the video below if you need a refresher.
3. Use the Planned Tracker to Catch Everyone with Planned, But Unscheduled, Treatment
The Planned Tracker is one of the more recent features added to Practice-Web, so if you don’t have it, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version. This feature works best if appointments are planned out with the patient during a treatment plan presentation. It keeps groups of procedures linked together by appointment, so you can schedule them easier if the patient doesn’t appoint right away, and places unscheduled planned appointments on the Planned Tracker List, allowing you to see which patients have outstanding dental care needs at a glance and follow up easier. With pwConnect, you can also contact everyone in your Planned Tracker list with just a couple clicks or follow up with patients individually.
4. Work Your Recall List to Bring in Overdue Patients
Generally speaking, less than half of all patients will be following their recommended recall schedule at any given time. With the pandemic, your numbers may only be a fraction of that. If you’re trying to work your overdue recall list manually or are short-staffed, consider having each person on your team commit to making five calls per day. Or, if you’re using Practice-Web, you can combine your Recall List with pwConnect to send out reminders to everyone who’s overdue all at once.
5. Dig into Overdue Balances from Insurance Companies
True, resolving unpaid balances has nothing to do with boosting production, but you’ve already done the work and you deserve to be paid in a timely manner. Moreover, unpaid claims are often easy to resolve, so spending a small amount of time addressing overdue balances can yield great gains.
A few reports to utilize in Practice-Web include:
6. Dig into Outstanding Patient Balances
This has been an incredibly difficult year and chances are your practice has a tidy sum tucked away in outstanding patient balances. To find out where your practice sits, run the Aging of Accounts Receivable Report.
You’re likely to find some commonalities between the patients and why they aren’t paying, so it’s helpful to consider your strategy before you start making calls. Again, remember that your patients are likely coping with financial hardships, job loss, and possibly even COVID-19 too, so you may want to approach unpaid balances a bit more gently than you have in the past for the sake of customer service.
A few things in your arsenal include:
- Dunning Messages– You can change the messages that appear on your statements to make instructions and next steps clear to guarantors. You can also adjust them based on factors such as insurance coverage and the age of the balance to ensure you’re reaching each guarantor with the right message at the right time.
- Pay-by-Text– Leveraging the Pay-by-Text Smart Tool makes collections easier, as patients are far more likely to read and respond to text messages than they are to other forms of communication. It also allows them to make the payment when it’s convenient for them.
- Payment Plans– Patients coping with hardships may want to pay but be unable to handle a large balance all at once. Practice-Web comes with Payment Plans already integrated into the Accounts module to make handling these situations and tracking the resulting balances and payments easier. You can set up individual Payment Plans in a variety of ways and Practice-Web will perform the calculations for you, including adding interest if you wish. If you’re unfamiliar with Payment Plans, watch our Payment Plans tutorial to get started.
Get Assistance Implementing These Tips
As a reminder, if you have an active Practice-Web Support subscription, there is no charge to talk to one of our software pros for technical assistance. Our team is happy to help and you can get in touch via our technical support page.
If you don’t have an active Support subscription or would like to get set up with any of the Smart Tools outlined here, you’ll want to speak with our sales team via the contact page.
Here’s wishing you and your team a healthy and prosperous 2021!