Problems & Solutions
Here are some problems we have encountered over the years concerning the dental insurance industry. Do any of these look familiar?
Problem: |
Write-Offs increasing. |
Solution: |
Find the best mix of profitable dental plans for your specific office by determining the precise profit or loss for each plan in your area. |
Problem: |
Relying on dental plan write-off percentage for specific procedures to determine which plans to contract with. |
Solution: |
The reason you should not base your decisions on this is because write-offs tell you what you are paid but do not show if you are profitable. For example, if you charge $100 and write-off 50%, you are paid $50. If it costs you $25 to do the procedure, you’ve made money. If it costs you $75, you paid to do the work. The key is to find the cost for each procedure relative to what you are paid. |
Problem: |
Dealing with dental insurances is overwhelming to you and your staff. |
Solution: |
We provide services which help you deal with the problems you encounter with dental insurances. |
Problem: |
Dental insurances are not going anywhere. They have billions of dollars to fine tune their operations. |
Solution: |
Nailing down the precise profit or loss for each dental plan allows you to optimize your Take Home Pay. |
Problem: |
You feel you are losing control over your practice. |
Solution: |
Arming yourself with accurate financial numbers puts you back in control. |
Problem: |
Not knowing which dental plans to contract with when beginning or purchasing a practice or adding an associate. |
Solution: |
Understanding that one dental insurance may be profitable for an established dentist while being unprofitable for a new dentist or vice versa. |
Problem: |
Choosing dental plans based on what their colleagues recommend. This graph illustrates how widely the profitability of dental plans varies from one dentist to the next. |
Solution: |
There are several variables, such as overhead, procedures performed etc. that contribute to the profitability of each practice. Knowing how each of these variables plays a part is crucial to determining how your mix of dental plans would fall on this graph. |
Problem: |
Dental insurances keep money they would pay you if your fees are below their UCR. |
Solution: |
Review fees for all procedures against the fees of each dental plan to determine which fees could be raised. |
Problem: |
Not having an In-House Office Membership Plan. |
Solution: |
Develop a correctly priced office plan which is profitable and incentivizes long term patients. |
Problem: |
Not having the time or knowing how to negotiate with dental plans for higher fees. |
Solution: |
Getting help with negotiating is important because the difference between fee schedules under the same dental plan can be as high as $150 per crown and getting assistance. |
Problem: |
Not knowing the profit or loss of each procedure with your own fees and each dental plan. |
Solution: |
Calculate these figures based on all fee schedules including those you don’t currently contract with. |
Problem: |
A large percentage of patients on unprofitable dental plans. |
Solution: |
Targeting those patients for your profitable Office Membership Plan. |
Problem: |
The difference in what dental plans pay can vary by over $100 for the same procedure. |
Solution: |
Analyze your top 30-40 procedures by weighted average for each dental plan. |
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