3 Ways to Guide Your Dental Team to Collect Payments Smoothly

As a dental professional, you might be aware of the financial hardships faced by the community. The dental business is seasonal; no one visits a dentist on a daily basis and oral health unfortunately is not taken seriously. Then how do you as a dental professional meet your survival needs on a daily basis? 

Dental schools train you with everything except how to collect payments efficiently and regulate functioning and operations. Solely providing quality service to your patients is not sufficient. You need to have healthy cash flow and financial strength to fulfill your needs and grow your business. If you have been struggling to collect payments from your patients; you are at the right place. 

We have tried to jot down 3 ways to guide your dental team to collect payments smoothly.

A] Set up a system to monitor whether your collections are under control

Manual errors ought to occur when it comes to maintaining accounts. By the time you take notice of accounts receivable or collections; things might have gotten out of control. You might come across patients who haven’t paid their dental treatment fees due to inefficient follow up by your team. It can be tricky to connect with past patients and inform them of the payments undone. It will not only be frustrating for them but will also reflect poorly on your functioning. No one likes a call; a week or months later informing them they have balance dues or you misquoted their fees. Pursuing the patient significantly later after their treatment and demanding payments will portray unprofessionalism and stir up a bad rapport. This might even lead to bad reviews, which in turn, will impact your patient inflow in the future.

Utilizing a system that helps you track your AR (Accounts Receivable) from week to week is the best solution to collect payments smoothly without missing out on any. Systems are automated so they are less likely to make errors or skip information. Another alternative is keeping scorecards which ensure you stay on top of productivity goals, measure metrics, and so on. Scorecards are great when it comes to numbers and can be employed for AR. With scorecard collections; numbers can be consistently monitored and things can be bought under control right in time. 

There are dental payment software that handle your dental payments while you can focus solely on dentistry. The automation features setting up and automating your plan’s subscription billing and invoicing logic, online and offline payment methods, revenue recovery rules, and so on.

B] Be prepared to keep your collections in control by utilizing a process called “amnesty”

Amnesty in simple terms is an official pardon for people who have been convicted of offenses. Having a system to track your collections is a precautionary measure; but what should you do when things do end up getting out of control. What can be done if there are pending patient fees? This is where you have to adopt the strategy of amnesty. Usually, when professionals realize they have certain accounts receivable, they turn those accounts over to a collection agency or, even worse, just write them off. This is, however, not the most efficient way to deal with the situation. You can always approach and connect with the patients and let them know their account has come up for audit. Inform them that this is a courtesy call and assist them to clear off their balance. You can offer a decrease in the balance if they are willing to pay in full. For instance, if they have a 500-dollar balance; reduce the amount so they don’t have to go to collections and everyone benefits from the deal. Most patients will gladly pay a smaller portion or opt for auto-debit to avoid being sent to collections. Meanwhile, you too will get guaranteed money, mostly more than what you would receive through a collection agency.

C] Put in place a reliable and effective means of getting in touch with your patients

One of the most commonly faced problems is getting in touch with patients. Many professionals try to connect with their patients and their calls are often unanswered. Rather than directly communicating through the phone; an easier way to get patients to respond in time is by leaving them a text message or email. When patients receive an urgent email or text from their healthcare provider, they are likely to instantaneously contact you. Ask your team to greet such calls with a calm tone and using all the right social cues, get straight to the purpose of the call. Once the patient is acquainted with the situation, the team member can proceed to enquire about the patient’s credit information and sort things out steadily. If you do not get an instant response, you might have to follow up a few times 

Through software, amnesty, and contact alternatives, your team can stay on top of accounts receivable. Dentistry is seasonal; therefore, you need to ensure the revenue you worked so hard to attain gets paid and your team has the resources and tools to collect it well.