A few years ago, our office stepped UP from being a Premier provider to being non-participating provider of a dental insurance company.
How do I say that we stepped up? After my financial coordinator informed me that I was donating 25% of my charged services back to the insurance company with every surgery I did, getting that 25% of my fee back was a huge step up! After being a premier provider for over 25 years, the company's decision to only provide PPO-type services, dictating fees, then reducing the reimbursements steadily with a ?frog in the pot" mentality, was no longer tolerable for me.
I am preaching to the choir with regards to the degradation of dental insurance, as most or all of you are already seeing the writing on the wall as it continues to get worse and worse.
The great news for my story was that by empowering our team, utilizing experienced dental consultants, and having our DenVantage membership program already going we ultimately retained 98% of all those insurance patients.
The dental consultant trained our team to be able to positively explain our reasoning for not participating in the PPO structure and that they would still be able to utilize their insurance, but would simply have a small increase in co-pay over what they previously had been paying.
The powerful message in this is that to be a ?fee for service?practice, is not simply dropping plans or picking up a membership plan or utilizing a consultant. It is a well-tuned formula with education that needs to be executed properly to have a successful transition. Many dentists simply get frustrated and drop their PPO insurances without the tools empowering February 2022 Ray of Light AREYOUREADY? dan st einke,DDS their team to handle the patient concerns; or start a ?do it yourself ?membership plan that gives large discounts to patients without the patient returning value to the practice by guaranteeing to keep appointments and paying for all dentistry at or before the time of service.
Utilizing a dental consultant for management of your numbers, without that consultant having the tools to train your team to become PPO free, is also a path away from freedom and into more stress.
As a former athlete, I saw, over and over again, teams that had some superstar, or a great coach, but never put the package together to truly
working synergistically to be champions. That is an analogy for working to have a PPO-free and stress-free practice. The tripartite formula of an excellent dental membership plan, a dental consultant that is focused on helping you to be free from PPO insurance, and a team that understands the amazing benefit of being able to maintain the dentist/patient relationship, is the way to achieve that dream. Along with that, a focus on lifelong dental health for the valued patients and a great culture, complete the picture.
As there are many successful football teams, there are different paths to follow to achieve freedom from your crushing dental PPO burdens. One proven, great choice would be to go to www.dentalfreedomacademy.com or call 207-272-8289 to join a proven team to lead you to freedom.