Skip to main content

Dental PPO’s Will Drive You Out of Business

Dental PPO’s Will Drive You Out of Business

Significant changes are underway in the dental marketplace as a result of the novel coronavirus. The ADA Health Policy Institute is forecasting a 2/3 decline in dental spending in the next year. This is coupled with increased costs for PPE and decreased capacity to see patients due to social distancing and new infection control procedures.

The economics associated with PPO’s likely mean many of the procedures you perform will cost you more than you will receive in payments. Do you have the ability to set fair rates of reimbursement when you participate with a PPO? How long will you be able to continue practicing when you are losing money on procedures?

With many traditional dental insurance companies retaining 40 percent or more of patient premiums, now is the time to consider a new economic model, an in-office subscription. A subscription service allows you to capitalize on the inefficiencies of traditional insurance by increasing your income and serving your patients’ needs.

With an in-office dental subscription, you are in control of the fees you charge.

Now is the time to talk to your patients about the need for quality care. Discussing with your patients your decision to become an unrestricted provider of dental services and offering a dental subscription allows you to be able to provide your patients with a valuable tool to afford the dental care they want and need. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Investigate Dental Subscription Options - New Learning for the Dental Team

If your dental team is faced with downtime, you might consider having them learn about a new product or service that results in more patients and more income for the office. A dental subscription is a way to create recurring revenue for your office and create loyalty with your patients.  But what type of subscription is right for your office and what should you consider when setting up your subscription program? Who will administer the subscription?              Option 1 : Dental office does everything from designing the plan, crafting legal documents, contacting patients monthly for collections and renewals, maintaining financial records of transactions, maintaining renewal dates. Administering this plan is possible but requires significant startup costs, time and labor to administer.              Option 2 : Contract with a dental membership administrator. There are many companies offering services and the level of service varies greatly. Some offer dental practices a wo
Post a Comment
Read more

My Decision to Leave the Dental PPO's

In the fall of 2019, Delta Dental announced that they were going to reduce benefits for all of the patients in my practice with Delta coverage. I decided to make a change. I became a non-restricted provider.  It was a very scary decision. I had prepped my team that I was considering this change for months. But when the time came, I wasn't sure what the result would be. Would I lose 35% of my patients, would my practice be able to survive? Would I be able to retain my staff? I have great patients and a great staff and want to be able to provide the best dental care with the best staff. I sent a letter to all of my patients letting them know about my decision, that we still welcomed them in our practice, and letting them know that we were offering an alternative, an in-office membership. I had calculated that the membership was a great value that would cost the patient significantly less and allow us to earn more. To my surprise, very few patients left, many subscribed to our members
Post a Comment
Read more

The Economic Cost of a 30 Minute Prophy That Now Takes 45 Minutes.

If a 30 minute prophy now takes you 45 minutes have your fees been adjusted accordingly? If you have 50 percent less time in your schedule, how will you fill your schedule? If you are participating with insurance companies with unrealistic reimbursement rates what will happen to your income. Many practices have maintained the salaries of their staff which should equate to 25-30% of revenue. If you now have an effective 50% increase in staffing costs due to increased appointment times, are you able to absorb the difference? Do you want to consider a change? It may sound counter intuitive, in a time with so much that is unknown, do you want to drop an insurance company now? With an in-office subscription service you can begin to take control of your economic future by setting fees that reflect the current economic reality.  Many dentists are now dropping big dental insurance carriers. They still accept payment from these insurance companies, they have just changed their stat
Post a Comment
Read more