You are sitting in your office, feeling stressed, anxious, and paralyzed while staring at your computer screen, looking over your bank account. What do you do? You didn’t just end up here…. you landed here. It started somewhere, and now you have to figure out how to get out of this mess! Pick your head up and get a plan! Let’s take some actionable steps together and help you get some money in the bank.
- Print Call Lists– Open your practice management software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve, Easy Dental… they all work similarly). You have a database full of patients that will come to your office for dental treatment.
- Past Due Recall Report
- Due Now Recall List (Patients due this month)
- Outstanding Treatment List
You are the CEO of the company, and you should know how to navigate your software by now. Print the lists, place a team member’s name on the top of the list, and the due date you want it returned to you with a progress report. DO NOT let your team tell you that they have called everyone. Your response should be, “They picked us, so we are going to call and care about them because that is our responsibility to our patients. We will call then once a month every month until we hear from them. I want notes entered about every conversation you have with the patient.” Unfortunately, team members lie, and they don’t call patients consistently. Keep in mind that your bank account is low, and you need to make payroll, so it’s important to keep everyone accountable.
- Same Day Opportunities- Have everyone review their charts and look for someday opportunities on the schedule. Patients appreciate the opportunity of “NOW”; they are motivated to stay if you can arrange it for them. This will need to be addressed every day and discussed throughout the day to create a new habit in the practice.
- Evaluate A/R- Pull up your A/R and see where it stands. We encourage doctors to keep their Total A/R under 1.5 months of production. This is not what you learned in dental school for sure and maybe not something that all consultants agree on, but working accounts and claims have to be done consistently.
Practices are encouraged to adapt systems for A/R similar to the following:
- File insurance as needed and follow up on claims aging over 30 days.
- When payment is received, we then fabricate a bill the day check is entered, or claim is denied and send to the patient.
- At the first of every month, send a statement to all patients with a balance of over $20.00.
The follow-up process to manage A/R through the month goes as follows:
- Week 1: Statements send/Aging claims over 30 days followed up on. Start with the oldest and work your way back to the newest.
- Week 2: Collection calls on all balances under $20.00 and balances over 30 days. Start with the oldest first.
- Week 3: Aging claims over 30 days (this means 31 days and over).
- Week 4: Collection calls on all balances over 30 days.
You will ask for a full report by the end of the day or week from your administrators. Accountability and paying attention to your accounts are important as an owner, and having a solid system that you can hold your team accountable to is essential. You will find the money when you look over accounts! Make sure that statements are going out! Sometimes software has glitches, sometimes team members change, and things get forgotten.
- Ask for Payment at Time of Service- Ensure that your team is collecting copayments and patient portions for their services. Don’t wait until the dental insurance pays and balance bill patients. You may find out that it is not happening consistently in the office.
- Evaluate your Overhead- Look over all your bills and see what can float to the next month and what are absolutes. Make minimum payments to improve cash flow. Look for fat areas in your budget that you can cut back on.
There is no time for excuses, so accountability is important here. Put a smile on your face because it is free, and your team will feed off of it. So, don’t panic and don’t frown. Take this time and make sure you get strong systems in place that holds everyone accountable. This is a mountain of pebbles that have gotten you here, it’s not going to change overnight, and it’s going to take a team, not a single person.
Bryant Consultants can work with you to help you establish your vision, and take your practice to the next level. Find out more about our services by calling (877) 768-4799 to schedule a consultation. We will even come to you!
