Increase Case Acceptance with Patient Billing

The goal of any dentist is to be able to have a significant roster of returning patients as well as new ones. Your treatment acceptance rate should continue to increase as you work to streamline processes and improve patient experience. By increasing case acceptance in your practice, you can significantly impact your profitability and overall patient satisfaction. This means adopting patient billing best practices, including insurance verification, payment collection, copays, and follow ups. By taking a little bit of time today to prepare for tomorrow, you can reach your practice’s financial goals. Let’s look at some specific ways your practice can improve its pre-appointment readiness as well as increase case acceptance through empathetic, strategic patient billing processes.

Pre-appointment readiness and case acceptance

Ask yourself: Do my patients know what’s covered in their insurance plan? Most likely, you said “No”. In fact, do your staff? Probably not, considering you have a healthy roster of patients to remember ever nuance or plan change. We can’t expect patients or staff to have up-to-the-minute information about their plans, and even if they do, accuracy in eligibility is important.

 

What is insurance verification?

As part of the pre-appointment readiness plan, insurance verification can be a complicated process due to constant changes in policies, coverage, and network provider requirements. However, it’s a crucial and necessary step in making sure that patients understand what costs their insurance will cover and what they will be expected to pay out-of-pocket. Without this, your patients and your staff can get confused as to what’s rightfully owed, and have less of a chance to collect while the patient is in your office.

Accurate insurance verification can help to reduce uncertainty, last-minute cancellations, and increase patient confidence in the proposed treatment plan. To streamline this process, make it a habit to verify insurance coverage well ahead of appointments.

Case acceptance and patient copays

Another factor in increasing case acceptance is the establishment of clear payment and copay collection procedures. Dentists often hesitate to discuss the cost of dental care, but financial transparency is critical. Collecting copays at the time of treatment is one of the easiest ways to start your journey to increased case acceptance. By doing so, you eliminate a critical patient billing step that doesn’t require follow up once the patient leaves, taking just a bit more off of your daily task list. Let’s discuss some of the other tangible ways you and your staff can implement a process that works.

 

Best practices for streamlining patient billing

Your front office staff are the first line of defense when it comes to strategizing and implementing a process that works for you. Consider the following four-step when navigating how to best structure the patient billing process from start to finish:

1. Develop a detailed financial policy

A clear, comprehensive financial policy ensures that both staff and patients understand what is expected regarding payments. This policy should cover all aspects across the timeline of payment from start to finish, including when payment is due, accepted payment methods, insurance practices, and policies on missed or late payments.

2. Automate billing and payment processes

Dental billing and patient billing both require a dedicated, expert touch to put on autopilot. With plenty of tasks on your staff’s plates already, consider outsourcing the dental billing process to experts who work with your team rather than replace them. Having results-based cost scaling means that you only pay for the results you achieve.

3. Provide payment plan options

Patients are more likely to accept treatment plans when they can pay in installments rather than a lump sum, however, consider offering this option to returning or long-term patients first. Offering payment plans can make costly or otherwise prohibitive procedures more accessible, improving patient satisfaction and case acceptance rates.

4. Train staff in communication and empathy

The way your staff communicates with patients about billing and payments can greatly impact case acceptance. By delivering information clearly and empathetically, they can help patients feel more comfortable with their financial responsibilities.

Increasing case acceptance by streamlining patient billing through insurance verification and having best practices in place for collecting payments and copays can substantially improve your dental practice’s financial performance. By adopting these strategies, you can enhance patient satisfaction, minimize misunderstandings, and ultimately, encourage higher case acceptance rates. It’s a worthwhile investment in your staff and patients that can yield significant returns for your practice’s growth and sustainability.

 

A partner in increased case acceptance, patient billing and more

Increasing case acceptance rates doesn’t need to be a solo endeavor. eAssist Dental Solutions is a revenue cycle management platform that works to streamline your processes and increase profit. Whether through collections management, pre-appointment readiness, or patient recare, the eAssist platform was designed by dentists, for dentists, to give you the partnership you need to become profitable. Our dedicated solutions platform is tailored to your specific needs, and every option is chosen by you for your practice. Schedule a consultation below and tell us where you’d like to see your practice go in the future.