Are you struggling to balance high overhead and revenue that isn’t budging with your need to get more out of your dental practice? While giving yourself a pay raise might seem like an impossible feat, there are many ways that you can strategically work to raise your revenue and stabilize your practice.
Market to New Patients
How many new patients is your practice taking in every month? Your practice should be consistently acquiring new patients from the surrounding community and through referrals from existing patients. As a rule of thumb, 70% of new patient growth should be produced from internal patient referrals.
Another important part of patient marketing is assessing your online presence. You should regularly search online for “dentist in (your town’s name)” and see how you rank against your competition. What are your online reviews like? Encouraging existing patients to leave positive reviews online is another low-cost and high-impact way of marketing to new patients.
Assess Your Insurance Markets
Have you thoroughly assessed the insurance market and signed up with every network that could help your business? If not, it’s time to enter the credentialing process with additional insurance networks to boost revenue and give yourself a pay raise. Credentialing can take a great deal of time, but without the process, you will not be able to accept Medicaid or additional insurance providers. If you don’t want to tackle the process on your own, you can partner with APEX who will complete the credentialing process on your behalf.
Negotiating PPO Reimbursements
Did you know that you can negotiate fees with PPOs? Most dental practices never even attempt to negotiate fees, as they assume insurance providers are not open to negotiation and that an individual practice has little leverage. APEX Reimbursement Specialists specializes in negotiating with PPOs on behalf of dental practices to raise reimbursement rates 7-12% on average.
Verify Your Billing Procedures
Finally, you should assess your coding and billing procedures. Improper codes and insufficient coding are often two problems with dental practices struggling to maintain sufficient revenue levels. Hiring an outside firm, like APEX, for a coding and compliance review will catch any issues in your coding practices and uncover new ways to recuperate revenue.
Give Yourself a Raise with Help from APEX Reimbursement Specialists
APEX Reimbursement Specialists specializes in helping dentists to recover revenue and maximize the efficiency and profitability of dental practices. Contact our team today by calling (410) 710-6005. We look forward to working with you to make your practice a more profitable place.