The backbone of any successful business is being able to generate and collect income, and dental practices are no different. The higher your collections percentage is, the easier it will be for you to profit and grow your practice over time. How can you increase your collections percentage and ensure the financial health of your business now and in the future?
Understanding Your Collections Percentage
Before understanding how to increase your collections percentage, it’s important to understand what it is. Your collections percentage is calculated by dividing your total collections amount by your total adjusted production. Once you have this percentage, you can see how you’re doing compared to other dental practices. One study found that the average collections percentage for dental practices is just 91%. That means that you are losing a whopping $9,000 for every $100,000 in production that you have. In an ideal practice, your collections percentage will be 98% or higher.
When You Collect from Patients
One of the biggest factors that will determine your collections percentage is when you are collecting from patients. Some dental practices do not notify patients that a payment is due until they send a paper bill or email after the appointment. This can decrease your collections percentage, as many patients will discard or miss the email or letter entirely. By collecting from patients at the time of service, you can increase your collections rate.
How Accurate You Are
Something else that can increase or decrease your collections percentage is your accuracy level. When sending claims to insurance companies, how close are you looking for errors? Submitting claims with careless errors, like the wrong date for the patient’s birthday, will decrease your collections percentage and increase the amount of time you have to spend correcting and resubmitting claims.
By putting systems into place to ensure accuracy, you can increase collections. For example, insurance verification is one way to boost accuracy. By verifying patient information ahead of time, you’ll be able to give patients an accurate idea of their obligation and decrease the chances of something going wrong during the claim process.
The Expectations You’ve Set
Setting expectations can feel challenging, especially if you have never done so for patients in the past. The most successful dental practices with the highest collections percentages have strict procedures that are followed when checking in, making an appointment, and leaving after an appointment.
Make sure that patients understand that they should update insurance information ahead of time when confirming the appointment. Ensure that your patients know that payment is due before they leave after their appointment. Springing policy changes on your patients can lead to arguments and pushback, but establishing expectations ahead of time is fair for everyone.
Make Billing and Payment Easy with APEX Reimbursement Specialists
Whether you’re looking for a way to make the insurance verification process easier or hoping to improve your overall patient communication plan, APEX Reimbursement Specialists is here to help. Contact our team today by calling (410) 710-6005. We look forward to working with you to make your practice a more profitable place.