I actually wrote and published this post back in June of 2020. But since we are now officially starting to hear in the news that a recession is looming, I thought I should update it and send it back out to you.
We also know that operation costs are now higher and we should be looking for ways to bring in additional revenue or cut costs.
Even if we don’t go into a recession, these tips can help you increase production and grow your practice.
So definitely worth a read. Here I present:
8 Tips to Recession Proof Your Dental Practice
#1 Speak with experts about your finances
There are a lot of way to recession proof your practice. The ideas and tips in this post are just ideas I have spoken with other dental practices about that has helped them out financially. However, nothing beats having a CPA or Business Advisor who specializes in the dental field review your practice with you. They can give you true insight into where money is being wasted and where money can be earned. So if you haven’t talked with your CPA in a while, now might be the time to give them a call.
#2 Make treatment accessible
If your patients are going through financial hardships, they are likely to put off treatment if they can’t afford the lump sum.
Breaking their payments up into smaller, more affordable, monthly payments usually helps in these situations. The patient can afford these payments and get the treatment that they need.
But with a possible recession looming, you should not offer these payment plans unless you have a guarantee that you are going to be able to collect that money in some way.
Varidi is a company that can bring you guaranteed financing AND guaranteed payment on treatments.
It is easy, your front desk emails or text the application directly to the patient. The patient fills out the short application and they are guaranteed to get the financing.
To learn more information head to Varidi.com.
But research multiple financing options for your patients and decide what is best for them.
#3 Finally stop worrying about dental insurance
If we go into a recession, your patients could lose their insurance benefits. Instead of losing those patients all together, offer them an in-house insurance plan through your office.
Sure, you can try to do your own plan, but those are time consuming to develop and very hard to keep track of. Companies like Kleer and DentalHQ allow you to quickly develop your membership plan and keep track of member’s used benefits and payments.
Another bonus of a membership plan is residual income. The patients on your plan, make monthly payments, just like they do with their insurance, so you get to enjoy that guaranteed income.
#4 Make yourself very accessible
Teledentistry was all the rage during the first few weeks of the COVID-19 shutdown. But now that your practice is back up, it doesn’t mean it has to go away. Patients are still going to be worried about going into your practice and there are some that just want to make sure the trip to the dentist is absolutely necessary.
So keep offering Teledentistry services. Being signed up and available to take online consults on apps like Dentulu will help drive patients to your practice.
They even have a super cool plug-in for your website, where your current and potential patients can schedule an online consultation and meet with you before their live appointment.
What a great service to offer!
#5 Be cost efficient in your hiring process
Hiring in the dental field can be expensive and exhausting. DirectDental continues to work tirelessly to help dental offices across the nation hire quality dental assistants, hygienist and front office personnel.
With our Essential Plan you get unlimited jobs which will be posted on Indeed, Ziprecruiter, Google Jobs, Monster, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and more!
And in certain markets, you get unlimited temp requests and candidate browsing.
All for a flat fee that you most likely bill for in your first 15 minutes of work.
We also offer upgraded staffing plans for an extremely affordable rate for those offices that want us to handle the hiring for them. You can learn more about those services here.
#6 Make sure you stay up to date on your accounts receivables
Don’t let yourself fall behind on connections.
Stay up to date with your receivables with these 7 simple steps.
- Dental Insurance Verification
- Treatment Plan accurately
- Collect at the time of treatment
- Submit claims same day as treatment
- Run AR daily and have an in-house and 3rd party working on AR.
- Send out patient invoices as soon as the insurance check comes in.
- Never write off small balances.
Read more on these 7 steps by reading Take Control Of Your Accounts Receivables in 7 Steps.
#7 Join A Private Practice Network
Many Private Practice Networks have come into play recently and for a good reason. They negotiate the best discounts across hundreds of vendors and then pass those saving on to you.
Joining one, can get you access to discounts you wouldn’t have on your own. And you will gain access to a network of like minded dentists where you can bounce ideas and concerns off of.
There are many, so do your research. Several of our clients use SmileSource and they love it.
#8 Outsource and save
Yes outsourcing work in your practice means you need to spend money. But you might find that you are actually saving money OR making more money by outsourcing.
You can outsource so many things, phone answering service, billing, marketing, web development, IT services, and of course, hiring.
If it is something you are struggling to do for your office or costing too much money to employ someone to do, outsource it.
There are my 8 tips to recession proofing your office.
We are not affiliated with any of these companies I discussed in this post. However, they are friends of ours in the dental field OR several of our current clients use them and love them.
Even if you chose not to work with these companies, I still feel you should do your research and implement these strategies into your systems as they will help build, grow and recession proof your practice.
If you want to see more of the resources DirectDental is friends with, head to our resource page. There you will find companies to assist in HR, can build you an awesome website, do background checks on new employees and more!
Smiles,
Holli Perez
DirectDental
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