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LESSON NO. 3: NEW PATIENTS WILL CHOOSE OUR PRACTICE EVEN THOUGH WE’RE NOT IN-NETWORK. One of my favorite stories (and a great lesson) from the pandemic was told by GG12 Coaching Member, Dr. Anna Pollatos. During a recent Gems Family Gathering Wednesday evening bonus session, Anna was kind enough to share her experiences post-COVID with brand-new patients with insurance plans for which she is NOT a provider. In one week, 9 out of 9 scheduled AND showed up for exam … several of them leaving THOUSANDS of dollars in deposits! HUGE KUDOS to Dr. Pollatos and her team. They sold 9 for 9 of those patients on their dental health benefits savings plan! Anna commented, and this is a HUGE TAKEAWAY EYE-OPENER, that her PREVIOUS business team member, upon hearing that the patient had PPO insurance for which they were NOT in network, would have ended the conversation and bid them farewell! On a similar note, train your team what to say to existing patients who say they “need to switch dentists since their insurance changed,” and you are not in their new network. Let them know that you are able to treat and help them get benefits even though you are now an out-of-network provider. Tell them you’ll take care of all the insurance paperwork and that the two differences will be reimbursement at a lower level, and the insurance company will likely mail the check directly to the patients.
old and had no life insurance, zero put away for my mother, and a lot of debt. You already know the end of the story. When he lay dying at the MA General Hospital, he asked Elizabeth and me to take over his practice and turn it around so my mom would have something to live on. During the first month after he passed away, I had to fire and replace two of his three general Dentists for knowingly (and repeatedly) committing malpractice. In less than three years, we were able to eliminate 13 of his 15 PPOs and transform his practice into a profitable business where patients received excellent care.
"According to the experts, there will be health, financial, and social repercussions for a long time to come. How can we use this pain to become stronger?"
on mismanaged care preferred provider organizations (PPOs) is overdue.
George Addair said, “Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” As general Dentists, we run a small business with overhead that varies from 60%–80%. Sure, there are still a few who’ve been able to maintain a bare-bones overhead of 50% and, yes, there are some who’ve strayed upward of 85% overhead. But most GPs are making (pretax) about 25%–35% off of collections. SO WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU SIGN A PPO CONTRACT AGREEING TO GIVE UP 25%–35% OF YOUR FEE?!
The answer is simple — fear. You’re afraid that:
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You won’t have enough new patients to sustain and grow your practice and revenue. Droves of your existing patients (who are on these plans) will leave your practice if you drop their plans. You’ll lose money if you don’t sign with the devil.
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I never thought I would see the day when so many of our members would simultaneously shout from the rooftops (like in the 1976 classic film, “Network”), “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” KUDOS to those who have already begun to take measures to strengthen their new patient flow, add an in-office dental health benefits savings plans, and train your teams on the verbal skills to help mitigate the loss of patients as you reduce the PPO footprint in your practices. CAUTION: Although reducing the number of managed care plans with which you participate may be a good decision, doing so without a proven-effective plan can be worse than taking no action at all. You’ll find my step-by-step plan at SITE MAP ' COMMUNITY ' GEMS FAMILY GATHERINGS ' 023 2020- 06-24 HOW TO DUMP YOUR WORST PPOS, KEEP THE PATIENTS, WORK LESS, AND MAKE MORE MONEY.
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I understand the fear. My father had 15 managed care plans, all of which required accepting compromised fees for the privilege of treating their patients. He would always remind me that his practice was in an economically depressed area. His patients all worked for just a few big companies and factories, all of which offered only PPO dental coverage. His patients would leave him at the drop of a hat if he didn’t participate in-network with their plans. He was afraid to reduce or eliminate his participation with the plans. “Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” He had 11 chairs, three general Dentists, two Specialists, and a team of over 20 people. The more dentistry they did, the more money he lost. He worked until he died. He was 76 years
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"One of the most amazing benefits to have come out of the pandemic is the simultaneous realization by an unprecedented number of our colleagues that it’s beyond time to reduce dependence on mismanaged care PPOs."
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