The Secret to Increasing Efficiency and Profitability at Every One of Your Practices

We’ve talked a lot lately about multi-office practice ownership. We discussed how to know if you’re ready to grow beyond one location and how to adjust to an entrepreneurial mindset.

But once you transition from a single shingle to running multiple offices, your business goals will transition, too. Now, optimization is even more important. That’s why today we’re going to tell you the secret to increasing efficiency and profitability at every one of your practices.

And we’re not even going to make you read this whole article to find out …

What’s the secret to efficiency and profitability? Dental membership plans!

OK, yes … that was obvious.

Here’s the thing though: We don’t think that just because we build software to help dentists create and administer great dental membership plans. In fact, the reason that is our mission in the first place is because we know how game-changing membership plans can be for a practice.

So now that you know the secret, we’re going to use the rest of our word count to explain how dental membership plans increase efficiency and profitability.

#1 Dental membership plans reduce insurance usage.

And that saves your team boatloads of time.

The beauty of dental membership plans is that they give uninsured patients a convenient way to afford your services. And on the flip side, many patients who do have dental insurance will happily throw it out the window when they realize the money they’ll save through your membership plan.

That means your team will spend less time on the phone inquiring about insurance claims, hounding patients to complete copays, and giving the insurance company customer service rep a stern talking-to (we see you, Janice).

Now imagine this: You have two office locations and an idea for a cool new marketing initiative. With the time they’re saving from the lack of insurance issues to deal with, your team members at both offices can cross-collaborate. Together, they can execute your concept beautifully in each of their respective communities.

Efficiency and profitability ... check!

#2 Membership plans open up new marketing avenues.

The beauty of a membership plan platform like DentalHQ is that each member’s method of payment is charged automatically on the agreed-to schedule (monthly or yearly). That’s more time saved for your team, because every patient on a membership plan is a patient whose payment is separate from their visit—no more phone tag over late payments!

And that’s not the only innovation membership plans make possible. At DentalHQ, we include features like CommunityConnect™ and BusinessConnect™ with our platform. They make it easy for dentists to offer dental membership plans to community groups and small businesses; think about that for a moment …

How many new patients can you handle? Because dental membership plans could bring in a whole lot when you start thinking about marketing to clubs and companies. Small businesses’ employees would jump at the chance for a partially subsidized insurance alternative, and the business can offer dental care without dealing with insurance companies. Read more in one of our recent blog posts.

The point is, dental membership plans are a new way of doing things, and thus, they often inspire improved approaches.

#3 Dental membership plans help your hygienists.

One of the juggling acts we ask our hygienists to perform is that of medical professional and coordinator.

Despite your efforts to establish a strong front office, your patients just have a tendency to communicate more directly with their hygienist. They chat about their teeth, obviously, but also about future appointments and payment details. This is a natural side effect of a patient's time spent with their hygienist. However, dental memberships do offer a way to optimize these interactions.

By separating payment from visit, membership plans eliminate the need for patients to worry about when they’re paying and what they’re paying. But not only that; they encourage patients to schedule their next appointment, because they’re already paying for it. That knowledge takes some of the onus off of the hygienist to “lock in” the next visit.

You could even automatically book them six months out, because they’re paying for a plan that includes those visits. That means hygienists can spend even less time looking through the digital calendar, communicating dates to the front desk, etc.

Not to mention, patients might not even have to stop at the front on their way out, which is a win for them and for your team.

Dental membership plans really are the (not-so-well-kept) secret to increasing efficiency and profitability at every one of your practices.

They reduce the need to deal with insurance, payment, and scheduling, which saves everyone an abundance of time. (And don't forget, time is money!) They also encourage creative brainstorming and give you the bandwidth to engage in it, coming up with new ideas for marketing. A boost in revenue, here you come!

To learn more about how DentalHQ can fit into your dental membership plan, read up!