Say Goodbye to PPO and Thrive
Take emotion out of the equation, and let us help you do the math…
What percentage of your revenue is from PPO patients? How many people live within five miles of your office? What percentage of that population has a PPO Plan? How many dentists are there within that five-mile radius? Of those 20 to 25 other dentists, how many of them market aggressively?
Don’t concentrate on trying to replace these patients, but create an environment that adds value to their overall patient health. Build up the NON-PPO/Private side of the practice.
SIGNS THAT YOUR PRACTICE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DROP A PPO PLAN
Ask staff members working with your continuing-care system. Could they fill an additional hygiene day per week if they had the time to work the lists? Do new patients have to wait more than a couple of weeks to get in? Are you booked out more than a couple of weeks? Are you examining more than 150 patients per month? Have you had a meeting with your staff in the last year to discuss patient education and case acceptance? Do you feel there’s a gap between what the patients choose to have done and what you can do for them? What have you and your staff done to close that gap? (Hint: This does not require hard-core sales techniques. It’s just a matter a focusing you and your staff’s efforts on giving good advice in addition to the actual delivery of the treatment itself.) Can you increase your visibility through improved signage? Is the number of dentists in your area increasing or decreasing relative to the population? Are lots of other dentists in the area dropping a particular plan (thus causing an influx of patients from that plan into your office)? Have you maxed out your capacity? In other words, are you producing everything you can produce, yet you still are not experiencing a good or growing bottom line? Have you had a knowledgeable practice-management consultant look at your practice to determine if you could maintain or increase your production without the PPO part of your patient base? Are you experiencing – or are you about to experience – a loss of capacity? (For example, do you have a doctor who will be cutting back on his/her hours or a partner retiring who will not be replaced?) Can you expand your services to patient and refer out less treatment? For example, can you do more endo, implants, or ortho? Have you talked to colleagues in the area who have dropped this plan? What has been their experience?
Call (916) 791-2720 for more details.
May 10, 2019