One of the most dramatic switches from playing defense in dentistry to offense is how we help our private dental practice break away from the dependency on production.
As you know, in dentistry, everything is talked in terms of production. Everything is based on how much you produce because that is how you get paid.
When a private dental practice is exclusively production-focused, three extremely difficult challenges, stressors, and distractions arise…
First, the most obvious is the direct connection to insurance. This means you must be consumed with patients’ insurance coverage as you become overly reliant on insurance reimbursement. Worse, you become paid in arrears.
This means you do the work, cover the overhead, go negative for a period of time, and then get paid after the fact. The actual money you are receiving is worth even less after the fact than what it would have been paid at the time of service. This is true for any money paid after something has already been delivered.
Second, the next setback that occurs with production defense is the distraction of the actual collections.
When you think about it, how would anyone collect less than 100% on money owed to them. It really makes no sense. Where is the disconnect?
You delivered something, the investment terms were very specific, and yet you likely never recoup 100% of the balance.
This is usually the result of one of three things… insurance discrepancy (under billing based on the original treatment plan and what was actually completed for the patient); negligence by literally missing treatment on collections; or not following up with patients to complete collections.
Third, and lastly, production defense becomes a schedule distraction. Which is an understanding of the schedule in 180 degrees the wrong terms. You are playing defense instead of offense because it is all about volume instead of value.
A team member might dedicate all of their time to trying to fill one spot with any treatment and neglect countless other opportunities while attempting to maximize production.
Now, this might be appropriate in concept but it truly puts you at a disadvantage to be able to control your own outcomes and above all else create leverage for yourself.
Yes, we must control the schedule and maximize our daily values and goals; yes, we must get paid and collect all money owed; yes, we want to outsmart the insurance and make sure they are working for you (actually they should be working for your patients) and not the other way around.
However, all of these tactics are defense-minded because it is all after the fact.
I want you to focus on the future with what I call Opportunity Creation. This is about going on offense, maximizing profitability, and a building a schedule on your own terms.
You are either trying to collect your production or you are trying to collect your creation. One puts the focus entirely on the dentistry—not the dollars.
Let’s get started by being creation-based and patient-centric.
When you collect in advance: you are playing offense to maximize value, you can better organize and predict your schedule, you aren’t chasing money on the back end, and from a business perspective you aren’t carrying all the overhead by getting paid months. This puts you at a very strong advantage that you will allow you to break free from the production cycle that ebbs and flows.
Simply put, if you want to put your patients first then you must put your creation mindset first.
This means you make your pre-payment strategy the way of doing business because this is the only way you are able to actually keep your attention on your patients.
This goes for every team member not just the business side. Sure, administratively it’s obvious from the insurance and schedule standpoint but for the clinical team when everything is about production it builds pressure that forces team members to miss the entire point of what our goals actually are…
Patient education, patient relationships, and patient trust.
And above all else, we do those things because we commit to going all in on creating value in patients’ lives by discovering opportunities where we can help them achieve optimal health and enhance their quality of life.
Today, your decision is: are you going to be on dental defense being consumed by and stressed out about production, working for the insurance company, and chasing the dollars after the fact…
Or
Are you going to be on creation offense with your focus on health, your attention on patients, and mastering getting paid in advance so you can finally set yourselves up for success?
Besides, the best news of the day is creation-based collections will always be bigger than production-based collections because it has zero time restrictions or capacity limitations. Furthermore, it is the only way to align the integrity of our mission with your daily interactions…help more patients get healthy faster and in more meaningful ways!
You can take this beyond just dentistry and production (beyond taking a very hard look at how money moves through your practice and what is driving your team’s success), and ask yourself where in your life are you being reactive and playing defense instead of proactive and winning on offense.
One more thing…
Today, I wanted to share with you a real-life success story from a DST Legend. It comes from one of my close personal friends and original Wealth Group Doctors who brought this creation mindset to life and mastered offense in every way. I’m confident you’ll find some powerful inspiration and insights when you Watch this Special Video Interview with Dr. David Pearce…
If you’d like to learn more about increasing profitability at your private dental practice, please contact my office here.
Respectfully,
Scott J. Manning, MBA
