Contemplating PPO to Get New Dental Patients

SO, my new OM suggested signing up for a new insurance. I am worried about the office income and I am thinking about her proposal, especially with this economy. I can try it, I know that some PPOs are awful I belong to a few already, but a business decision needs to be made now. Based upon the office income needed, I’m coming up short by about 3 grand a week. I can’t really lower the overhead anymore unless I fire an employee!! I’m not going to do that!! And when things improve, I could drop the plans again, I would appreciate some feedback and opinions on this.

With a shortfall of $15k per month it's not an overhead issue, it's a revenue issue first and foremost. I don't disagree with shaving a few hundred dollars in overhead, however, I’d be focusing on what could generate a few thousand dollars first and after getting that in gear, taking the next step and evaluating the excess overhead IF there is any.

Sounds like you need patients in the door and in the chairs. The fact is much of your overhead is now fixed, meaning, other than lab and supplies, all of your expenses are likely to be the same whether you have 4 patients in a chair or 8 on a given day. What you need to do is get the additional 4 patients in the chair.

PPO's will help you get patients in the door and in the chair, maybe more quickly than any other option, with NO upfront costs. The "cost" will be paid on a per patient basis (reduced fee). That doesn't mean you have to stick with PPOs, you're using them to boost your patient count, it'll be up to you to keep the patients, even after you drop the PPOs.

Good luck.

This post first appeared on DentalTown.

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