You are checking out a patient at the front desk and the patient asks you a question. It’s a hard one, the answer can make or break treatment acceptance. What do you say? Do you panic and stammer or are you prepared and ready with an answer on the tip of your tongue?
Patient ; “will my insurance cover it?”
You; “Insurance will certainly help, but it is very rare for an insurance company to cover 100% nowadays.” “ We are happy to help you figure out what your insurance will cover and give you comfortable options to pay.”
Patient; “My insurance company said that your fees were high.”
You; “ I can understand your concern. I don’t know how they reached that conclusion though. We set our fees based on an average of fees in our area. We are not the lowest or the highest office in the area. We try to stay in the middle. We work with a lot of insurance companies, and we find that all of their fees are lower than any of the average fees for this area.”
Patient; “Do you take my insurance.” (It is a PPO and you are not in network)
You; Yes, but on an unrestricted basis. We have many patients with your insurance who find that they get good coverage even though we are not restricted by the insurance company’s contract.
Useful Collection Phrases When calling past due accounts~
“Our accountant has reviewed our accounts and is suggesting that we turn over yours to a collection agency. I would really like to work something out, so we don’t have to do that.”
“I wish we could do that but our accountant would really like to have everything less than 90 days. Is there any way we can work this out so we can have it less than 3 months?”
“ I was really hoping to we could have this worked out before the accountant came in, but I’m afraid without some definite payment dates, I will have to turn it over to him. I just don’t have any further control.”
“Mrs Smith, I am a business manager for a dental office, not a professional collector. We do everything that we can to work with our patients as long as they are working with us. There has to be a sense of mutual trust and cooperation though, and if that is not going on, then I have no choice but to refer things to a professional collector.”
Hi Nomi,
Another good blog post. I wanted to make a different suggestion for the 2nd question: “XYZ said your fees are high / too high.”
I don’t like saying, “Our fees are average for the area.” A few reasons for that. First… it’s not true (in my case, at least). My fees are NOT average for the area. My fees are on the high side. Among the highest. And, we’re PROUD of that. We don’t hide it. Lexus doesn’t deny having higher prices on their cars, either. Never ever apologize for your fees. Never ever justify them by saying things like “we use the best materials, the best labs, etc.” Just acknowledge your fees are high. “Yes, our fees are well above the average office’s fees.”
By proclaiming your fees are average, you are also implying that you are average (and only deserve average). Again… just my view on things. If someone asks me where my fees fall in the spectrum, I don’t stammer or hem and haw. I tell them outright that my fees are among the highest. And, then I SHUT UP. I don’t justify or explain. Let THEM fill in the blanks. And, they will. The more you rationalize your fees, the more it comes across as defensive or making excuses. I don’t do that anymore, and I can tell you it WORKS.
So, if an insco says my fees are high, they are RIGHT! The question is not why are mine high. The question is why their fees are so low.