The 64 million dollar question that every patient wants to know is… “How much will this cost me?” When people buy something, it has to be good quality, but affordable, and with no surprise costs. This is why DCs have to be clear about the cost of care up-front to ensure happy and compliant patients.
These days patients know that care is going to cost money, they just don’t know how much. Creating an accurate estimate of how much care will cost and then helping to make that cost affordable is an absolute necessity in making sure your practice survives. Can your practice survive if each patient waits to come in until they can afford the visit? Or can you professionally communicate and plan payment options so they can stick with your treatment schedule and get the care they need?
Now more than ever, running an efficient, compliant and profitable practice is a constant challenge. Insurance companies are paying less and less and patients are required to pay more and more. Given today’s tough economic times these factors can put a huge financial strain on your practice and your patients.
Unfortunately, treating patients isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. You are running a business, and making sure that you get new patients is critical. Since attracting a new patient costs far more than keeping an existing one happy, how are you maximizing every opportunity to convert that potential patient into a new one?
I am really interested to see how you are converting potential patients into new ones. I look forward to your feedback.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Dave, I like what you wrote. It really is about sitting with a prospect(NP) giving them the truth about how you can serve them but then…. more importantly… really laying out (ahead of time ) your treatment plan of exactly how you are going to help them. Then showing them exactly what that will cost and giving them the options of how they can handle that in a way that is comfortable for them. This build confidence and repore. I thought I was pretty good at this. Then I found out that I needed alot of cleanup and understanding of how to really do a care plan properly.
In November I started using PayDc to help my conversions. I was amazed at how the PayDC program was able to help me with 100X’s more clarity and professionalism when presenting my recommendations. It was clear and easy for the patient to full understand….even in the most complicated circumstances. PayDc also kinda trained me on how to quickly create a very detailed care plan that had a very detailed and specific rationale. The insurance companies love it. I love it because it is easy to do. Now it only takes me 2 -3 minutes to do a care plan, with rationale and have a detailed narrative and all the paperwork i need to present to a patient, send to the patients doctor or to an insurance company. The time it saves me and my team is awsome.I have a pretty good NP conversion rate ….better than the industry standard. But now my conversions are going through the roof.
Dave, you are right. you gotta have honesty and clarity to help the NP propect to meke a good decision.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Dave,
I’ve heard a lot about Patient “Acquisition” and Patient “Conversion.” What’s the real difference between these? Thanks.