The greatest single barrier to your patient’s ability to say “Yes!” to your orthodontic diagnosis and treatment plan is their ability to afford your orthodontic fee. Basic salesmanship is the absolute requirement that in order to sell an elective product you must make it easy for your customer (patient) to pay for what you want them to buy! Thirty years ago, dentists routinely granted in office payment plans to their patients, especially for reconstructive and restorative treatment plans and for orthodontic treatment. But during the most recent 10 years (and especially the past three years of our economic downturn) more and more practices have become “cash only.” These offices depend on outside (third party) finance companies, credit cards and their patient’s wealth to ensure case acceptance. The few that have continued to grant in-office credit have done so only with very large down payments and restrictive monthly payment plans. Could this shift in payment policies be the reason that case acceptance rates today are as low as they have ever been and are a great deal lower than those of 30+ years ago? The only growth many practices have seen over the past 10 years has been due to fee increases— and not due to improved case acceptance!
This fundamental change in how doctor’s handled their patient financial policies started some time ago as a shift seemed to occur in the basic integrity of some patients. Thirty years ago, it was relatively uncommon to have a patient’s account go unpaid and granting in-office credit to a patient for their bridge or for their orthodontic treatment was a common and quite safe policy. But for some years now, granting internal credit has no longer felt like a safe thing to do for most doctors. Many practices have noticed that every time they take a risk with that “special” patient— the one they just knew would pay the account became delinquent and the relationship with the patient turned sour. Not only did the practice not get paid but they often lost the patient. In fact, the vast majority of malpractice cases are filed by delinquent patients!
During these past years however, a few dentists have continued to grant in-office credit to their patients, safely and effectively. They operate in a delinquency free environment and both their new patient flow and their rates of case acceptance have greatly exceeded that of the “typical” practitioner. Are these doctors just lucky? Do they practice in a paradise of nothing but “A” type patients?
What is happening in these practices is almost incredibly simple. Recognizing that their diagnoses and treatment plans are elective to the patients, recognizing that large numbers of patients are simply not in a position to be able to pay in advance for their dental/orthodontic treatment, and recognizing that 75% of all patients offered third party financing reject that option, these doctors simply chose to grant in-house credit to their patients… but with a twist. They chose to use the same technology used by virtually all other lenders in the country. They made a formal credit decision on each of their patients and granted credit in a manner that is appropriate to the risk presented by the patient. These practices are liberal and flexible in granting credit, even $0 down payment credit to their patients who are mature, stable, and who live a life of integrity. They do not grant credit to the patients who are unstable and lacking integrity. The key is, of course, that they know the difference.
What would you estimate to be the dollar value of knowing that the new patient you are seeing today has 20 years of impeccable credit and has never failed to keep his financial commitments to any creditor? Doesn’t a “cash only” financial policy or even a policy of requiring a 25% down payment for such a patient seem foolish?
What would you estimate the dollar value to be of knowing that the new patient you are seeing today has 20 years of history of never paying his bills and breaking nearly every financial agreement he has ever made? Doesn’t a policy of scheduling a two-hour banding appointment and expecting a down payment to be made at that appointment seem just as foolish?
What is the value of knowing that you can safely quote a $5,800 orthodontic fee and allow $0 down payment and 30 monthly payments even though it is a 24-month treatment plan? What if you could spend less than $6 and in 30 seconds know the credit grade of any patient and obtain a specific recommendation regarding the minimum down payment and the maximum contract length that should be offered to a patient?
Recent technology has made the decision to grant credit much easier. The Zuelke Automated Credit Coach (ZACC) is a web-based computer program that allows practices to obtain and evaluate a person’s credit report. ZACC returns a specific, highly accurate credit decision on the person that includes a recommendation regarding the most liberal financial arrangement that particular person should be offered. ZACC does all this in less than 30 seconds!
A ZACC inquiry does not impact a patient’s credit score and never shows up as an inquiry when other lenders obtain a credit report on your patient. ZACC was designed some years ago specifically for the orthodontic profession and is in use every day by many orthodontists. It has recently been re-designed to fit the needs of general dentists and, of course, those general dentists providing orthodontic care to their patients. ZACC is offered by DentalBanc, a payment management company that is an outstanding alternative to third party financing. Once a practice determines a patient’s risk and decides to offer a payment plan, DentalBanc can completely manage those payments. This means that your practice can start offering payment arrangements to your patients without needing to hire staff trained in accounts receivable management. DentalBanc’s payment management includes electronic drafting and costs the practice a fraction of what they would pay to the third party finance company.
If you would like more information about ZACC or DentalBanc, contact Marla Merritt at (888) 758-0585 ext 8304 today.
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