Increasing cash flow is always an important endeavor. After all, staying in the green is key to operating a successful business. This certainly rings true for dental offices. Healthcare cash flow issues often stem from lots of expenses, poor record-keeping, and inadequate collection processes, to name a few. But there are several ways you can improve your cash flow while maintaining your dentistry practice for peace of mind and ease of operations.
Improving cash flow may be difficult but it is very feasible. We’ve compiled 4 tips to help you improve your dental office’s cash flow.
1. Stay on top of your collections.
We can’t emphasize this tip enough. As a healthcare collections agency, we’ve worked with hundreds of healthcare professionals who aren’t maximizing their collections. Their ineffective or outdated practices often cause them to miss out on thousands of dollars that they could be collecting and contributing to their cash flow. Make sure you have designated staff to follow up with every single patient so that they pay their bills. Or hire a collections agency to do this for you with empathy, kindness, and compassion to improve your patient-provider experience in addition to maximizing your recovery.
2. Renegotiate your lease and PPO fees.
Although you may think your agreements with your landlord and your PPO partners are fairly stuck in stone, have you ever tried to negotiate them? If you’re planning on staying in your current building and have been a great tenant, have a chat with your landlord with a proposal to renegotiate your lease. After all, if you pay on time or early every month, you’re an invaluable tenant! As far as your PPO partners go, they’re more dependent on you than you are on them. Asking politely may result in a bump in reimbursements and every little bit counts.
3. Clean up your record-keeping and track your expenses.
Are you aware of where your money is coming from and where it’s going? Are all of your expenses necessary? Poor record-keeping means you can miss expenses that are automatic but unnecessary or mistakenly track your expenses or current cash flow. All of these mistakes are avoidable and may result in you saving money, cutting costs, and increasing the amount of cash flow available to you at any given time.
4. Last but not least, bump up your fees!
When’s the last time you raised your fees or bumped up your prices? Many healthcare organizations forget to even contemplate raising their prices or fees by even just a few dollars. Although an increase may seem minimal, every time a patient does business with you, you’re getting a few extra dollars, and a little can go a long way! Offering fluoride and sealants may also provide you with some extra cash flow. And making it a point to ask your patients about their teeth will prompt conversations and potential services that you may completely miss out on otherwise. Take a genuine interest in your patients’ teeth and health, and you may increase the length of your patients’ tenure with you.
In addition to these 4 tips, we recommend checking out these tips to improve your dental office’s cash flow.
Here at Frost-Arnett, we’ve worked with countless dentists and other healthcare providers to maximize their collections while preserving their precious patient-provider relationships. Contact us at 1 (855) 287-7043 to learn more about how we can help you improve your collections and your cash flow.