Fee schedule analysis and fee negotiation for Dental Practices
Fee negotiation is crucial for dental practices. If you’re not adjusting your fees, you’re leaving money on the table! Every year we all suffer from the same thing… INFLATION! Prices of goods increase, cost of living changes, and the cost of owning a business increases. To think that the cost of your services can’t or shouldn’t change is holding you back!
At Dental A Team, we encourage a yearly analysis of fees within your area to ensure that you are in the top percentile for goods and services. There are many resources and people available to help collect this data, most practices will simply use their supply company! Learn more in our latest Podcast Episode.
Once you have the local area information, you are able to compare the local fees to what your own fees are and evaluate where and what you need to increase within your Usual and Customary fee schedules (AKA, UCR). This helps you to see what you should be paid for your services and allows you to see where your dental insurance fee schedules are in comparison.
THIS IS KEY!! In order to ask for fee schedule increases or fee negotiation for dental practices, you MUST know what you’re looking for! If you blindly ask for an increase and they say “no”, you’re stuck with the feeling of “well, guess we’re still getting this amount at least”. Or maybe they say “sure, here’s $1 additional per periodic exam!” and you’re EXCITED!! YOU DID IT… but wait… you increased your UCR by $4 in order to stay competitive, now insert the negotiation. Asking for what you want and having data to back it up will allow you to truly know a win when you see it!
Here’s a quick reference on order of operations:
- Obtain a local area fee analysis
- Compare to your office fees (UCR)
- If you need to, make increases to stay in the top percentile (get what you deserve!)
- Compare new fees to Insurance rates
- Negotiate for higher insurance fee schedules across the board
The goal is to increase profitability without increasing your workload. Staying in line with costs of living will provide you with some backbone help in the matter!
Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions! If would like to learn more about our consulting options, lets chat: schedule a FREE Strategy Call.
