DENTAL FINANCIAL AGREEMENT TO DOWNLOAD
A dental financial agreement is a powerful tool for the dental practice. This document allows the dental office to say “YES”! “Yes, we do have payment options and yes, we can make financial arrangements!” Use the agreement as a tool to support the dental front office team as they discuss dental treatment and cost. Go ahead and download my template below!
Dental Office Patient Financial Agreement
Yes, I did say, “we can make financial arrangements.” The idea is to find ways to say yes to our patients’ needs. With 25 years in the field, I have a long, long history of a 101% collection rate and treatment plan compliance! Let’s get creative and think outside the box.
The first step in keeping your collection rate high and the accounts receivable low is great communication. Great communication that includes options for your patient is best. Leave no room for misunderstanding or miscommunication. This dental financial agreement is a great tool to help you with that!
2 Things To Presenting A Financial Agreement
Thing 1: You are very comfortable talking dental treatment.
Thing 2: You are very comfortable talking about money.
Not everyone is comfortable talking money. I think more people are uncomfortable talking about money than you might know. People have funny little quirks about it.. or beliefs about it… or prejudices about it… and they project those subconsciously.
Practice does help! If you need to practice and want to do some role playing with other members on the team, this is a great way to spend a team meeting. It might feel awkward at first but will definitely improve. And the team can support and critique each other. Have some fun with it!
Present treatment to each other with financial agreements to review and sign. How fabulous would it be if every member of the team was able to discuss treatment and finances without a hitch! Powerful!!
Better Dental Financial Presentations E-Book
Create A Financial Agreement Script
Write a script to use with the dental financial agreement. Each dental office team member will use their own personality and style. However, if a script can be used, the important details will always be included. Practice treatment presentation with the script and financial agreement together.
Script Example:
“Hi, Mrs. Jones. I have a copy of the treatment Dr. Brown has just prescribed for you. He has indicated in your chart that you do need 2 crowns on the upper left. I have verified your insurance benefits and would like to review the total cost for the 2 crowns, your estimated insurance coverage, and the payment options we can offer you.”
Dental Financial Agreement Presentation
There are a couple of things here that are just as important as the document you are presenting! It is important to remember when presenting a financial agreement to make eye contact with your patient. And this is another great reason to use a script. When we always say pretty much the same thing, we can easily make eye contact with the patient while we speak.
It is easy to just look down at the document, fill out the blanks, get signatures, and schedule treatment without pausing to look at your patient eye to eye. To get the best results, compliance, and authenticity, take your time, pause, and make eye contact.
Let’s Look At The Financial Agreement Download
Customize this financial agreement so it works well for your practice. Or maybe you want to create something brand new and just use this as a starting point. That’s fine too.
Your practice name, address, phone number and website are at the top. You might even want to include a log here. Or you could even print your financial agreements on letterhead. Whatever you decide, you will want to make a copy for your patient’s chart too!
Next, you want to include the date of the agreement. Follow that with your patient’s name and their date of birth.
The dental treatment presented and the cost are included next. For example, I would write: “Crowns on teeth #18 & #19. (2 crowns) Total estimated cost $2428.00.”
Estimated insurance coverage and estimated patient responsibility follow. Here I would write: “Estimated Insurance Coverage =$1000.00. Estimated Patient Responsibility: $1428.00.”
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Dental Financial Agreement Payment Options
The best payment option is payment in full at the time of service. I recommend offering a discount for patients who pay in full prior to treatment! If a patient pays in full at the time of scheduling, offer them a 10% discount. If you do this, add this option to your form. It works very well. Many patients are happy to receive a discount!
When dental treatment requires more than one appointment, consider splitting payments in half. Ask for half the total amount due at the first appointment, and the second half when treatment is complete.
Extended pre-payment plans work very well for patients who need a little time to pay. Here is where payment plans come into the mix. And patients who ask for a payment plan, can pay in advance. They can pay each month or every two weeks. Whatever works for them. I don’t offer discounts for pre-payment plans.
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You could even fill out a credit card authorization form if you wanted to automatically bill a credit card for your patient on a specific date each month until their payment has been received in full. This way, you wouldn’t have to wait for your patient to send or phone in their payment. They wouldn’t forget about it and you could just email a receipt and credit balance statement after each payment.
You could manage this a couple of different ways. You could offer to run all the cards you keep on file for prepays on a specific date each month (like the 1st of each month). Or you could keep a file for each date of the month and run whatever cards you need to for each specific date.
How Does A Dental Financial Agreement Benefit You?
In addition to giving the dental office the ability to say “Yes, we do offer payment options”, you should also see a higher monthly collection rate and a lower outstanding accounts receivable problem.
There will always be outstanding money in the accounts receivable reports. Prepayment financing options will help to lessen this burden on the office. It is very time consuming to chase money after treatment is complete.
Even patients with the best of intentions run into surprise events and expenses. If the patient has completed treatment and has agreed to 2 monthly payments following treatment, then their car breaks down or they lose their job, guess who is going to be last on their list of people to pay? The dentist!!
Then you are left chasing money! This never feels good for anyone. Improve your patient relationships and collection rates with great dental financial agreements and solid scripts. And don’t be afraid to practice! Practice does make perfect!!
“When patients don’t pay attention to you, third-party intervention makes all the difference.”
