3 Key Factors To Watch Out For…
Written by: Scott J. Manning, MBA
The major discussions in dentistry always seem to focus on production—how much you produce to get paid. However, when you focus your private dental practice exclusively on production, you face three extremely difficult challenges.
3 Stressors That Come With a Production-Focused Dental Practice
1. Over-Reliance on Insurance Reimbursement
A direct connection to insurance means you are consumed with patients’ insurance coverage.
Are you overly reliant on insurance reimbursement—and worse, being paid in arrears?
In other words, do you do the work, cover the overhead, go negative for a few months, and then get paid?
If so, the actual money you receive after the fact is worth much less than it would have been if paid at the time of service. This is true for any money paid after delivering a service.
2. Challenges with Collections
Why would you collect less than 100% of the money owed to you?
That makes no sense.
You provide treatments with specific investment terms, yet you likely never recoup 100% of the balance owed. This is often due to insurance discrepancies—when you under-bill based on the original treatment plan versus the services actually completed—or to missed collections and failing to follow up with patients.
3. Scheduling Disruptions Due to Production Defense
When you play defense instead of offense, your focus shifts to volume instead of value. If one of your team members dedicates all their time to filling a single appointment slot, they may neglect countless other opportunities in an attempt to maximize production.
This approach may seem logical, but it puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to controlling outcomes and creating leverage. You must take control of your schedule, maximize daily values and goals, and ensure all money owed is collected. You want to outsmart insurance and make sure it works for you—even though, in reality, they should be working for your patients.
However, these are all reactive, defense-minded tactics.
Shifting to an Opportunity-Creation Mindset
Instead, focus on the future with what I call Opportunity Creation. It’s about going on offense, maximizing profitability, and building a schedule on your own terms. You either try to collect your production, or you try to collect your creation. The goal is to focus entirely on the dentistry, not just the dollars.
Be Creation-Based and Patient-Centric
When you collect in advance, you play offense to maximize value, better organize and predict your schedule, and eliminate the need to chase money on the back end. From a business perspective, this reduces overhead, giving you a strong advantage and freeing you from the constant fluctuations of a production-driven cycle.
Simply put, if you want your patients to come first, your creation mindset needs to come first.
This means structuring your business around a pre-payment strategy—the only way to truly focus on your patients. Commit to going all in on creating value in patients’ lives by identifying opportunities to help them achieve optimal health and improve their quality of life.
Now, the question is:
Are you going to remain on dental defense—stressed about production, working for the insurance company, and chasing dollars after the fact?
Or are you going to shift to creation offense—focusing on health, prioritizing patients, and mastering pre-payment strategies so you can finally set yourself up for success?
Creation-based collections will always exceed production-based collections because they have no time restrictions or capacity limitations. It is the only way to align the integrity of your mission with your daily interactions—helping more patients get healthy faster and in more meaningful ways. Plus, this shift allows you to take a hard look at how money moves through your practice and what truly drives your team’s success.
Specifically, where in your life right now can you be less reactive, play offense, and proactively position yourself for long-term success?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Recognized by thousands of dentists across North America, Scott Manning is an accomplished author (The Dental Practice Shift is the #1 most requested book in dentistry) and a highly sought-after public speaker. For nearly two decades, he has dedicated his life to inspiring and motivating dentists worldwide to create wealth and lifestyle-based practices. When he is not sharing his insights, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife, Kristen, and daughter, Saylor.
To learn more, visit Dental Success Today.
FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Kudla/Shutterstock.com.
