Treatment planning is an essential tool your practice can utilize to clearly communicate treatment needs the doctor has identified for your patients’ optimum dental health. This post looks at 4 key ingredients in a successful treatment plan: a plan presented by your practice, and accepted by your patient.

Key Ingredients in a Successful Treatment Plan:

1. Accurate Insurance Setup (for patients with insurance)

• Enter the deductible.
• Enter the annual maximum.
• Set benefit percentages.
• Enter any exclusions, limitations, etc. (See Other Benefits in our online manual).
• Insurance Frequencies (even more options for frequencies available in v18.2 and newer).
• Enter any waiting Periods (available in v18.2 and newer).
• Set insurance downgrades specific to the patient’s insurance plan. (Available in v18.3 and newer. See “Set a Downgrade on the Insurance Plan Level” in the Estimates Downgrades page in our online manual.)

2. Updated Fee Schedules (your office fees, discount plan fees, and insurance fee schedules)

Treatment plan estimates rely on the accuracy of the attached fee schedules – whether it’s your office fees, discount plan fees, or insurance fee schedules that determine coverage estimates.

If it’s been some time since you first discussed treatment with your patient, make sure your current discussion is based on your updated fees, and incorporate any insurance or rate changes that may have occurred that could affect coverage estimates. Click the Update Fees button in your treatment plan to make sure fees are up-to-date. Want to update ALL active/inactive treatment planned fees for ALL patients? Use the Global Update Fees tool in Lists, Procedure Codes, Fee Tools.

3. Patient Education – Understanding the Treatment

• Present essential treatment first using treatment priorities, and offer treatment in small “batches.”
  Read more about why this is important, and see the “Set Priorities” section in the Treatment Plan Module page in our online manual for more on how to create & set priorities for treatment.
• Discuss the implications of delayed care (smaller issues are cheaper to fix than big problems). 

4. Patient Education – Financial Options to Make the Treatment Possible

• Make sure to educate your patient on any payment options (discounts, payment plans, Care Credit, etc.).
• Tax refund season is approaching, and studies show healthcare (dental care) spending increases during this time – up to 60% more in the week after receiving their refund¹. Contact your patients who may have delayed care (use the Treatment Finder report).

Once you’ve presented your treatment plan, make sure those patients don’t fall through the cracks:

• Use Planned Appointments to group treatment, then use the Planned Tracker to get patients on the schedule.
• Use Reminder Tasks set to a specific date/time and tied to the patient if you want to make follow-up calls.
• Make it a habit to run your Treatment Finder Report periodically, especially if you don’t use Planned Appointments.

Want tips for increasing Treatment Plan acceptance?

Read our post, Increasing Case Acceptance and Measuring Success.

Sources:

1 Deferred Care: How Tax Refunds Enable Healthcare Spending (JP Morgan Chase)