Tax season (tax refund season) is a great time to help patients get the care they need. According to a report by JP Morgan Chase, the overall level of healthcare spending is 60 percent higher in the week after receiving a tax refund than in a typical week over the 100 days before. In the week after receiving a tax refund, out-of-pocket healthcare spending on debit cards increased by 83 percent, and electronic payments increased by 56 percent.

This likely comes as no surprise to your practice. After all, helping patients afford care is important not only to your patients’ oral health but also to the financial health of your organization.

We know you’re familiar with the Treatment Finder Report for end-of-year letters, but it’s also a great fit for tax refund time. You may even want to create a custom letter to send out before patients receive their refund.

As easy as 1-2-3

1. Create the Tax Refund Letter (Sheet)

An easy way to do this is to start with the Patient Letter Tx Finder that’s already in Open Dental. Move it over to Customize the letter, and rename it Tax Refund Letter for future use.

New to editing sheets?
 Watch our Sheets II: Sheets Customization webinar for more on editing sheets.

2. Run the Treatment Finder Report

Go to Reports, then Standard. Under Lists, select Treatment Finder. By default, patients with existing appointments and those without insurance are excluded from this report. In the View section, use the filters to refine the results for patients who had treatment charted after a certain date, limit them to a specific clinic or provider, only show specific procedure codes, or patients with remaining benefits over a certain dollar amount. Once you’ve entered the criteria, click Refresh List to update the results in the Treatment Finder grid. Want to learn more about the filters? See our post, A Deep Dive Into the Treatment Finder Report.

3. Create the letters, then print and mail them!

Select the patients you want to create letters for, click Letters Preview, then print the letters and get them in the mail.

Other Ways to Help Patients Afford Care

Your patients will likely not want to spend their entire refund on dental treatment. If they need to finance part of their care, here are a few additional tools that can help:

• If your practice offers financing, you can create a Payment Plan for your patient.
• Does your practice offer Care Credit? It is integrated right into Open Dental to streamline the process. Learn more about the integration and watch a demo video here.

Helping patients get timely care and preventing bigger problems down the road is an important aspect of patient care. Take this opportunity during tax refund season to help them get the care they need. For help with any of these features, reach out to Support.