Here is a prime example of a subscription membership program I read recently that specifically involves healthcare. You can learn a lot about this on how you run your own practice, grow your profits, and most importantly meet the needs of your patients where they are.

“CVS, the drug store chain, has 4-Million people in its subscription programs, and CVS reports* that those customers buy 25% more stuff than other customers i.e. each one worth 125% what the non-subscriber is worth. 

They also have 74-Million as “ExtraCare Members,” although that per-customer value differential isn’t clearly reported. 

…members are worth more. CVS acquired 8-Million new – customers (customer data records) via Virus-testing. The number gained by administering vaccines had not occurred in time for their annual report…Let no crisis or ANY opportunity to collect useful customer or prospect data go to waste! 

…Financial Independence is from what you OWN, not what you DO….”

-Dan Kennedy, July 2021 Letter

Think about IPV = Individual Patient Value. How much is a new patient or referral worth to your office?

Have a relationship and a financially profitable week!

PODCASTS UPDATE

For more growth tips for your practice and personal life, listen to our Free, recent podcasts here. Recent interviews include: Malpractice pitfalls, Practice Profits, and Botox.

Recently Dr. Williams interviewed Dr. Howard Farran of Dentaltown on our podcast for practice owners The Practice X-Factor. Here are a few highlights we’ve paraphrased from Howard’s input on the topic of what practice owners need to be successful in the turbulent environment of dentistry today:

• There are 168 hours in a week but most dentists are available only for 32 of them! What if a person feels pain in their molar tooth and the dentist is not available because it is the weekend or their appointment time is over? What if a person gets hit on a car or falls off their bicycle and immediately needs dental help due to severe toothache? You need to find a way to offer emergency hours or have someone at your office on call after hours to help these patients while creating great opportunities for trust and growth in your practice. 
• There are 4000 endodontists in the U.S.A. They work five days a week, they work 50 weeks a year, and they’re doing about six and a half, or seven molars a day. That’s 19% of their week. Instead of spending their profit and earnings to make their practices better and keep their services updated, they are mostly spending it on vacations, buying a huge house, new cars, or Jet Skis. Is this the true essence of professionalism?
• Dentistry isn’t primarily about making money, it’s about helping others – which is the real job of any dentist or doctor. Even if you are the wealthiest or best doctor in your area, you should not let your practice stagnate or decline. You need to continually implement new techniques, advanced technology and provide more options to help your patients.
• If a patient can benefit from just a minor treatment such as a composite filling in one tooth, or possibly it can be treated with simply a routine cleaning or changing their routine of brushing, is this still being offered? Instead, many patients are being told to buy expensive “packages” such as removing their teeth or implants just to make an extra buck. Is this in the best interest of your patients?
• Dentists should focus on better treatment of patients (the person more than the teeth) and build a strong relationship with them. This is of critical importance for a successful career and long term practice growth. Building a strong relationship with your patient is the real measure of success and your unique advantage in dentistry.
• If you treat your patients well, you will gain the trust of these patients and their families, and you watch them grow up, and then their friends will come to you too. If you’re truly there for them, to fix their root canal pain or broken teeth, it will go a long way. 

We’d love to know your thoughts about this topic, post your comments below on our blog or email us at twilliams@yourpracticegrowth.com 

P.S. Are you looking for the latest proven techniques to make your practice membership or savings plans attract well qualified patients so you don’t have to rely on insurance? Join the G.R.O.W. Your Practice Monthly Implementation program for just $147/month. ($100 savings this month only). Apply today by emailing us at twilliams@yourpracticegrowth.com with “GROW” in the subject line. 

Many practice owners have asked, “why is insurance such a pain to deal with?” But many who complain about the hand that feed them are also some of the most insurance driven offices I know of.

Don’t knock it if you are the one who chose to sign on the dotted line.

Today, at least 7 out of 10 people are suffering from some form of dental disease. According to the ADA, many people avoid dental treatment due to perceived high expenses. But when you drill down the the real issue, it really comes down to lack of perceived benefit or no sense of urgency.

Recently on a podcast with my friend and Periodontist, Dan Thunell, he explained: That one thing I always try to keep in mind whenever a patient sits down in my chair is I am not just treating the patient, but I am treating the doctor that is associated with that patient. And so, if I keep that in my mind, it sure helps me to make good decisions and, stay out of trouble.

As you know, dental insurance really isn’t insurance at all. It is a $1000 or $1500 prepaid benefit. If you want deeper relationships with your patients, don’t think about the insurance as the primary concern. DO think about the person, their needs and values, and working with their other medical providers as needed.

In my humble opinion….
Should you be insurance driven, no. Should you be insurance friendly, yes!

It means a lot to (some of) your patients to have insurance, but it shouldn’t be the main focus in a PPP (PrePaid Practice).

THE KEY to a PPP
Get rid of insurances that are not profitable. Offer flexible financing and stop letting your team (and your own verbiage) be dictated solely by insurance.

You reap what you sow. If the first thing your hygienist says is “insurance doesn’t cover it,” then what do you think the patients reaction will be? Flip that around to “we offer…” or “have you heard of…” and shed positive light on what you have to offer.

Good relationships with patients and referring offices are the key to growing your profit and your patient loyalty.

Until next time!

Dr. Tyler Williams

One of the most common complaints of dentists offering dentures is how many appointments it takes.

Now there’s a better way. Here’s an excerpt of my recent interview with Dr. Lawrence Wallace, oral surgeon and inventor of the one-step denture:

Just going back to my practice, I remember that, in my practice, about 70% of the immediate dentures that I delivered, the dentist would send over the case with the patient, and I would do the surgery to deliver the immediate, and then they would go home. Most of them didn’t fit. And that bothered me. Also having the need to provide prosthetics for nursing home residents, assisted living home residents, even safety net clinic clients, there wasn’t access to care, and the costs were prohibitive. This is when I decided to develop this process. It took me a lot of years to develop this process. We went through many materials, many prototypes, and finally got to the point where we developed the ability to create the complete denture in a single visit of about an hour, that’s upper and lower. Its base was developed through measuring 1000s of edentulous models consecutively that came through a major dental lab. Putting those numbers together into a spreadsheet and coming up with the five sizes of our dentures that we have. I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. So, I developed this process, basically to give back to society to provide teeth for the hundreds of 1000s of teeth that I removed. 

The One Step Process

The natural process is based on a thermoplastic pre-formed denture template. It is made out of thermoplastic acrylic, which when heated in boiling water becomes malleable. So, the process is very intuitive. All of you know how to take vertical dimensions. You all know basic occlusion. It’s not utilizing any processes that you don’t already use in your office. 
So, the process is to take an alginate impression, pour up a Quick Set stone model, and then take that model and the denture template which fits the closest to that model. And now, as I said, there are five sizes, and it’s going to be close, but it’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to fit right down on the ridge, but it will fit in the mouth. The next step is to put it in the boiling water pot and make it malleable 30-45 seconds, maybe a minute, if you’re a little higher elevation, and then from that model to that template. At that point, you take it to the mouth. Check patients with a fox plate to make sure you have the electrical line and the interocclusal line Frankford horizontal. But I like to go by the pupillary line. If you match the pupillary line, and that is not necessarily perfectly horizontal, you will get a more aesthetic look for your denture.So, if you try it in the mouth, you will trim off the flanges because you need two or three millimeters of flange space to do their line and then take it to the mouth and do a chairside reline. We do recommend a certain relying material, but any PMMA acrylic denture relines material will work. So, the upper is typically done. First, you get the smile line, the patient gets to look at it.The process is then repeated with a lower one. It is recommended that when you start the process and you want to measure the vertical dimension, on the nose and chin, measure that distance with the patient in a relaxed position. And then just put that aside for later on.
But an even easier way to determine vertical dimension is to take your four fingers, put them up underneath your nose. At the bottom of your fingers is your vertical dimension. It just couldn’t be easier. Here that on the chin point. There’s your vertical. And you’ll go back to that later. As long as you don’t lose a finger between now and when you get it. And then you will continue to do the upper denture first and get the smile line. Repeat the process with the upper one as well. Finish the denture which is a manual process that takes 10 to 15 minutes, and it’s done. Check with articulating paper. But it is recommended to use pressure indicating paste for the upper.

Benefits

You don’t need an outside laboratory. So, it’s one visit of which you are in total control with no outside laboratory needed. There’s no time factor of waiting several days or a week between visits. So, you get to complete it on that first visit. You can complete it to patient satisfaction right there on the spot. They get to see the aesthetics when they finish it. If there are any high spots, you have adjusted them with the pressure indicating paste, or, and the articulating paper, which is always recommended.

Last time. Decrease cost. More patient satisfaction!

It’s been great for my practice and could be for yours too. (By the way, I have no financial interest in this product, just wanted to pass along something that I thought you could benefit from as well). 

Until next time, 

Dr. Tyler Williams

Pinecrest Practice Growth

In part 1, we covered four reasons why you should make your membership plans more valuable (valuable builder) and different than Dental Insurance. Not a “discount only” plan (profit killer).

HOW TO SET FEES

In our office we sent out a lot of surveys and study local and national trends.

Knowing when and what your patients and prospects are looking for is key.

For example, if you offer sedation or laughing gas in your practice, it is never covered by dental insurance. Consider that as a benefit to be included within your membership plan/plans that patients can receive a discount, or for free as membership benefit.

For a lot of people, especially people who are really scared of the dentist or have extreme anxiety, that benefit alone will help them switch and join your membership plan because they know that you’re going to help them conquer their fear to get their dental care.

So remember to not fall into that rabbit hole and then don’t keep digging that hole deeper if you have already.

When you take a bad turn or make a bad business decision, remember it’s okay. We’ve all done it in one way or another. That’s how we learn. Sometimes it’s time to stop what you’re doing and change direction. Time to pivot. The same can be done if your membership plans aren’t as profitable or patient-centric as they could be.

Going forward, make it a resolve with your membership plans to create value and make it about offering services and products that are unique and interesting to your patients. Make it an apples to oranges comparison to insurance. Be insurance friendly, but not insurance driven. Don’t play a game that you won’t win. Play the game that sets you in a category of one to your ideal patients.

As Steve Anderson described in his book, The Bezos Letters:

Test – build – accelerate – scale

PODCASTS UPDATE
For more growth tips for your practice and personal life, listen to our Free, recent podcasts https://yourpracticegrowth.com/podcasts/ here. Recent interviews include: Patient marketing strategies, Practice Profits, and Botox.

THIS WEEK…
…read more about practice building topics on this week’s blog post yourpracticegrowth.com/blog here.

Have a great week!

Dr. Tyler Williams, D.D.S.