Who’s Behind the Wheel?
Understanding a patient’s insurance is very important in the practice so you can accurately estimate how much patients will owe out-of-pocket.
What you want to be cautious of is allowing that into your conversation with the patient about what treatments they need and why they need it.
Let’s look at a couple of routine procedures as an example:
Full-mouth x-ray or Panorex X-ray
Fluoride treatment
When you’re talking about these procedures to a patient, it’s really important to leave the insurance piece of that conversation out of the equation when you’re in the clinical area.
Have a clear philosophy on what your belief is about how often the patient should have these procedures.
Present it to them based on the “why” behind that philosophy.
Do not base it on whether the insurance company covers it or not.
This will allow you to stay focused on health and allow your patients to be focused on health, rather than what insurance does or does not cover.
It is important to address if there is going to be an out-of-pocket expense, but you can simply state:
“The doctor is recommending that you have a fluoride treatment today.”
State the benefits and the patient’s cost.
Let them know what the responsibility is.
You don’t have to go in to the fact that insurance only covers it up to a certain age, or any other frequencies or limitations.
Stay focused on health and what the patient’s out-of-pocket responsibility will be.
Your patients will be healthier and so will your practice!