You’ve got to pull the report. Print it. Check to see who is past due. Download their bill. Print the statement. Fold it. Seal it in an envelope. Stamp it. Mail it. And then wait. Hope for a response. Wait some more. Email them about the bill. Call to see if they got it. Receive no callback. And then try it all again the next day.

You’ve probably been through this process multiple times with little return on the investment of your time. Collecting patient payments is hard, to say the least.

Courtney Mead, Office Manager at KB Dental in Michigan, used to face this challenge too. When she took the helm of her office about two years ago, she worked hard to reduce outstanding AR balances.

Today, less than four percent of their AR balances last longer than 30 days. On top of that, Mead has been able to hit or exceed her office’s collections goal nearly every month for the last six months.

So how does she do it? Dental Intelligence Payments.

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When Mead first heard about Payments, especially the text-to-pay feature, she quickly reached out to get it set up and implemented in her office.

Payments allows practices to send out text messages or emails to patients with overdue balances and then allows them to pay directly through a secure link sent in the message.

“This is the best thing that Dental Intelligence has ever done,” Mead said. “This has literally been a game changer.”

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"We didn’t have to spend money to get money."
-Courtney Mead, Office Manager

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Spend less time and improve collections

Before using Payments, it took Mead and another coworker two days for each day patients were seen to go through and mail out statements.

“It used to be such a waste of time and resources,” Mead said, “but now Payments is saving me about 16 hours of work for each day we see patients. It is a huge time saver!”

Now, Mead and her coworker have an efficient system for collecting patient balances.

Once her coworker enters the insurance payment into the ledger, if there’s a patient portion left over, the coworker gives Mead the Explanation of Benefits. Next, Mead quickly reviews the account and sends a statement directly to the patient using Payments.

If there’s no traction after 15 days of sending the request, Mead will send a second message and edit the verbiage.

“I love that I can customize the wording of the message to fit whatever I need it to say so that I can communicate better with the patients,” Mead said.

Payments not only saves Mead and her team time, but cuts down on overhead costs for the office.

“We didn’t have to spend money to get money,” Mead said. “Everybody in our office loves it!”

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Patients love it too!

“From a patient standpoint, if I [the patient] don’t get a text message or an email about an overdue balance, I am going to forget about that bill,” Mead said.

In the past, when Mead would send out statements in the mail, patients would often hold onto it and wouldn’t pay until the next time they came into the office. Patients didn’t want to take the time to call and pay over the phone or send a check in the mail.

“Now, with Payments, they can just pay online. It’s easy for patients because they don’t have to take any extra steps to pay,” Mead said. “It’s way more successful than paper statements.”

Additionally, Mead found that statements generated by other softwares would often make it confusing for the patients to see what they were needing to pay for.

“With Payments, the statement lets the patient know exactly what they are paying for,” Mead said. “That makes it easier to collect.”

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Collect more today

“I am a firm believer that if it goes over 90 days that you are never going to see that money,” Mead said.

With Dental Intelligence Payments, you don’t have to wait weeks or even months to get paid. You can get paid within minutes!

Payments has helped thousands of offices improve their collection percentages and simplify the process of getting paid. Soon, Dental Intelligence will provide an option for practices to add physical card terminals in their office, allowing more ways to collect money. These physical card terminals will sync with Dental Intelligence and practice management softwares. 

Interested in learning more about how Dental Intelligence Payments can help improve efficiency in your office? Request a free demo of our all-in-one solution today. Already using Payments and want to be the first to try out our exciting features coming to the platform? Let us know here.