The Latest and The Greatest... Ways To Increase Revenues

Thomas K. Hedge D.D.S., F.A.C.E.
The Profitable Dentist
December 1998

Have you ever thought about how much production you refer out to specialists? What do you get out of it? Maybe a fruit basket at Christmas. Having your own part-time specialist is a great way to increase revenues. It truly is a win, win, win situation. Your patients win by not having to go to another office, fill out new paper work, and suffer the insecurities of a new dental environment. The practice wins by gaining a new revenue source.

Finally, the specialist wins by having a new opportunity to provide his or her services at a compensation level that is probably better than in their own office. There are various ways to structure compensation, but 50% of collection is typical. We have a general dentist who loves to perform endodontics come to our office every Tuesday morning. He will typically complete three molar endo’s and cores in the morning. We also have a periodontist on Friday’s all day. They generate about $7000 per month in production, between the two of them. This amounts to about $84,000 per year at near a fifty per cent overhead. So the $42,000 question is, Can I do this in my office? Do I want two fruit baskets at Christmas or $42,000.

Another great way to increase revenues is to raise your fees. I know that you have heard this a million times, but you probably have not acted. If you have raised your fees recently, it probably wasn’t enough. We all think and fear that all of our patients will leave us and go to one of low priced dentists down the street. IT WON’T HAPPEN! … IF YOU ARE PROVIDING FIVE STAR SERVICE. If you aren’t providing five star service then you may not deserve higher fees. Chances are that you are better than your fees reflect. A great way to gauge where your fees should be, is to purchase the fee schedule for your zip code that is available from Blair-McGill (704-523-5882) in Charlotte N.C.. They will provide you with a fee schedule for your zip code that breaks down all of the ADA codes by percentile rank. If you want to maintain average fees, then go down the list at the 50 percentile rank and adjust your fees accordingly. This keeps all of your fees the same on a relative basis. Without this service your fees become arbitrary with some fees in the tenth percentile and others in the ninetieth percentile. Our practice adjusts our fees to the ninety-fifth percentile. This list costs $500. This probably seems like a lot of money. It isn’t relative to the revenue enhancement. I most recently purchased the list in March. The fee adjustment in our fees for one month in hygiene alone (two 24 hour per week hygienists) amounted to $4200. There is no additional overhead associated with this. That is $4200 to the bottom line each month in hygiene alone! The fees for my services, my associates, and our two part time specialists also generated additional fees. This is a "no brainer" – JUST DO IT!