survive and earn our living. With-out a solid customer base, we have no business. Repeat business from an established patient base combined with a strategy to add new patients weekly or monthly is a worthwhile marketing goal. Marketing an interest free financ-ing option may move potential patients to action. Patient financ-ing options allow patients to begin treatment immediately and may drive new business to your door. Selecting the most appropriate option for your practice is critical to your marketing effort as well as protecting the margin associated with various treatments. While there are plenty of options available to you and your practice, which one is the best fit for your business? Most programs offered by these large institutions take a discount from your fee. Depending on the program you select and the interest free period offered, your fee may be discounted substantially. Immediately, the margin associated with a procedure financed by a third party nets a margin less than the same procedure not financed. Customer relations are also a key consideration. While most patient financing programs offer interest free periods, if the patient is unable to pay the loan off in full during the interest free period, interest is charged retroactively from day one of the loan at interest rates exceed-ing 26%. Financing programs are explained prior to acceptance, but regardless people forget or simply do not understand. The result can be a negative experience for the patient and a black eye for your practice. Approval levels are also something It seems that the perfect patient financing solution would include the following: ᕡ No discount to the provider. ᕢ No contracts or volume commitments. ᕣ Instant credit decisions. ᕤ High approval rates. ᕥ Minimum 6 months interest free for all approved applicants. “Patient financing options allow patients to begin treatment immediately and may drive new business to your door.” to consider. Most banks will gladly accept AAA+ credit, but what about those applicants with less than perfect credit? They need affordable financing as well and your practice can use the business. Many practices offer multiple financing options in hopes of finding a solution for each patient’s needs. Some practices continue to provide in-house financing for patients unable to secure financing from a third party. In summary, most practices recog-nize the need, addressing the prob-lem in different ways. ᕦ Affordable interest rates. ᕧ Flexible terms and credit limits. ᕨ No punitive retroactive interest charges after interest free period. At Advance Care, we are working diligently to provide the members of the AOS with a patient financing resource which includes each of the features listed above. We have spoken to several of your members and received feedback and a clear picture of how a new product with these characteristics may create value for your practice. There will never be a discount to your fee or a charge to your customer to secure financing. Our product will be web based and easily integrated within your operation. No additional hard-ware will be required. We are working diligently with our lenders to complete our new product and make it available to members of the AOS during the first quarter of 2012. Our commit-ment to you is to insure the prod-ucts is: Simple. Fair. Affordable. Please feel free to send us your comments at info@advancecare-card.com. We would appreciate your feedback and direction as we finalize our new resource. www.orthodontics.com January/February 2012 31
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society January-February 2012: Page 31
