D entistry, like many other professions, has grown more and more competitive over the years. Differentiat-ing your practice from the office across the street or down the road must be an important part of any practice’s business plan or marketing strategy. The time has passed when a practice could count on the phone to ring with patients anxiously request-ing to make an appointment to see the doctor. No matter how successful your practice is today, it’s critical that you have a long term strat-egy to maintain growth. Your relationship with the patient is certainly paramount in this strat-egy, but there are other issues to consider; incremental growth and reduction in practice costs. Our sluggish economy and high unemployment rate have in some way impacted almost every consumer. Previously affordable procedures now require patient financing. Times have changed and as a result we have seen a notable decline in the average Ameri-can’s credit score. Banks have become more conservative with regard to their lending practices, especially in the case of unsecured loans. Loans for cars or trucks for example are much easier to qualify for since they are in fact collateral-ized. It is much more difficult for a bank to repossess a child’s braces then it is for them to repossess a vehicle. With higher risk comes lower approval rates. Unfortu-nately most practices have experi-enced this trend. A simple way to insure your practice continues to grow and prosper is to offer affordable patient financing. If patient financing has not been an important part of your marketing or growth strategy in the past, it will almost certainly need to be included in the future. Previ-ously, patient financing was a cost or expense to your practice. Care-Credit, for example discounts your fee a minimum of 5% on each transaction financed. This discount increases as you offer longer promo-tional or interest free periods to your patients. Many practices view this discount as the “cost of doing business” and simply recognize this expense each month. Yet, these costs are paid for by you and are reflected in your practice’s cost structure. As a member of the AOS, you no longer need to discount your fee to provide your patients with simple, affordable financing options. You can make this expense disappear and actually utilize our financing programs as a source to fuel growth. AdvanceCare Dental provides you the opportunity to eliminate the expense of patient financing. There are no discounts associated with our programs, so you may begin saving money immediately by simply enrolling in our programs. There are no contracts or costs asso-ciated with your participation in the AdvanceCare Dental programs. Even the smallest practice among the AOS membership may save thousands of dollars by simply participating. Eliminating fees asso-ciated with patient financing improves your practice’s bottom line with no cost to you. You’ve positively impacted your business by simply utilizing a resource devel-oped to provide value to the AOS member practices. Eliminating fees is just one step to growth; incremental new busi-ness is another. AdvanceCare Dental provides financing to a much broader group of consumer’s than CareCredit provides. Our programs reach down the credit spectrum 60 to 70 points lower than our competitors. What does that mean to your practice? It means that the patient who came to you for treat-ment but did not move forward due to the fact they could not secure affordable financing, may now have an opportunity to secure financing and proceed with treatment. Your practice has spent time and energy getting the patient in the door and offering a treatment plan, so why not utilize our resources to help that patient secure the financing they require? AdvanceCare Dental now provides two lending sources which allow us not only to offer financing to a wide range of credit, but just as importantly, the financing is affordable. If you currently provide “in house” financing for these cases, we can eliminate your receivables and improve your cash flow. Offering financing is great, but unless the patient is approved and accepts the financing offers available you’ve gained nothing. AdvanceCare Dental programs offer lower and more competitive interest rates than CareCredit. This is true for patients with great credit who would qualify for a CareCredit program as well as for patient who would not qualify. Our programs are simply more affordable making the process more comfortable to present to your patients. At AdvanceCare Dental, we believe we can have the tools to help your practice grow both on the top line and the bottom line. Fueling growth without spending money is a difficult proposition, but our products can help your practice grow and retain its finan-cial good health. Please visit our website at www.advancecareden-tal.com to learn more about our programs and to enroll your prac-tice. It’s simple and just makes good business sense. www.orthodontics.com May/June 2013 23
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society May-June 2013: Page 23
