Payment Plans Orthodontic Case Acceptance & Office Payment Plans Are Necessary for Orthodontic Case Acceptance. How Are You Managing Those Plans? By Ben Burris, DDS, MDS I realize that this article will reach primarily dentists. In many dental practices, office payment plans are not offered because you would prefer to receive cash up front or offer 3rd party financing through a company like Care Credit. The rationale behind offering only these 2 payment options has been to get the money up front and reduce the risk of ending up with a patient that won’t pay. Of course, the difference between an orthodontic practice and a dental practice is that, with braces, a practice typically has the “collateral” on the patient’s teeth. Since the patient will be coming back in the 34 September/October 2010 JAOS office for multiple visits, it greatly reduces the risk of non-payment. So if you offer Invisalign or braces in your dental practice, you could possibly benefit from the lessons I learned about office payment plans through my practice. When I bought my first practice in August of 2004, I quickly learned that having an orthodontic practice isn’t simply about moving teeth. In order to be successful, I had many business lessons to learn including the basic requirement that case acceptance is dependant on payment options that are affordable, flexible, and appealing to my customers (patients.) Orthodontic treatment is
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society September-October 2010: Page 34
