Practice Analytics Prevent Missed Revenue Opportunities

What keeps you from digging into the numbers and analytics at your practice on a regular basis? We all know the data can help grow business, but we also know that limited time and, even bandwidth, can be big obstacles. Of course making informed decisions about goals and the strategies to achieve them certainly leads to the best results. That’s why we want to arm you with information in three areas where the role of practice analytics can best serve you. And, what’s great about technology today is that you can let software dig into the financial weeds for you.

Dental practice analytics software not only helps you collect data regarding the practice metrics that matter, but also leverages that information into strategies for success. This is critical if you want to increase revenue to bolster the financial health of your practice. Analytics gives you a clear picture of areas where you can generate greater revenue and also see where you’re missing revenue-generating opportunities. These two things can bring you from the red to the black. Here’s how dental practice analytics can help you get there.

Quick Links

• The Role of Practice Analytics in Patient Satisfaction
• The Role of Practice Analytics in Revenue Generation
• The Role of Practice Analytics in Preventing Missed Revenue
• Finding the Right Practice Analytics Solution

The Role of Practice Analytics in Patient Satisfaction

While patient surveys can give you valuable insight into how you’re doing, they’re often asked after care. While you can respond accordingly, imagine being able to be proactive when it comes to boosting patient satisfaction scores. Practice analytics can provide you with the data you need to do just that.

Patient satisfaction often boils down to level and quality of care. If we break that down further, we can start looking at the following key metrics (among others):

• Services provided 
• Outcomes of services
• Customer Service
• Communication
• Scheduling

So how do practice analytics help? With practice analytics you can monitor dental treatment plans and match those to insurance benefits, ensuring patients are receiving the care and procedures they’re entitled to. You’ll also know what out-of-pocket expenses the patient will need to pay, improving communication and avoiding surprises.

Obviously, when they’re receiving all of the treatments and procedures they need, patients’ outcomes are better. Further, you can proactively schedule which helps build and nurture patient relationships while enhancing your practice revenue.

Finally, dental practice analytics can also help you manage your schedule. If you know in advance what procedures need to be completed, you can ensure you have the staff on hand to schedule or you can refer your patients out for specialized care.

All of these steps to improve the patient experience are available when you integrate your practice management software with an analytics tool that lets you not just gather but also analyze and compare data.

The Role of Practice Analytics in Revenue Generation

One of the primary reasons dental practices want to gather practice analytics is to gauge financial health and performance. Revenue generation is a key component of that financial health and is intricately tied to patient satisfaction. Thankfully, some of the same tools you use to improve patient experience will also help you boost your practice revenue.

Revenue generation can be gauged by monitoring the following metrics:

• Provider production
• Number of active patients (further broken down by new and returning patients)
• New patient acquisition rate
• Unscheduled procedures (and what’s covered by insurance)
• Revenue by procedure (this can help you understand and maximize utilization)
• Patient satisfaction
• Average A/R time
• Successful scheduling

Essentially, you want to be able to track the number of patients you have (and how likely they are to both return and refer), how your staff is being utilized, and which procedures/treatments are generating the most revenue. This allows you to maximize your schedule and optimize your team. 

The Role of Practice Analytics in Preventing Missed Revenue

Given the importance of revenue generation in the financial health and the profitability of your dental practice, knowing where, and when, you’re leaving money on the table, or in this case the chair, is essential. These are the opportunities you need to capitalize on.

Identifying missed revenue can help ensure you improve revenue generation and improve patient satisfaction. In fact, missed revenue can often be tracked directly to incomplete or unfulfilled treatment plans. Taking the time to create, and follow through on, comprehensive treatment plans matched against patient insurance can help you realize potential revenue that’s being left behind.

However, missed revenue opportunities are also often found lurking in accounts receivable. Whether it’s unfulfilled insurance claims or unpaid out-of-pocket expenses, many dental practices are missing valuable revenue for work already completed.

Sadly, when it comes to dental billing and claims, your staff is likely already in the weeds. And, if your goal is to improve patient satisfaction and increase revenue, then figuring out how to take A/R off your staff’s desk can be an important step. Monitoring A/R can provide visibility into the money being left behind and allow you to take the steps you need to rectify that, whether it’s hiring dental billing and claims support, or working with your team to improve collection procedures.

Monitoring the following metrics can help:

• Treatment plans written
• Treatment plan completion rate
• Treatment plans with remaining (and covered) procedures
• Scheduled appointments
• Accounts receivable (outstanding claims and balances)
• Scheduling gaps

But it’s not just these common revenue culprits. Failure to maximize your schedule by making the most of the staff you have available means you’re also leaving money behind. This is another place where a comprehensive dental practice analytics solution can help.

Finding the Right Practice Analytics Solution

The right dental practice analytics solution will enable you to pull data from nearly every part of your dental practice, from practice management software to insurance verification. Ideally, you need a comprehensive and detailed picture of where you’re falling short, where you’re missing opportunities, and where you can build on strengths.

Imagine being able to look at your schedule and have unparalleled visibility into each patient’s treatment plan, their unscheduled procedures, and their role in revenue generation. You can then, proactively, communicate and schedule treatments to meet their needs as well as the needs of your practice.

In short, you need a dental practice analytics solution that integrates with practice management software, provides insurance verification support and connects with your accounting department enabling you to monitor accounts receivable.These analytics, aggregated in one location, can provide valuable and actionable real-time data. That data lets you set achievable goals that can help you grow your practice.

Ultimately, practice growth lies in your ability to monitor the KPIs noted above and understand how they impact one another. If you’re ready to start gauging the practice revenue you need to grow, to provide the care your patients need and are entitled to, and to use analytics to improve team performance and efficiency, then investing in the right tools can help.

Talk with a team that’s designed more than a practice analytics solution that will help you realize revenue opportunities, but also an entire healthcare workflow system that integrates multiple features. Talk to the team at iCoreConnect.

We designed our solutions to be as integrated into your practice as possible because we understand the importance of an interconnected business flow, from practice analytics to insurance verification. Let’s get ready to grow and book a demo today.