5 habits of highly effective treatment coordinators

The purpose of a treatment coordinator, even if it’s in tandem with other duties, is to ensure completion of the cycle from the clinical diagnosis to a patient on your schedule who has made a clear financial agreement to pay for the treatment. All too often this step in the treatment acceptance cycle is taken for granted, foreshortened, or handled too matter-of-factly. Consider the typical patient dismissal. The patient is dismissed to the front office staff person. The efficient front office staff person has the treatment plan neatly printed out. It has the appropriate insurance information and calculation. It has the treatment plan with the fees. It has a bottom line amount that the patient will need to pay and an amount that the insurance is expected to pay. The business staff member presents this sheet to the patient and asks him or her to look it over and sign.

Now, this seems to be a very logical process. However, the opportunity for patients to go into immediate sticker shock as their eyes fixate on the bottom line is very high. Most patients have NO CLUE how much dentistry costs. Most staff members and dentists become laissez-faire about the fact that a crown costs $1,200.

Every patient who is diagnosed with treatment that totals the equivalent of your practice fee for a crown deserves a different process. The practice will have more treatment scheduled! Fewer patients will fall through the cracks. Your incomplete treatment printout from the computer will shrink.

What are the essential characteristics of a good treatment coordinator?

What are the 5 habits of highly effective treatment coordinators?

Read the entire article here.

Previously published in Dental Economics.