We meet so many dentists who are just completely over insurance companies and their limitations. If you take the time to break it down, the pricing restrictions they impose can be very costly. That’s why some dentists are ditching insurance and running their practices on their own terms. How are they doing it? With the help of Dr. Lee Brown and Freedom Dental Coaching.
Insurance Companies: Just the Cost of Doing Business?
Most dentists who strike out on their own for the first time are not fully prepared for just how much insurance will end up dictating what they do in their practice. When the reality hits, however, they often chalk it up to the cost of doing business. After all, the insurance company provides “free” marketing, which equates to more patients coming through the doors. For a new practice, this might even seem necessary. Unfortunately, what they don’t always grasp is the amount of real money that “free” marketing is actually costing them.
Dr. Brown does a great job of putting the cost of insurance into simple numbers. He uses the example of a practice making 1 million in annual revenue. If 20% of revenue comes from patients with insurance, that should equal $200,000. However, if the insurance companies have forced the dentist to discount their normal fees by 40% to be in their networks, that’s $80,000 right off the top. So, those patients actually represent only $120,000 in revenue.
Insurance Companies Are Limiting Your Practice’s Earnings
Realistically, more than 20% of a practice’s revenue comes from patients with insurance, which means a large chunk of potential revenue is disappearing into thin air. That’s money the practice could be earning and keeping as profit or using to invest in more equipment, better materials, continuing education, training, building renovations, pay raises, charitable donations, staff bonuses, hiring new employees, expanding, marketing, really anything. The point is that the practice would be in control of those funds, not insurance companies.
Time to Flip the Script
It’s easy to see why so many dentists are frustrated with insurance networks. They are coming to realize just how much control the companies have over them, and it’s getting very uncomfortable as they are trying to grow their practices. What would happen if these dentists decided to stop working with insurance? If done correctly, one of two scenarios are possible:
- They would have more freedom to practice dentistry and market their services on their own terms. They could be choosier with the types of patients they want to accept, leading to higher quality cases and more revenue overall.
- They would experience a drop in patient volume, but likely still make around the same amount of revenue because they could set their own fees and not have to make up for insurance concessions by seeing as many patients as possible.
In both cases, the dentists would likely be working fewer hours and will have more time to spend with each of their patients as well as more time to work with and train their team members and be more engaged with the sales and marketing side of their practices, or whatever they want to do. Not to mention, they would have full control over how much revenue the practice earns and where that money goes.
Freedom Dental Coaching
With Freedom Dental Coaching, Dr. Brown has the process of parting ways with insurance companies down to a science. He knows because he did it for his practice and has since helped others across the country do it too. He describes not having to deal with insurance anymore as liberating financially and mentally. His practice has had great success since ending all insurance affiliations, and so have the many others he has advised. Dr. Brown’s philosophy is it’s your practice, so you should be in control. It’s not only a benefit to the practice in terms of increased earnings potential, but it is also a benefit to the patients, who will experience better quality care in a more relaxed and personal setting.
Dentists interested in learning more can watch this video in which Dr. Brown talks about Freedom Dental Coaching and what they do. There is also a website (www.freedomdentalcoach.net) where you can complete a form and set up a call to discuss your practice’s goals.
