Episode 826: Solving the Too-Full, Not Productive Schedule Problem 

 Kiera takes a close look at scheduling, and what to do when things are too full — a hot topic in offices right now. She urges listeners to change how insurance is being presented; avoid double-booking; and consider an expansion of hours.

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.714)

Hello, A Team listeners. This is Kira and welcome to another podcast. I hope you guys are excited. I'm excited. I love a good podcast with you guys. I enjoy my time with you. I enjoy just creating content for you that I know is literally gonna change your life. It's gonna change your practice. It's gonna change all the things and we get to do it together. So I am so excited to be with you today. Today is something, welcome to the new year.

things that we're seeing. I asked the consultants today, what are some of the hot topics? We have hundreds of offices we work with. I love our deadline team family and it really gives us an opportunity to look for patterns, look for things that we can share with you. So I asked them this morning, I said, hey, I'm getting ready to podcast. What are some of the topics your offices are seeing? And this is so interesting of scheduling. Scheduling and it's a different topic. I've talked about scheduling so many times on this podcast. So let's give you another twist and turn to it. And this one is something funny of...

offices now that it's the beginning of the year. They are getting so many calls because they now have insurance benefits again. And so teams are feeling the pressure of like all these people are coming, they need to get in. And I just wanna help you answer how to do that, how to make that easy for you. So let's dive into it. Before we kick it off today, if this podcast has blessed your life in any way, please do me a favor and go, leave us a review and share it with someone today.

that keeps us at the top of the dental podcasts that are the most inspiring. We help more offices and you guys know our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I can't do that without you. So please go share, go enjoy. I am so grateful for you and I'm so appreciative for all of you who have done just that. All right, kicking it off, scheduling. So number one, I wanna remind you, this problem was created because they chose not to come in when there benefits.

were expired. So just because they chose to wait does not mean we need to take their problem and make it our problem. We always, always create an ideal schedule for us. Always. I don't care. I don't care what the heck happens. An ideal schedule for us is an ideal schedule for our patient. Again, remember patients, those cracks and those cavities and that decay did not happen overnight.

Kiera Dent (02:05.222)

So guess what? We don't have to get them in all on the same day. So my recommendation is you guys have got to get your blocks in place. You've got to make sure that everything is exactly what we want our ideal schedule to be. And then after that, rock on we can then fit them in where it fits best in our schedule. And so with them calling, and I know you're feeling the pressure, you can be like fantastic doctors. So and so is so incredible and our schedule is pretty full right now. So let's get you on the schedule here. I'm going to make, put you on our VIP list.

If anyone needs to move their appointment, notice I did not say cancel. If anyone needs to move their appointment and I can sneak in sooner, I'm gonna give you a call. Also, it is really busy right now. Let's be sure that next year, we're making sure we get this treatment done as opposed to scrambling. Also, I'm gonna ask the question, a bigger, deeper question of why on earth did we not get them scheduled at the end of last year? This is accountability hour, you guys. You create your own schedule and you create your own chaos.

Mike drop, Kira's over here dropping truth bombs. I clearly have been podcasting for a hot minute because I've gone to the lesser dropping truth bombs across the board, all right? So what I want you guys to remember though is we create our own chaos. We create it. Patients don't create it. We put them on the schedule. We tell them where they can go. We say yes to them. They don't create that, we do. So if it's feeling chaotic, why do we not schedule them in December? And you might tell me, well, Kira, they were max on their insurance. Fantastic.

Just because a coupon is maxed out does not mean that we don't keep shopping. Insurance is a coupon, and I'm going to say that over and over and over and over and over again. And the day you guys learn and realize that insurance is just a coupon and find a solution to help patients say yes, with or without insurance, your life is free. The day you learned how patients say yes to treatment with or without insurance, your life is free.

And I want you to think about that. And I want you to write that on your whiteboard. And I want you guys to say that as your mantra because we are so shackled to these psychotic schedules, not because they're psychotic, but because we don't know how to treatment plan without insurance. Ooh, I know I'm giving you a hug. I promise it's okay. But I really just wanna point out, this is why it's psychotic right now. So I'm telling you, I will help you fix it today, but I want you to fix it long-term. So some verbiage when some patients are maxed out, I say like,

Kiera Dent (04:25.398)

Fantastic, we got this crown to do. Our insurance is max, we squalls out every single penny of it. This is the total and it will never be cheaper or more predictable than it is today. Now they'll be like, yeah, but I could wait till next year to get my insurance. And I'm like, you absolutely 100% can, but I wanna let you know a few things. This is called presenting the other side of insurance. So a few other things. Number one, insurance plans are not always consistent. So year after year after year, they might choose not to cover this procedure. We never know and I would hate to gamble your teeth and your health on what an insurance is willing to do.

Also, number two, insurances are meant to be just a coupon. They literally are not meant to cover all your dentistry. It's very minimal, the amount that they're willing to pay. And we're gonna squeeze it out like a lemon and we're gonna get all the juice we possibly can. But we also need to make sure we keep your mouth healthy. Plus the longer you go, the less predictable it's going to be. And it actually might cost you more in the future if we do wait. Of course you're welcome to wait, but if it was me, I would definitely get it done. It's kinda like when a car starts to break down and all those things, if we don't get them fixed, they stack up on us.

And also next year, if more treatments needed to be done, you're gonna be maxed out and we'll be in the same pickle we are and hoping that nothing gets worse. Why are we hoping nothing gets worse? Let's proactively do this. And there's a lot of options I can do to help you get this cleaned up, cleared up, and make sure that you're able to be able to take care of it this year. So what questions do you have? Let's pretend insurance never paid another penny in its life. What questions do you have? I'm just gonna ask them.

and I'm going to then set it up. At this point, I can show them payment options. I can show them how they can do it. Some offices, you do not need to do this. This is your choice. You also need to do check your state laws because every state is different. But some of them are maxed out, you don't have to follow the insurance plans. Others, you do have to follow the fee schedule. So if you're a practice that has to continue to follow the fee schedule, I told them like, hey, you are maxed, so they're not gonna pay anything else, but you still get the access to their discounted rate. And we definitely wanna use this because it's gonna go up next year. So let's get this taken care of.

If it moves into office fees, then I let them know like, this is the fee for it, let's get this taken care of. There's a couple options we can do. What are your concerns? I wanna make sure that you have it, because hey, we might have other things that come up and next year things are going to come up as well. So let's take care of it, let's be proactive and train your patients to be proactive and not dependent upon insurance. I let them know, I'm not afraid to tell them that insurance is junk. Like I truly am not afraid to tell a patient that. I'm not afraid to tell them like, they really are like a coupon.

Kiera Dent (06:45.63)

And we're going to have to keep using this because they don't give enough coupons. That's just not how dentistry works. It's very minimal and they haven't updated their fees in many years. She's how it is. If it was me, I would actually elect out of it. And I just use your in-house membership plan. Cause that is always giving you a discount. No matter what, there are no waiting limits. There are no deductibles. There are no maxes. So I would just use our in-house membership plan and I would convert them over to an in-house membership plan, as opposed to playing the insurance game with them for the next, you know, three, five years.

So those are some tips to how to proactively do it, but you just have to believe, I don't believe that insurance is good for patients. I really don't. I don't think it helps them. I don't think it serves them. I don't think it teaches them good habits. I don't think it does anything good for them. I really don't. I think it's a false security and I think it's totally BS. And I just don't believe that it even does anything good. So I really go on a rampage to get people off of insurance plans and onto membership plans.

That would be where I would lead them. Because on a membership plan, there are no waiting periods, there are no deductibles, there are no maxes. They literally get the discount all the time and they get their two free cleanings guaranteed. We all know, and if you don't know, I'm here to teach you, that even if they think they get two free cleanings, if they have maxed their insurance, their second cleaning is not covered. They're paying for that out of pocket. Now go enjoy having that conversation with a patient who thinks their cleaning is free. Have fun explaining that. No thank you, right?

So I want you guys to realize that patients aren't educated on insurance. They don't understand it. And your job is to educate them. So that's probably why you guys didn't have a great full schedule at the end of the year. And now benefits have renewed and now we're trying to have it. Now let's say you did everything perfect and you did not have it that way. And you closed all the cases and you had a smashing year last year. High five. I'm so proud of you. The second thing is though, now we're going to have it where it is busy. All their benefits renewed. Just use the verbiage.

push them out, but do not compromise scheduling. Say like, I would love to see you sooner. And the soonest availability I've got for you, I'm gonna snack that for you right now. And if anything comes up sooner, I'm gonna give you a call. If they get upset with you, that's okay. Maybe you're not the practice for them and be okay to let them leave. The best practices I just wanna let you know, make you wait. When I was doing IVF, I had a doctor and the one I wanted who had great reviews.

Kiera Dent (09:04.842)

It was gonna take me five months, I kid you not, five months for my first appointment. Five, you guys, five months is how long I waited as a new patient for this. Five months as a female, that's a lot of time. I'm getting older, I'm five months older by the time I could finally see her. And the office called me and they said, hey, Carol, we could actually get you in sooner. And I was like, they're not a good dentist, like, or a good doctor. I literally didn't wanna get seen right away. So you can make a waiting actually serve your advantage of like, our doctor is so fantastic.

Their schedule is full right now. I'm gonna snag the first available for you. We're gonna put you on the VIP list. If anything comes up sooner, I will definitely give you a call, this is what I've got for you and I can't wait to see you that day. Make it a positive, but do not cram because you're just gonna make your life harder by trying to fit and squeeze them into the schedule. Guess what? That's okay. I know they wanna get seen. Get them on the schedule, it's not gonna hurt. And then anything that comes up, just fill it up. So that's really gonna help you guys one, be proactive.

and not reactive, but you have to be strong and have a backbone. And if you don't know how to have that, get the blocks in place. And then I say like, oh my gosh, fantastic. Well, doctor only sees patients at this time of this time, and I've got this available for you. I had a practice, they were in Florida, and I remember they dropped out of Insure, out of network. They had so many patients. Their new patient wait list is over four months long for dental office, and they're okay with it. I think also like, stand in your awesomeness, stand in the fact that you guys are so popular.

Stand in the fact that patients wanna see you. I'm like, yep, we are a phenomenal practice and we do the best dentistry. We are booked out a little smidgy. I'm gonna put you on the schedule here and I'm gonna call you if anything opens up sooner. Stand in that. People wanna be on a winning team. Don't make it be like, oh, I'm so sorry, I can't get you in. Be like, yeah, we're an incredible practice and we are so full. Our patients love us. I'm gonna sink you in on the schedule and if anything comes up sooner, I'm gonna give you a call. They're like, yeah, I'm in the best dental practice ever. They're so busy, they're so booked out.

I can't wait to go there. So just, I think it's a flip of the script. It's a flip of the vision. It's a flip of our focus, really realizing that this is a good thing. So number one is change how we present insurance because you probably were maxed out and that's why they're all here. Then number two is stand in your awesomeness. Do not triple and double book our doctors. That doesn't make anybody happy. It makes pure chaos. We're already verifying a ton. It's beginning of the year, so it's tons of verification.

Kiera Dent (11:26.326)

Do not for three seconds think that is something you need to do. The problems did not happen overnight. I want to remind you that they had a choice. They could have scheduled sooner. Also just even, even if like we did everything right and we still don't have space for it, again it's okay. And then my third thing is let's look at our schedule and is there any way that we can actually like we've got the demand. Could we expand our practice? Could we expand our hours? Could we add in a few extra hours? Could we change up how we schedule to accommodate these patients? And that just becomes like fun, fun scheduling. So if I'm trying to get hygiene in.

Maybe I do an extra hour, one or two days out of the week. See if our team is willing to do that. Maybe we add a couple hours here. Maybe we change up doctor schedule and we open up a little bit more. Or maybe we open up a assistant only column and we change up how we're scheduling. Or maybe we push out certain appointments a little bit further to accommodate some of these other procedures that are more urgent. But I really get excited about scheduling magic because there's so many ways we can do it. If we've got the demand for it, is there a way that we could accommodate it? So I really want you to also like,

Hey, this is a great blessing. Let's see where could we fill the schedule? Where could we expand? Could we add in another operatory? Could we bring on another assistant and be able to do more dentistry? Could we change up how we're doing our hygiene exams so that way doctor maybe does just hygiene exams in the afternoon and we do SRPs in the morning so we could do more dentistry. Lots of different ways to just look at your schedule and to get creative.

So those would be some of the things I tell you guys, welcome to the busy time. We want it to be busy like this all the time. I want you guys to be the proud office that really is incredible. And that's why patients are waiting. Do not fold, do not create crummy schedules, do not make your life psychotic. You get to control the chaos. We create our own chaos or we create our own calm. And I would prefer to create a calm, productive schedule that make my patients feel like a million bucks. You get to decide what you wanna do in the practice you wanna have.

So, and if I can help you, if our team can help you, these are things we do. We help get the creative on the scheduling. We do all those different pieces for you. So reach out, hello at TheDentalATeam.com You guys, tis the season to make an incredible schedule. Make sure insurance is just a coupon. Make sure you guys give the verbiage to push them out and make them feel awesome. And then look to see is there any way we can actually accommodate any of these patients. Let's open our schedules if we can. Let's find a way to do it. You guys, this is the time. This is an exciting problem to have. See it as a blessing, not a problem,

Kiera Dent (13:43.062)

change that mindset. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental 18 Podcast.