Between the rising costs of dental supplies, investing in new technology or software upgrades and increased payroll expenses, the cost of providing services goes up every year. With ever-increasing overhead, raising fees is a necessary part of a healthy business.
When your dental practice doesn’t raise its fees annually, you must grant each patient less chair time per service to remain profitable. In turn, this increases your staff’s stress levels and decreases patient satisfaction. By increasing your fees, you can spend the time necessary with patients to ensure a quality experience.
Carefully consider the fees for services you refer out
You might prefer to refer out certain procedures, like molar endo or partial boney impactions. But some patients are not willing to see a new provider. If you agree to attempt the procedure in house, your fees should be raised at a greater percentage. After all, if your patient was to see a specialist, the office fee would often be significantly greater than at your practice.
Generally, patients are thrilled when their general dentist can do their procedure. This saves them driving to a different location, and alleviates the fear that accompanies walking into a new office and meeting strangers for a complex procedure. Consider the additional time you must invest to provide the service, and review all endo, perio, and surgical fees to ensure the time you invest is covered.
Compare your practices to others with CLA’s Dental Survey
To determine if your fees are reasonable and appropriate when compared to other dentists in your area, participate in CLA’s 2019 Dental Fee Survey.
There’s no cost to participate, and each responding practice will receive — at no charge — a detailed report of the results, providing them with valuable comparison data. The report includes key statistical indicators of fees for specific services. To make the survey easier to complete, we’ve included the top 200 dental codes. You will only need to enter the fees for the codes you most frequently use. All individual responses will be kept strictly confidential.
To access the survey, please visit CLAconnect.com/dentalsurvey. So that we are able to get timely results to participants, submissions must be received by Sept. 3, 2019. Results will be sent out to participants in November.
The information contained herein is general in nature and is not intended, and should not be construed, as legal, medical, accounting, investment, or tax advice or opinion provided by CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CliftonLarsonAllen) to the reader. For more information, visit CLAconnect.com/disclaimers.