How to reduce default in dental clinics?

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This content is for you, dentist, manager who does not know how to deal with default in dental clinics. First of all, it is important to know that your dental clinic is not the only one that faces this problem.

A data released by Serasa Experian at the beginning of the second half of 2020, revealed that the default reaches 63 million Brazilians, breaking a historical record. This can still go far beyond the economic scenario, some experts even say that such behavior is a reflection of Brazilian culture.

Only you know how important the balance of your clinic's financial health is: accounts payable and receivable, fixed costs (employee salaries, water bills, electricity, input materials, etc.), among numerous items. All of this needs to be up-to-date so that the clinic's activities remain in full constancy, therefore, accepting default in dental clinics as a culture has to be inadmissible for any manager.

There are a number of good practices you can take to prevent a patient from defaulting:
- Have a closer relationship with your patients;
- Know the profile of each patient and offer plans according to the reality of each one;
- Covers your patients in an intelligent way, in a way that brings you closer to you and your offices;
- If payment is already late, negotiate with balanced agreements for both.

Closer proximity to your patients

When you offer credit to your dental clinic patient, you should know that this action can also become a loyalty strategy. This means that the closer to your patient, the better it will be for you to negotiate and eventually charge for any delay that has not yet been justified by him.

Our tip is:
- Do not release credits with very high values ​​to the patient immediately, do it in scale and progressively. This will improve engagement between you and increase your confidence when you repeat the process with him.

Define the most appropriate payment methods according to the dental service

Depending on the region where your clinic is located, it is essential to create a table of payment methods for each dental service, for example, the tooth whitening service costs, on average, R $ 1,500.00. If your clinic is located in a region where the average income of a family is up to R $ 3,000.00, this means that this service will have a high rate of installments (according to your possible target audience). Thus, it is up to you and your management to study which means of payment will be released or not (boleto, debit or credit).

Another factor that goes into this aspect is pricing, which when done wrong, may be the justification for the high default rate or even the low number of patients. Therefore, it is important to know your audience deeply.

Charging the defaulting patient

There will be times when defaults in the clinic will arrive anyway, even when applying all these good practices. At that time, it will be necessary to charge the defaulting patient, for that, we have separated some tips below:

  • Create a digital billing schedule to avoid default in your clinic:

In the past, the only way to charge the defaulting patient was by telephone and in other cases, it was sent by post. Well, it still exists, and even with a certain frequency, but it is not ideal for those who want to optimize spending. There are digital alternatives to communicate the patient much more accurately and with a better cost benefit, such as sending instant messages or direct mail. For those who work with many slips, our tip is to create a payment alert schedule through these channels:
- Remind the patient within 5 days of the expiration of the ticket;
- Remind you on the due date;
- Inform that the payment was delayed (we recommend contacting by phone).

  • Negotiation (be understandable to the patient and offer options)

Many companies are wrong to sue judicial authorities before offering a new payment plan to their customers. Remember that offering credit to the patient is also a form of loyalty; therefore, it is important to understand the reason for the delay, to proceed with the best alternatives for the clinic and for the patient. That's right, the negotiation needs to be balanced for your dental clinic and for your patient. Of course, it is not the ideal way you would like to receive for the services provided, but in many cases, it will be the best way to receive. Many offer discounts or extend the payment term, which are good alternatives.

Legal cases about default in dental clinics

Ultimately, it will be necessary to consult justice. But, first of all, you need to have the contract in hand. Oops! Forgot to draft the contract?

If so, you have no way of proving which patient did a certain procedure at your dental clinic. Therefore, the cause is already lost. It is essential to develop specific contracts for each service provided and sign with the patient in advance.

For lawsuits you can:
- Extrajudicial Bond Execution Action: it is used to receive debts from checks, bills and duplicates. A subpoena is given and a deadline is given for the person to pay the debt in full. If not, goods can be blocked;
- Monitorial Action: also used to receive debts from checks, promissory notes and trade notes. It is indicated for when the person has the means to prove that the debt exists thanks to several documents. As there is no conciliation hearing, it speeds up the collection procedure;
- Collection Action Common Procedure: indicated for when there is little document about the debt. Slower.

Remembering that these actions must be avoided at all costs.

Finally, the culture of defaults, late payments for clinic services must be combated. This plagues thousands of Brazilian companies, but that is not why you should feel normal. Applying these actions can greatly minimize bad debt in dental clinics:
- A better connection of communication between patients and clinic;
- Define credit application practices;
- Remind and charge the patient efficiently.

Situations like these can be reduced, but in companies like dental clinics, which mostly offer services with installments, it is practically impossible to eliminate this problem once and for all.

Source: Dental Office. Available at: https://www.dentaloffice.com.br/inadimplencia-em-clinicas-odontologicas/. Access on: 09/16/2020.